Starting from Seeds

Plant a seed. Believe in tomorrow.
Do you collect seeds?
I do.
And for some reason, it seems like everyone I know has been asking me questions lately about how to get started growing a garden from seeds.

I decided to start a little group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/610767333031487/
Feel free to join!

How did this group start?
My co-worker Jacob Torres and I were chatting about how we collected seeds from our Zinnia plants and spread them all around our gardens. He was excited to hear that he wasn't the only one who did this. We joked that we should start a group. So that evening I hastily made a graphic for the concept and then slapped together a Facebook group on the topic. That group sat there with me as its only member for months. Then March 2020 came around, and when faced with food shortages suddenly all of my friends seemed to become interested in planting gardens. I invited all of them to the group. Then they started inviting their friends. So once I had an audience I started populating it with relevant, interesting bits of information that might help someone who is starting to grow plants from seed.

How did I get started collecting seeds?
I've been doing it for as long as I can remember. My dad always encouraged me to try planting my seeds when I found a fruit that I loved. So I did. I saw what thrived and what didn't in our garden back home. We always had fresh produce on hand that we grew ourselves. When I went away to college, I really missed having a garden. I rarely liked the taste of store-bought produce but when I found something I liked, I wanted to plant them. I started collecting the seeds that I couldn't plant right away because I didn't have a garden of my own.

How many seeds do I have in my collection right now?
Honestly, not very many. Whenever I move, I pass along my seeds to a local friend so they can grow their garden. I just moved in August 2019, so that's when I started my collection again.

What do I have growing currently in my home that I grew from seed that I collected?
Nothing. But that doesn't mean that we're not growing something at home!
My 7 year old daughter collected some pepper seeds from a sweet mini bell pepper that she loved, and she planted a bunch of them!



We also have several pots of zinnia flowers that we're growing from the seed packets that we had left over from party favors for a birthday party. Yeah, you read all of that right. We gave packets of flower seeds as party favors for my daughter's birthday party. And yes, my daughters love growing things as much as I do.
I also salvaged some basil, tomatoes, sorrel, mustard, and kale from various projects that I had going on at work, and all of those are growing nicely.

Do you collect seeds?
Do you like planting seeds and watching them grow?
When did you start?