Our head of organic horticulture shares why he loves seed saving and what he’s collecting this year.

Alternative text should describe the visual content of the image. — Our head of organic horticulture shares why he loves seed saving and what he’s collecting this year.

How I love the autumn: nature coming to a rest after a busy season of growing, photosynthesising, transpiring, pollinating and producing seed. Rest and renewal are a crucial part of a garden - but this season also blesses us with beautiful displays of seedheads that offer a close-up look at the wonder of nature.

The sowing may have stopped but now the collecting begins, and at this time of year I’ll be looking for next year’s material. I’ll be on the hunt for overhanging, spent flowers, cheekily forage for the ‘jumpers’ - plants that have leapt the garden walls from neighbouring properties - and I’ll graze those precious hardy annuals that make such a contribution to the beauty of my allotment.

Heritage seed guru 🔗

My discovery and enjoyment of seed collecting was inspired by the Heritage Seed Library and the genius that was Lawrence D. Hills - Garden Organic’s founder.

An unassuming man with an incredible gift (that most gifted gardeners have) to ‘see into the future’. He realised many important heirloom and heritage seeds - passed down from generation-to-generation with amazing back stories - were in danger.

When new seed laws became legislation in the 70s, setting up the Heritage Seed Library was a genius move. Today 800 heritage seed varieties have been saved for gardeners to enjoy thanks to the hard-working HSL team who keep it going.

Click here to find out more about the work of the Heritage Seed Library. In December, the annual Seed List is launched, from which members can choose six free packets of heritage seed.

Self-sown saviours 🔗

My seed saving journey this year started with the humble hollyhock. A group of them produced an amazing display in a fly-tipped area on the way to my allotment. Full of dumped suitcases and discarded shopping trolleys, this space caused me to grimace every day. But then came the self-sown hollyhocks, which rose through the rubbish and decorated the spot with stems of beautiful pink and yellow. A triumph of beauty over despair.

You’ll be glad to hear that I collected and germinated around 500 seeds. Many have been distributed to schools in East London, and some are bagged and labelled for the future.

I must also mention the humble half-hardy annuals at my allotment such as sunflowers, poppies, Love-in-a-Mist and calendulas. They provide drifts of colour throughout the plot providing pleasure to myself and the visiting pollinators. All of them are nicely settled now, and I collect and store their seed until the following March.

Of course, seed swapping is one of the great pleasures of gardening. This year my allotment neighbour gave me some pumpkin seeds I cooked one with some pasta, cream and cinnamon and it was incredible. Those pumpkin seeds are safely stored for next year and I can hardly wait.

Keep an eye on Garden Organic's Seed Swap pages for an updates of seed swap events near you in 2025.

The beauty of seed collecting is it gets you out and about, makes you look at what’s around you, and engages with you with nature and the landscape. It's a great way for myself and Mrs C to spend time together outside of our busy London lives. As always don't be afraid to experiment with seeds: just collect, sow and see what happens.

Happy gardening,

Chris Collins