Journal

Collecting seeds from your garden

Here at Snapdragon - up in the middle of Scotland - we have begun to slide into another season.

The sappy growth of summer has slowed down - only the dahlias and the daisies are at their peak, and you can see the plants which stunned us in June stiffening up.

The flower borders are soaking wet each morning, sodden with heavy dew and many of the flowers have produced great full bursting seedbeds. Poppies, sweet williams, honesty, grasses, columbines are all ready to harvest.

I love the simple kinds of seed collecting best - the kind where you can gather the pods and shake the seeds out onto a sheet of paper before storing in an envelope. The most important thing to remember is that seeds should be completely dry before you package them up - otherwise they may go mouldy.

I particularly love giving packets of home grown seeds to friends - there is something very special, sharing from one garden to another, spreading the love.

Last year I packaged up some seed from the meadow that surrounds the workshop - a mix of annual and perennials - and it has been wonderful seeing familiar plants popping up in friends' gardens.

I have designed a couple of downloadable seed packet designs - they are available both in my watercolours and in black and white if you want to colour in yourself.

Just print out the seed packet designs, cut them out and fold the flaps to the back - then glue the back down and write the variety of seed on the front.

You can either have one variety of seed per seed packet or make a mix of similar seeds to make a sow your own meadow pack.

This is a lovely project for children to do - they can colour in the drawings and then give the beautifully packaged seeds to teachers, family or friends.

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