Save a Seed for Me –Seed Saving and Handmade Seed Packages

Today I spent a little time out in the garden harvesting seeds.  I love my snapdragons, and love that although they are an annual, they self seed.  I have a whole array of colours that come up year after year all by themselves, all over my little vegetable patch.  This year I decided to save some of the seed from the white ones in particular, and sow them in my white garden next spring.  My mom and I both decided a few years ago, to devote a small garden area to strictly white plants.  It’s always fun to garden with someone and be able to swap plants and seeds.  I have to say the white garden has become my favourite, and next year hopefully, we’ll add some tall white snap dragons to the mix.

Some of the snaps are still blooming, so it was really easy to identify that they were white.  Below the bloom, further down the stem you can see the brown seed pods.  It was a cold day so I picked them off the stem and collected them in a container to empty inside.  I threw in one bloom, so I wouldn’t mix up our seeds inside.  To get to the actual seed, you simply shake the seed pod, and the tiny seeds fall out of the holes in the top.

I also collected some mini and regular size zinnia seeds.  You collect the brown spent and dry flowers into a container, and simply remove the petals, and break up the rest of the flower to reveal the seeds.

The last flower seeds I collected were some cream marigolds, which are in the white garden.  They are still blooming in the cool air, and I think they look like big white pom poms.  In the same way as the zinnias, you collect the spent dry flower, remove the dried up petals, and crumble the flower get the seeds.

I wanted to give my mom some of the seeds I collected in her Christmas stocking.  Gardeners love a little gift like this when winter is all around, it reminds us spring will come again soon.  I  decided to make some cute envelops to store the seeds in.  It’s best to use paper to store seeds, since if there is any moisture in a sealed container, or plastic bag the seeds can mould.  Also, always collect your seeds on a dry day, and if they seem damp still at all, lay them out on a paper towel to dry for a few days, before packaging them up to store until spring.  I found a little envelope template here.  I cut out the pattern and traced it onto plain brown paper to make the little envelopes.

After gluing them together I added the plant names and sketches to the envelopes, put the seeds in and sealed them up.

They looked so pretty all lined up.  I bundled up one set for my mom for Christmas, with a little twine and a quick gift tag.  I hope they grow!

I’ve shared this post at Blue Cricket Design, Ponytails and Fish Scales, Tidy Mom, No. 505 Main, Some What Simple, The Shabby Nest, Tatertots and Jello and Under the Table and Dreaming.  I also joined the Pretty Packages Party at The Blackberry Vine.