Seed Saving Tips

Cleaning out the shed last week, as I felt fall approaching all too soon, on a shelf tucked away at the back were some unmarked envelopes and bags of seeds. Now as an any seed saver will tell you it’s the first thing you do is label and date your seed packs. Yikes! How old are these, 3 yrs., 2 yrs.? And what the heck are they? After some sleuthing I was able to identify a few, turns out I collected my sweet pea pods, sunflower seeds and lupins from last year, will put them in water to see if they germinate, with any luck will be able to plant them up next spring.

Mary Alice Johnson holding a large sunflower head.

Mary Alice Johnson from ALM Organic Farms is the queen of seed saving. She has a whole room full of shelves, packed with every seed she grows on the farm. All labeled, dated and recorded. Mary Alice has been the owner of ALM since 1986 and started Full Circle Seeds over 25 years ago. Grown and for sale are fruit, nuts, vegetables, herbs and flowers as well as over 250 varieties of seeds. It truly is a gold mine, with every imaginable seed documented and ready for planting. She will talk about propagating, caring for seedlings, and saving seeds. Mary Alice will share some tricks of the trade to home gardeners on how to save seeds and why they might want to, as well as which seed varieties are easy and important to save.

If you are a current Sooke Garden Club member, or would like to join, come to the meeting on Wednesday, October 25th at 7:00pm at the St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church.