Grow more lavender, foxgloves, poppies and sweat peas in your garden using this tip

If you've noticed your garden flowers turning brown, it might be the perfect moment to begin gathering the seeds to provide you with additional plants at no extra cost next year.

Harvesting seeds from lavender, foxgloves, honesty, wallflowers, poppies, sweet peas and Nigella damascena (Love-in-a-mist) is remarkably straightforward and can help you save considerable amounts of money, according to gardening influencer Anya Lautenbach.

Anya has authored a series of books for budget-conscious gardeners and also shares her wisdom on social media. "Seeds are like treasure," she said. "They have to ripen on the plant so you can't speed up the process. You can't collect seedheads when they are green - you have to wait for that moment to happen."

Besides this, she also advises gardeners not to overlook perennials, which may also be ripe for seed collection. She continued: "A lot of them will produce seeds in late summer and autumn. For example, I grew some great delphiniums and astrantias from seeds, which will perform year after year."

How can you tell when seeds are ready to be collected?

Before starting your collection, Anya recommends checking that the seeds have turned brown. "Take a brown flower and just shake it and see if the seeds fall," she said. When the seedhead opens, you should notice that the seeds can be easily shaken out.

What is the easiest way to collect seeds?

Anya went on: "Put a paper bag under the seedheads and shake them or cut off the whole stem in the paper bag and hang it upside down in a cool, dark place, especially if the seeds are microscopic.

"Gardeners can put their hand under the flower after it has turned brown and gently rub the flower. When they are ready, the seeds will easily be removed."

Sift the seeds to remove debris (chaff). Some seeds, like delphiniums, clematis, and anemones, can be sown immediately, whereas others should be stored for winter or spring planting.

Is there a 'best time' to gather seeds?

"With many plants, late summer and early autumn are the best times," Anya said. "This is when everything is ripening. Some plants need the whole season for their seeds to ripen. Erigeron (Mexican daisy) produces seeds on a daily basis. Yet they are quite expensive to buy."

Foxgloves and lavender seeds should now be ready to harvest, in addition to honesty, she explained, adding: "Honesty seed cases look like silver coins. You will see the seeds on this plant inside the papery seed cases."

Can weather affect seed collecting?

Anya continued: "Yes. The best time to collect seeds is when it's dry, in the middle of the day, not after rain and not in the morning because the seedheads are still damp. Collect them on a warm, dry day."

How do you store plant seeds?

"Store them somewhere dry and cool, but you don't have to create special conditions. I grew a whole garden from seed and stored all of them under my stairs in the house, not in special conditions."

Anya recommended storing them in paper bags or containers that allow air flow, rather than a plastic tub with a lid.

How long can you keep them for?

"After two years they usually start underperforming, so the rate of germination will be lower," Anya said. "I usually start them off straight away or keep them for the next season, so I'd say they last about a year."

Will they produce identical plants?

Anya noted that some seeds may not truly return because they are cross-pollinated. However, others, like honesty and Lychnis coronaria, will produce identical plants to their parents.

Are plants grown from home-harvested seed better?

"Based on what I have done, the plants that were born in my garden from seed are more resilient, especially the ones that self-seed," Anya said. "From the moment they have germinated, they are exposed to my conditions.

"If I buy a plant that has been artificially grown somewhere, especially not in this country, and then I bring it into my garden, it might not perform as well as the one that I grew myself from seed."