People save seeds for lots of different reasons and there is no single right reason to get started saving your own garden seeds.
Save Money
A typical package of 50 pepper seeds costs £2 or more, while transplants can cost £2 each! By growing food from seeds you have saved, you can significantly reduce the cost of producing healthy food.
Preserve Genetic Diversity
Lots of great varieties will never see the fame of a commercial seed catalog. Many of these unique plants only exist in the hands of one or two gardeners. Lend a hand and save some of those seeds that are in danger of disappearing!
Flavour
Ever find the best tasting tomato from a seed catalog one year only to discover you can’t buy it anywhere the following year? Seed savers don’t have this problem!
Connect With Your Garden
Every seed holds a connection to the future and the past. From the meadowsweat laid on Celtic graves and written about in the Mabinogion to the rogue tomato plant that you’ve saved seeds from and will pass on to your children, the stories of seeds connect us to our history, our culture, our family, and our sense of who we are.
Help The Bees
Insect pollinators perform a £690 million service each year in the UK alone. And many of these species are in decline. While you wait around for your flowers to produce seeds, they are providing invaluable food for bees, butterflies, and beetles.
Build Community
Seed saving and seed sharing go hand-in-hand. Share with a neighbour, help a community garden become more self-sufficient, or take a new gardener under your wing and teach them how to save their own seeds.