Gardening and seed saving
Growing food is a skill built over seasons, so start well before you depend on it. Seed saving removes the need to buy seed each year.
How
- Take a structured horticulture course: extension Master Gardener programmes (US) cover botany, soils, composting, vegetable growing, fruit and pest management. Elsewhere, look for horticulture evening classes or allotment and gardening societies.
- Learn on your own beds, following the food module plan (food-1 onwards); keep a garden diary from the first season.
- Start seed saving with easy self-pollinating crops: peas, beans, lettuce and tomatoes, which need few plants and no isolation (Illinois Extension).
- Use open-pollinated or heirloom varieties; F1 hybrids usually do not grow true from saved seed (Illinois Extension).
- Learn dry and wet seed cleaning: wet-ferment tomato seed for 2 to 4 days, keep the seeds that sink, dry them and store cool and dry in labelled envelopes (Illinois Extension).
- Move on to cross-pollinated crops only when you understand isolation; distances range from about 3 m (10 ft) to several miles depending on the species (Seed Savers Exchange). See food-22.
Do these first
Sources
- Master Gardener Volunteer Training Program. University of Maine Cooperative Extension, accessed 2026-11
- How to Save Seeds. University of Illinois Extension, accessed 2026-11
- Seed Saving Chart and isolation guidance. Seed Savers Exchange, accessed 2026-11