Save seed from your own vegetables
A friend has invited you to do this with them.
Saving seed closes the loop on a vegetable plot, since next year's crop comes from this year's best plants rather than from a packet. It is also how old varieties survive, and Garden Organic's Heritage Seed Library in the UK keeps more than 800 of them going with the help of home growers.
GentleFreeA year or moreOutdoorsOn your ownUK and USLate summer to autumn
How to start
- Read Garden Organic's seed saving guidance or the Seed Savers Exchange seed saving guides for the crop you grow.
- Start with peas, French beans or tomatoes, and mark your healthiest plants to leave for seed.
- Dry the seed fully, then store it in a labelled paper envelope with the variety and the year.
Where to go
- Garden Organic Heritage Seed Library (UK charity) UK
- Seed Savers Exchange (US nonprofit preserving heirloom seeds) US
We opened these links on 7 October 2026 and found them to be what we say. Dates, places and prices are on the official page, where they stay up to date.
Plan this
Pick a day, or a month, and we will set out how to get ready, step by step, with a date and a reason for each. Projects run over months and stall without a rhythm, so the plan sets milestones you can see.
Read next
Geoff Collis traded the flight deck for a bakery bench in Melbourne's north-east
How an airline pilot learned to bake during the pandemic, went back to flying, then chose the bakery for good, and how to bake your first loaf this week or turn a baking habit into something bigger.
Ron Wallace grew the world's heaviest pumpkin in his first season under glass
Ron Wallace's 3,156lb pumpkin took the world record a week after Ian Paton's 2,856lb 'Bagheera'. How the two growers got there, what a gardening trial found, and how to grow a first pumpkin of your own next year.