Summer 07: a bad time for seed collecting

August 2007: What a year for seed collecting this has been so far. I look to collect a lot of flower seeds from the gardens to use for growing stock to sell in the nursery, but most of the summer has been a washout.

I have tried to collect wet seed pods when they are ready and have been drying them in the greenhouse, but so many different varieties have had their seed pods rotting on the plant before the seeds inside were mature. The whole summer so far has been ideal for rots and moulds – and seed pods have not escaped this curse. I know that Nick has missed out on a lot of the broad beans and peas he likes to collect as they have also rotted before fully mature.

My hope is that, even if the weather returns to being wet and warm again, most will have ripened to a point at which I can harvest them and continue the drying process on the greenhouse bench or in the conservatory. I like to spread them out on a sheet of newspaper as this will not only keep them in place, but also gently soak up any excess moisture present on the seeds, without drying out the actual seed itself. I suppose this is the reality of gardening – one year you get to harvest most of what you want and the next you get to keep only what nature lets you have!