The Bringing the Harvest Indoors Workshop is now on replay on YouTube. Check out!

Fall is the perfect time to set up some easy DYI projects to get your spring garden off to a great start. Here is a simple Trellis that I have been using for years. What is your favorite project?

Do you have your favorite tomato? The one that made your mouth water and you could not wait to savor. Yes you can save those seeds, if you don't eat them. And you don't even have to sacrifice the tomato to do it. Tomatoes do need to have about 20 feet of separation to prevent cross pollination if possible. They are primarily self pollinating, but they can be crossed by insect activity. First, you need to let the tomato ripen on the vine until it is 1/2 ripe or more. Let the tomato get full ripe before you collect the seeds. When you cut the tomato open, carefully scoop out the gel and the seeds in the gel. (Cut up the tomato to put in your salad, pasta, or sandwich.) Place the gel and seeds in a jar and fill the jar about 1/2 full with water. Put the lid on the jar and give it a shake. Leave this in the jar for 2 or 3 days to ferment. Shake 1 or 2 times per day. The viable seeds will separate from the gel and sink to the bottom. Everything else should float to the top. After the seeds separate, fill the jar full with water, shake it, and let it sit for about 30 minutes to settle. Carefully pour off the top of the liquid with what is floating without pouring out the seeds. Refill the jar with water several times and pour off the top. When it is mostly clean, pour everything into a fine sieve and rinse with fresh water. Place the clean seed on a piece of paper towel or newsprint to dry completely. After a few days, the seeds should be dry and can be stored in envelopes in a cool and dry place for 2 years, maybe more.

Saving your own seed is a fun and useful skill to learn. Most are very easy. Some take a bit more know how. If you have never saved seed before, start with one or two that are easy. For the seeds on my list of easy seeds, let the flower or fruit mature on the plant. When it starts to turn color and dry down, harvest the seed producing part and dry it inside in a well ventilated space. remove the seed from the fruit or flower and dry the seeds a bit more. Pack in labeled envelopes. Easy Seeds to Save: Beans Peppers Chives Peas These require very little processing and only a short separation to get seed that is true to type. Grains and brassicas are also easy to save seed from, but the separation distance for seed that is true to type is much farther. Which seeds do you save? Which seeds would you like to save? What is your favorite trick for saving seed?

This is the last session of the Garden Planning and Design Workshop. Let's move forward the easy way. One tiny step at a time. The entire workshop is in the classroom. Follow this step by step process to get the garden that you want.