Whilst tidying up the end of various flowers, I decided to make the most of the seeds they had produced. It seems a good approach to harvest seeds of flowers and plants that have done so well in this area. It should come in handy next time around instead of buying new seeds and may be useful as gifts or giveaways.

So far I have cornflowers, love in a mist, parsley, coriander, hyssop, cosmos, hollyhocks, mustard lettuce, Queen Anne’s Lace and, of course, one of my favourites with their glossy black seeds – aquilegias.

Of course, they may not grow, but it’s been fun and rewarding getting a little more value out of the plants and planning their next generation.

In a touch of serendipity, during this process my Christmas present arrived from my daughter overseas – a timber planting box for seedlings with lovely little seed envelopes. Much nicer than my cliplock plastic bags.