Save seeds to save money

24th August 2020

Written by Sam Peters, co-founder and executive director of Planted

As the summer nights slowly draw in and our attention shifts to cooler, darker times ahead, so too the flowers and vegetables in our outdoor spaces begin to shift their collective emphasis.

While the light and warmth of summer encourages flower, fruit and pollination aplenty, the gloomier months of autumn and winter demand a lower-octane growth approach to ensure re-emergence when the sunshine returns next spring.

In the interests of survival, the end of the growing season for plants means turning to seed.

I’ve been a keen amateur gardening for 15 years and as I come to recognise how seasonal plants and flowers grow and the conditions in which they thrive, so too have I learned the process of turning to seed. As importantly, I’ve learned how to harvest that seed.

By doing so, I’ve learned how to save money, reduce waste and enable life.

And besides, why pay £1.99 a packet for something which comes entirely free and which you can share with your community?

This autumn I’m scaling up seed production and to do this I need additional storage; ideally a small wooden box with clear labels and the option to file away my collection in alphabetic order for future reference.  

Of I should just build one but alas, time is not my friend. So I set out last week for the garden centre to purchase a simple wooden seed box. They sell the seeds in the first place so surely they would provide the means to save, recycle and replenish each year? Not a hope.

Just like so much of our economy, garden centres present a linear vision, selling industrially processed seed on an industrial scale. Just like so many fashion brands it is absolutely in the garden centres interests for us to return year on year to make our purchases again and again. The most natural and circular of all processes becomes a linear processed one. Put simply, educating about seed harvesting is not commercially sensible. Seed storage boxes may be circular but they’re not great for profits.

By harvesting seed and potting on, you are salvaging the life of the plant or flower and in so doing stopping a chain of entirely unnecessary consumption.

One of the joys of being involved in Planted is sharing the knowledge and wisdom we have within our team and the partners with whom we share so much.

Among them Oliver Heath, Planted’s brand ambassador and biophilic design guru, has a brilliant team of like-minded designers at his studio in Brighton. Several take an close interest in the concept of the right to repair. It’s a small leap away from seed boxes but stay with me.

From electrical goods to shoes and clothes, when was the last time you sat down to fix something? Just like harvesting seeds time is too precious and besides, who knows how to darn socks these days anyhow?

Worse still, many of the electrical goods we buy are specifically designed and manufactured to deter the consumer from repairing them if they break. Parts are specific, fittings unique. So we end up going back time and again to the original supplier. Time may be saved in the short term but in the long term it’s lost, along with our money. Ring any bells?

It’s time to think again, take a step back. Let’s educate ourselves about nature and the industrial production methods which erode communities, force us into unsustainable consumption habits and rob us of precious time and money. It’s a bloated vision driven by corporate greed.

There is another way and it’s complex, for sure. But for now, go out and start gathering and repairing.

There are seeds to be saved for autumn and patches to be sewn for spring.

Ends