I'm in california (zone 9b) and there's some plants in my garden that are forming their seed pods. I am too excited and I want to harvest the seeds from them now-- in this case in talking mainly about my poppies and Nasturtium. The seeds are still green/ yellow-is. Do I have to wait till they brown and dry up before I collect? Would collecting before they fall naturally off the plant affect the viability of the seed?

2nd photo is low laying brush KNOWN AS california Fucsia(EPILOBIUM CANUM). 3rd photo is just showing off my narrow leaf milkweed growing on its own free will. There's so many little milkweeds along this border. Last flowers are brittle bush (ENCELIA FARINOSA).

This is my garden. A portion of the front yard. All of it is a work in various stages of progress. I'm mainly focused on native gardening so I have all love for letting the California poppy take over but I have, also, non-native flowers. Anyways, this is my slow process on removing weeds and undesirables.

I picked some dead nettle yesterday, cleaned the weeds really good then dried and put the dead nettle in the fridge. This evening I steeped the dead nettle in hot water then added it to some honey and a small amount of lemon juice. So simple and the tea turned out so good. Better than I thought. I was anticipating sour lemon grass water with honey but no, the result was a sweet, no bitter steeped dead nettle.

How close is your nearest forage , we have Venus's belly button(unbilicus rupstris) growing next to the kitchen door frame . it's a lovely succulent salad plant that's foragable until early summer.