How to save seeds in the garden

WITH the winter months set to commence, an upcoming workshop held at the Haddon Community Learning Centre is aiming to give attendees advice on how to preserve their planted vegetable seeds.

The workshop will be delivered by longtime gardener and Urban Food Garden blog creator John Ditchburn, who said his tips and tricks will be helpful on a number of fronts.

“Seeds that you buy are becoming quite expensive and it’s actually very easy to save most types of seeds,” he said. “It’s fun and enjoyable doing it too. I’ll be providing seed that hasn’t been separated from a dried plant for participants to actually separate them and bag them up for themselves.

“The idea is to keep the seed bagged up over winter and planting them again in spring.

“There’ll be a theory component to this and then a practical session using a wet water technique.”

Mr Ditchburn estimates he runs between four and eight workshops each year.

Ticket sales from the upcoming session will go towards maintaining his Urban Food Garden project.

“Participants will end up with at least four packets of seeds themselves so given the average price of seeds is $5, they’ll come out with a really good deal,” Mr Ditchburn said.

“The Urban Food Garden site came about because I was just making so many mistakes as I went through.

“The aim of it and these sessions is to help people make fewer mistakes as they go through the food gardening experience and encouraging people to grow their own food.”

Capped at 16 attendees, Mr Ditchburn’s seed saving workshop will run from 1.30pm to 3.30pm on Saturday 25 May.

Tickets are $45. To book, call 5342 7050.