Why not plant a "seed" garden

I thought about finding a spot kind of out of view and just putting different plants there that I just use to get seeds from. (Not that I wouldn't get them from the others too.) This way I wouldn't have to worry about deadheading or not, etc. I could grow them strickly for seeds
Do you all do that?

I only dead head annuals, repeat or long blooming perennials and prolific self-sowers. I stop deadheading everything mid-August and collect seed from those last summer flowers. Fall flowers I just leave alone and collect seed Nov, Dec and Jan. I get lots of seed without alot of spent flowers that way.

Cool. This is the first year I will be keeping up with cultivars, etc. Since things won't always be right beside their "kind", I thought something like that would help me keep up and not think something was something it isn't.
I have several different hollyhocks, for instance, and I can see putting little markers by each one. Do you just kind of learn what they are or is that a problem for everyone?

I've used different coloured pipe cleaners twisted around the flower stem to distinguish certain flower colours or types in a mix where its hard to tell without a mark. They only look really odd if I have alot of them in the same patch but then they make good conversation. I will have a very interesting looking poppy patch this year LOL.

I only harvest 1 kind of seed at a time from flowers, especially if they are different cultivars. But you will quickly learn the difference between hollyhocks and marigolds.

Now, if I'm doing something like tomatoes where the seed is contained within the fruit, I'll carry a Sharpie with me to the garden and write on the skins what each one is.

A seed bed is a good idea if you want to do it, but you'll get tons of seeds with the method described above...and plenty for swaps and trading. Just a few flowers will supply a huge amount of seeds.

One thing I thought was that if I had one of the plants somewhere else all marked, etc. even if I did lose a marker, or probably in my case, yarn too, I could go back to the one I had in the "other garden" and could tell what they were by looking at those. Since I've never tried to keep up with stuff for trades, etc. where the cultivars, etc. are important, I'm thinkin waaaaaay outside the box

It's best to be careful, especially if you're not used to doing this. If you can give accurate information as a trader, you've won a huge part of the battle. Any system that works for you, will in the end be the best one. Everyone is different, and if you can be confident of your information, it will make you a better trader.

Just don't bite off more than you can chew. Lots of newbie seed savers jump off in the deep end without learning how to dogpaddle first. A few well grown, and well documented varieties will get more takers than a long list of seeds that you can't correspond about in an informed manner.

The more information that you can give a prospective trader, the more likely that they will return to you for other seeds.

By asking the questions that you have over the last few weeks, it shows a real desire to go about this process in a correct and educated manner. You're on the right track, and going to make a great seed saver.

Excellent advice melody. I think that would make a good sticky for this forum.

You made my day, Melody, thank you. I let things sneak up on me and I just want to know that I have a plan before I need the plan!!

Lorraine, I had actually planned a 'seed garden' for myself as well. I don't want to have my regular garden cross-pollinate and give me heaven-knows-what when I'm trading specific things. So I'm planning a small garden of hand-pollinated (tied-off blooms) things, so I can be sure of the seeds' veracity, and then will allow the rest to be 'this is what it started as, I hope it didn't cross with something' things.

A good example is squashkins rather than pumpkins, since I plan to grow hubbard as well. I'm going to keep one pumpkin set aside for hand-pollination, so I can make sure when I give out pumpy seeds I'm not giving out squashkins.

Thank FarmerDill for the name - I appropriated squashkins from him. :)

-Sev