Night Soil

No. 12 Autumn 2025

plants · No. 12

Saving Seed from the Autumn Border

Scissors, paper bags, and an argument with the calendar.

Photograph accompanying this essay

Seed saving is an argument with the calendar. The border dries in its own time, and the best heads are the ones you nearly missed: the nigella gone to bronze, the poppy pods rattling like small instruments.

We walk the autumn border with scissors and paper bags, and explain which seeds are worth keeping, how to dry and label them, and which are better left to the birds.

Back to the magazine