Seed Guardians is a community-based seed saving program which aims to produce true-to-type seed in larger quantities for the CSS Living Seed Bank.
The program aims to:
🌱 Develop the knowledge, skills and experience of local seed savers; and
🌱 Increase stocks of selected locally grown seeds in order to increase our community seed security and sovereignty.
The Seed Bank is made up of 100% local Canberra region seed, which is quite an achievement! It also means we can’t just buy in seed we are short of: we need to crowdsource it. The Program focuses on high-demand varieties of seed, enabling us to produce sustainable quantities of the most popular vegetable, herb and flower seeds. This supplements and strengthens the diversity and richness of seeds donated by Canberrans to the Living Seed Bank each season!
How it Began
In spring 2024 we trialled the Seed Guardians Program for the first time, after years of buying seed and then slowly becoming self-sufficient (i.e. growing all our own seed). This was to test the interest and viability of the Program and do some early troubleshooting and planning. We had 30 initial signups and had 18 active volunteers growing 1-3 varieties each, from a selection of 18 seed varieties of 7 different types of vegetable. We learnt a lot in this early stage, and have been refining the Program with the help and feedback of our wonderful volunteers.
How it Works
Volunteers are provided with seeds, educational material and support to grow their babies. We hold three in-person events across the growing season (September – March):
- Introduction and distribution of Seed Saver Guides
- Mid-Season Meet Up and Hand-Pollination & Seed Selection Workshop
- Harvesting, Cleaning & Storing Seed Workshop
…as well as an end-of-season celebration to mark growing efforts and the new contributions to the Living Seed Bank 🥳
Growers are asked to grow multiples of the same variety. We grow and save from multiple plants of the same variety to promote genetic diversity and robustness as well as larger amounts of seed. The number of plants will differ depending on the type of plant – for tomatoes, one plant is enough, for beans you’ll need to grow ten and for corn, you will need to grow at least 30!
Currently Working On
The 2025-26 spring/summer season is underway! This season, we provided seed savers with seedlings of the plants we are growing for bulk seed as well as a handful of special varieties. Our growers are growing cucumbers, zucchinis, tomatoes, capsicum, pumpkins, beans, corn, chervil and basil, with a couple of interesting tomatoes and chillies. Seeds will be saved and put into the Seed Bank at the end of the season in autumn.
Get Involved
You don’t have to be an expert seed saver to be part of the program! Having said that, please choose a vegetable, herb or flower variety that you have grown before, just so we can get the best outcomes possible. The program is focused mostly on seed saving education and support rather than plant growing.
At CSS, we have all levels of seed savers, from those who are just starting to learn, to those who grow their garden year after year from their self-saved seed. We’re a community for sharing and learning! And the same goes for this program: all are welcome. You don’t have to know how to seed save already (though if you do, we want you too!), we will teach you and you can start small and easy. How do you start easy?? Different plants require different ‘husbandry’ techniques to ensure true-to-type seed – and some are more complicated than others. It’s all part of the joy of learning to save seed!
If you think this program is for you, please email us at seedguardians at canberraseedsavers dot org dot au to find out about the upcoming season, or register when registrations open (normally late winter) – keep an eye on our socials. We’d love to hear from you!