Remember: all the magic of creation exists within a single tiny seed.

It's over. Its officially over.... I've picked my last courgette, I've harvested my last potato, I've pulled my last runner bean!! My main vegetable patch, at the bottom of the garden, has finally run out.

It's time to clean it all away (👎 boo!!) and get ready for next year (👍 yay!!).

Now, admittedly, I still have my "winter" crops growing strong... I still have garlic, onions, carrots, leekes and some lettuce, but the main bulk of the garden is being cleared out and put to sleep.

Any gardener knows that it is as important to make sure the garden is "closed" properly as it is to make sure it's "started" correctly.

• This is the point of the year where you get next years soil ready.
• This is the time where anything that can transfer parasites or fungus over to next year's crop is removed from the garden and destroyed appropriately.
• This is when you can collect and store any seeds your garden has provided you.

Today ill show you how I collect and store the seeds of my runner beans. This is an excellent plant and every gardener should have these in their garden. They are super simple to grow and with minimal fuss they produce bucket loads of healthy eating for a large chunk of the summer. Have a read of this BLOG where I talk more about the runner bean.

As you can see from the picture above, I have allowed some of the pods to "go to seed". This simply means that towards the end of the summer I stopped picking the tender pods a d allowed them to do what nature does.

The runner bean pod is just the beans way of producing seeds and making sure they mature. It is us humans that enjoy the taste of the fresh ones before they become tough and stringy, but if left alone they become seed filled, dried out pods:

Above is what they look like if left to seed and below is what they look like when ready to harvest.

(taken back in August)

It really is as simple as letting your beans do what beans do. Once the seeds inside have swelled and are ready and the pod has dried, it's time to collect the seeds and store them away ready to propagate next spring.

To get the seeds, just split the pod down the middle. This can be done by hand as the outer shell is now brittle.

Remember that every seed will grow in to a plant and every plant will produce masses of beans.

I usually plant around 5 beans in to the garden as this is enough to supply a "hungry" family of 3 with enough beans for 1 meal a week from early summer right till the end, approximately 4 months.

So in theory this one pod will provide more than enough plants for me next year..... But we all know that's not how it works. Some seeds are weak, some don't germinate at all. So it's always best to gather as many as you can and sow a boat-load of them and see what grows.

A few of these (pinker ones) were probably picked too soon. The seed should be darker and have a black/pink spotted pattern, like the one in the palm of my hand in the first picture.

Not to worry, there's enough in here to make sure I won't go without next spring. I place a piece of absorbent kitchen towel beneath and above, to try and keep the moisture off them, but with out drying then out.

I close the lid, date the top, make a cup of coffee and put the seeds away in the shed. The cool temperatures out there will keep the seeds sleeping all the way till I'm ready to plant them next year. The protection of the shed will also stop the rain and frost from damaging the seeds.

The bean sticks(poles) get cleaned, bundled and put away.

The "green" garden waste gets composted.

And that is that!! Job done for another year...

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