Cheap Tricks: Save seeds

April 5, 9:07 AMNashville Country Living ExaminerNicole Sauce

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Nashville Country Living Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

This year, an estimated 43 million households will grow vegetables, up from 36 million in 2008. Many tout the sluggish economy for the increase, which spurned this week’s Cheap Tricks tip: Save seeds.

Step one: Plant heirloom varieties.

Many commercial brands of seeds are hybrid or trademarked, making the act of saving and reusing the seeds either useless or illegal. However, several sources offer heirloom varieties of plants that encourage reusing of their seeds.

Online ordering

• Seed Savers Exchange

• Heirloom Seeds

• Burpee Seeds

• Victory Heirloom Seeds

Local sources

Nashville sources for heirloom seeds are tricky to find. Many of the local CSAs offer starts and both Eatons Creek Organics and the Turnip Truck East sometimes sell them.

Step two: Enjoy the crop, but designate healthy plants for non-harvest.

It is tempting to eat the best fruits of labor from a garden, but the healthiest plants also provide the best seeds for the coming year.

Step three: Follow instructions to save seeds.

Most heirloom seed packets include instructions on how to save seeds for the coming year. Save about twice as many as needed to ensure success.

With packets of seeds running $1-$3 each, seed bills can quickly top $50 in a basic vegetable garden. Saving seeds can reduce this cost by half or more.