Good and Green Team helped plant a butterfly garden and pollinator herb garden with Ms. Costi's and Ms. William's classes at Welleby Elementary in September.

Like many things, gardening takes practice. Plants require regular watering, maintenance, and harvesting. Growing many different types of fruits, vegetables, and herbs in a large garden can be overwhelming for new gardeners and can ultimately lead to failure. Limit yourself to just a few types of plants the first year. Then when you become more confident in your abilities and resources, you can increase the size of your garden and grow a wider variety. Download the South Florida Planting Guide from UF IFAS Broward [PDF] for a list of plants by month.

Master Gardener, Vivian Landix, shows attendees how to save tomato seeds.

Seed Saving Basics

Hybrid - A cross between two different plant varieties. May be designated as "F1" on seed packet or catalog description. Do not save. Seeds do not come true to type.

Open Pollinated - Plant pollinated with same variety. Seeds

come true to type.

Heirloom - Open pollinated cultivars with provenance. Handed down, must be at least fifty years old and often traceable to an individual or region. Seeds come true to type.

Save seeds from open pollinated/heirloom cultivars only!

Seed Sources

Know What and When to Harvest

• Produce harvested for seed saving is different from that used for eating and is generally over-ripe and inedible
• Select from healthiest plants - avoid weak or diseased plants
• Harvest fully ripe to slightly over-ripe fruit
• Beans must be fully dry
• Crops will remain on the plant longer in order to reach botanical maturity

Store Seeds Properly

Seeds may be stored in an air tight container in the refrigerator or at room temperature in a cool, dry, dark space such as a closet. Label with name and date harvested. Many seeds can last up to 5 years or more!

Start with the Easier Plants

Start with easy self-pollinating plants. Plants produce complete flowers and do not require a second plant for pollination. Examples include tomatoes, peppers, beans, eggplants and lettuce. Look for these heirloom varieties:

• Beans: Provider, Bush Blue Lake, Contender
• Eggplants: Black Beauty, Listed De Gandia
• Peppers: California Wonder, Cubanelle
• Tomatoes: Cherokee Purple, San Marzano
• Lettuce: Black Seeded Simpson, Salad Bowl, Red Sails

Make a Plan for Your Harvest Before You Plant

Creating an edible landscape doesn't have to be expensive or hard, but it does take some planning and thought.

You don't need to plant everything at once. During your initial planting, set aside some space and seed for later plantings. If you stagger your plantings every ten or fourteen days, you'll enjoy a steady supply of fresh produce throughout the season, instead of being overwhelmed with a lot of the same vegetable at once.

Collecting seeds is one way to take your passion for gardening to the next level. Why do gardeners save their own seeds?

• Fun & easy
• Opportunity to share
• Cost effective
• Reliability
• Ensures availability

Steps to Saving Seeds from a Pepper

There are two types of plants for seed saving - "wet" or "dry." Peppers are considered "dry."

Here are the basic steps for saving seeds from a "dry" plant like a Pepper:

1. Make sure you use a fully ripe - to almost over ripe/inedible (so you will need to leave it a little longer on the plant before harvesting)
2. Do not put in the fridge if you mean to save the seeds
3. Label the plate with the type of seed
4. Cut top off of the pepper
5. Pull out the middle with all the seeds and remove seeds, put onto waxed paper plate
6. Leave seeds out to air dry for a couple of days (3-4 days)
7. Do NOT dry on a paper towel use a waxy paper plate, or something else the seeds won't stick to
8. Let seeds dry somewhere out of the way but not in the sun (like in the guest room)
9. Move seeds around daily on the plate

Photos and information in this article are from the Seed Saving Workshop held at the Sunrise Senior Center presented by Master Gardener Vivian Landix.