Why You Should Save Seeds from Your Garden

I am an almost fanatical seed saver. I have so many little jars, envelopes, and baggies of seeds in my refrigerator that it looks like I'm running my very own little garden seed company. In truth, I have way more than I can ever use but, hey, that's what gardening friends are for--to take seeds off of my hands!

My seed saving obsession started from a purely economical standpoint. Seeds can be pricey, and when I first started gardening, I was on a very limited budget. So I saved seeds from my annual flowers, my tomatoes, and my lettuces that had gone to seed. I planted them the next season, and the process has just expanded every year. I save seeds from all of my open-pollinated (not hybrid - they won't come true from seed) vegetables and herbs.

Why Saving Seed is Important

Saving your own seed is about so much more than saving money, though. It is about nothing less than freeing our food from corporate monopolies who try harder, year after year, to control which varieties we have access to. Old favorites are dropped from the catalogs of large seed companies in favor of new hybrids. These hybrids are patented, and therefore, owned, by the companies that breed them. And those companies get to decide how much to sell, and at what price. Not a good scenario for anyone who values a reliable, affordable food supply.

Hand in hand with preventing corporate monopoly of our food supply is the issue of genetic diversity. When we have a few large entities in charge of what we can grow, we end up without much choice in the matter. Less variety means greater possibility of a blight or other disease wiping out a significant chunk of our food supply (hello, Irish potato famine...) The more diverse our food supply, the more independent we, as gardeners and consumers, can become.

It's Easy

Luckily, saving seed from your vegetable garden is easy and (dare I say it?) fun. So I'll be providing you with step-by-step posts about how to save seeds from some of the most popular crops for home vegetable gardeners. You won't need any special equipment, and it won't take much time. With the little bit of effort you put into it, you'll be rewarded with tasty food that you know is good for you because you saved the seed, grew it in your own garden, and cared for it with your own two hands. Food doesn't get much greener than that.