Saving Your Seeds

Growing Biodiversity in Your Own Backyard

There are lots of great reasons to save your own seeds. It’s fun, you learn more about the plants you are growing, and you buy fewer seeds while having plenty to share. Saving your own seeds also allows you to grow plants that are uniquely adapted to your own environment.

But seed saving has an impact far beyond your own yard. Today, seeds are largely a global commodity, making them susceptible to supply chain disruptions and market forces. In fact, four companies control over 60% of our commercial seed globally. But big business is not a fertile ground for diversity, and shockingly, 90% of grain and vegetable varieties have been lost in the past 100 years. So, add “maintaining biodiversity now” to that list of great reasons to save seeds.

When you save your own seeds from openpollinated varieties of plants, you are engaging in an act of beautiful, adaptive resiliency. You ensure access to your favourite plants, reduce dependence on corporate suppliers, and protect genetic diversity. When you save seeds from hybrid varieties, the seeds contain some combination of genetics from at least two different varieties. But the seeds you save from hybrid varieties will not produce a crop of the same variety the following year. Also, hybrid seeds are often patented, meaning it is actually illegal to save their seeds. If allowed, seed saving from hybrids can be a fun experiment, but may also yield nothing at all. This is because some hybrid seeds are produced using genetically engineered cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS), meaning that they are unable to produce viable seeds. Ultimately, these plants represent a biodiversity deadend. There are no living seeds to save, patented or not.

Efforts are ongoing at one local farm to grow and save seeds from various open-pollinated varieties of broccoli that are especially threatened by CMS. Seeds are planted, broccoli is harvested and enjoyed, and then seeds are produced, harvested, and distributed for sale or sharing. Quite literally, saving these seeds amounts to saving biodiversity—and it is something that you can do in your garden, too.

Protecting biodiversity in your backyard starts with the decision to grow openpollinated varieties plants. Even if you do not save the seeds, by choosing openpollinated varieties you are supporting seed producers. Also, think local when shopping for seed—the closer to home your seeds are grown, the more well adapted to your growing conditions they will be. Finally, try saving a few seeds yourself! This fascinating next step in your garden routine will yield lots of learning, biodiversity, and of course, seeds for the future.

You can learn more about saving your own seeds in Northwestern Ontario by checking out Superior Seed Producers on

Facebook. There, you will find information about upcoming seed-related events, links to seed saving books, charts, and how-to videos and much more. You can find locally grown seeds at seed swaps, by talking to your gardening friends and neighbours, and for sale at various places around Thunder Bay or online at rootcellargardens.com or superiorseedproducers. wordpress.com.