by Robin Milligan
By November, most Inland Northwest gardens have been put to bed and tucked in for the winter. The first hard frosts have finished off the tomatoes and peppers, annual flowers are drying in place, and the vegetable beds are mostly brown and dead.
Although just before winter may not seem like much of a time for gardening, it is worth taking a closer look. We can add amendments to the soil such as manure or compost for next season, add mulch to keep bulbous, woody, and perennial plants alive through the long cold season, trim back trees, and plan for next year. But there is something else. Some of those dried plants are holding on to next year’s harvest.
Seed harvesting in this season can be simple and fun. Start with plants that already took care of most of the work for you and it is so easy that anyone can do it. Dry flower heads, mature pods, and seed stalks can often still be collected now if they had time to ripen before the frost.
Snapdragons, lupin, marigolds, cosmos, zinnias, sunflowers, and calendula are good places to look. Columbine, chive flowers, clover, pansies, and violas all set seeds that are usually still hanging out in their casings this time of year.
If you left flowers standing after they finished blooming, check their seed heads. Some may have already scattered their contents, while others are still holding plenty of seed. Collect the dry heads, shake or rub the seeds loose, and spread them out indoors on a paper towel, cloth, or napkin if they need a little more drying.
Be careful with damp seed heads. Our fall weather can turn wet quickly, and seeds put away before they are completely dry may mold or try to sprout in vain while in storage. A paper bag or open tray in a dry room is better than sealing them in a jar while they are still holding moisture. Label each variety as you collect it. Once several kinds are sitting on the counter, it is easy to lose track of what is what.
Dill and cilantro are also worth checking if they flowered and set seed earlier in the year. Their dry seed heads can be gathered and stored for next season. Lettuce is another possibility, along with other leafy plants such as Swiss chard, mustard greens, and spinach. Plants allowed to bolt during the summer produce tall stalks topped with fluffy seed heads. Many of us who have tried growing spinach in the spring know this all too well. If those stalks are still standing, cut them into a paper bag and finish drying them indoors before separating the seeds from the chaff.
Beans and peas are worth saving if some pods are left on the plants to dry. Ideally, the pods should have matured and dried before the fall rains set in. If you brought mature pods inside earlier, they can finish drying in a well-ventilated spot. Once the pods are crisp and the seeds are firm, remove the shells and store them in labeled envelopes. Envelopes store easily and are convenient to write on.
This is where timing matters in the Inland Northwest. November is not the time to expect immature seeds to finish developing outdoors. If a pod is still green and the seeds inside are soft, it may be too late to save that crop successfully. Seed saving often starts in late summer, when you decide which plants to leave standing rather than harvesting every last pod or flower. If you really want to save it, I have had some small successes moving plants from the garden to my patio where they have a little more shelter, giving them a bit more time to mature.
Winter squash and pumpkins offer another option. If you have mature fruit in storage, you can scoop out the seeds, separate them from the pulp and spread them out to dry. But there is a catch: squash varieties can cross-pollinate. Seeds from a squash that looked and tasted exactly right may produce something different next year, particularly if other varieties were flowering nearby.
The same is true of many vegetables. Seeds saved from hybrid varieties may not grow true to the parent plant. Gardeners hoping to preserve a particular variety should look for open-pollinated seed and learn which plants can cross with one another. Washington State University Extension’s “Pacific Northwest Gardener’s Handbook” and the University of Idaho Extension guide “Seed Saving for Beginners” explain the differences and offer practical advice on choosing plants and storing seed.
Even with careful planning however, your neighbor’s gardens may have other varieties that can get intermixed in the wind and impart their genetic traits on next year’s crop.
Some vegetables need a little more planning in general. Carrots, beets, onions and many cabbage-family crops are biennials, which means they tend to grow during their first season and flower to produce seed during the next. If you want to save their seed, November is more likely to be the time to choose plants for overwintering than to collect seed. Simply leave those plants in the ground and watch them turn into huge flowering giants the following year, producing an abundance of seed.
There are also seeds worth considering beyond the vegetable garden. Native grasses, wildflowers, shrubs and trees may be grown from seed, but the requirements vary considerably. Some species germinate readily; others need a period of cold, freezing temperatures, and moisture before they will sprout. For beginners, learning to propagate a few native plants already growing on their property can be a good starting point.
Correct identification is important, too. If collecting from the wild, check land ownership and collection rules, and leave enough seed for the plants to reproduce naturally. Also check your local noxious weed list to see if that flower you love is actually a noxious weed, as many gardeners discover after planting something they found out in the world. The state of Washington has a noxious weed control board, their website is nwcb.wa.gov.
Whatever you collect, it is always best to make sure it is dry and labeled with the plant name, variety (if you know it), and the year it was collected. Keep the envelopes somewhere cool, dark and dry. Seeds do not last forever, and how long they remain viable depends on the species and the conditions in which they are stored.
Seed banks store seeds for generations, but they have specific climate-controlled environments to make sure those seeds stay viable for as long as possible, preserving seeds that may no longer otherwise exist.
This is especially important when so many seeds have been altered genetically or crossbred, either by accident or intention. Some heirloom and other non-GMO varieties are becoming almost impossible to find.
Seed saving does not require a large garden or elaborate equipment. It takes a little observation, some patience and the willingness to leave a few plants standing past their prime. Even when the garden looks finished, there may still be a little harvest left to bring inside.
Knowing what to leave, when to collect it, and which plants are worth growing again is part of the learning process that makes gardening so fun.
Robin Milligan is an artist and entrepreneur living in Spokane, WA. She curates art shows, runs an IT company, and teaches ceramics and painting from her home studio. When not working, Robin spends her time with her 3 children exploring nature, rockhounding, making art, and swimming.
