Saving seed is the closest gardening gets to free money — but only some seeds repay the effort, and the packet's small print tells you which before you waste an autumn drying the wrong ones.
If the original packet says F1, the plant is a first-generation hybrid: its own seed won't grow true, and next year's plants will be a lottery ranging from "interesting" to "why is this cucumber bitter". Save F1 seed for fun if you like surprises; don't save it for food you're counting on. Open-pollinated and heritage varieties are the savers — their seed grows into the same plant, year after year, which is the whole point.
Tomatoes (scoop, ferment a couple of days in a jar of water, rinse, dry on a plate — not kitchen paper, they weld to it), peas and beans (leave pods on the plant until they rattle), sweet peas (same), and lettuce (let one bolt; one plant makes hundreds of seeds). All self-pollinate reliably, so they come true even in a small garden. Squash, courgettes and brassicas cross-pollinate with enthusiasm across surprising distances — their saved seed is a genetic mystery box unless you isolate them, which is a hobby in itself.
Seeds want to be properly dry before packeting — a week somewhere airy, until beans snap rather than dent. And label at once, not "later": every seed tin contains an envelope of mystery seeds saved by a confident past self who was certain they'd remember. Variety, year, and anything future-you needs ("the SCARY chilli") — which is exactly the writing this site's generator does for you.
General gardening guidance, August 2026. CAAC.