Seed Savers Connect

Welcome to seedsavers.org.au! This is a resource hub for seed savers groups in Australia to connect through our online forum, to access, post and share seed saving information and resources, and a place for newer seed savers to find their local seed saving group or learn how to start a new one.

Seed saving is a partnership between people and plants that has nourished humans across the world for millennia. Through seed saving, we protect our heritage and create a sustainable future. When you select and save seeds, you are following in the footsteps of countless generations and creating abundant wealth for you and your community. Seed savers can be backyard or balcony growers, farmers or market gardeners: we are all guardians of our common wealth of seeds.

Once a matter of day to day survival, seed saving is now often viewed as a niche, expert activity but with a little bit of know-how you can easily start producing enough seeds to feed you and your neighbours. By working with your plants to help them produce good seed, you can be part of the solution to the looming food security crisis. 

Seed saving is easy and it’s for everyone. It’s a simple matter of letting your plants live a full and happy life, selecting the best specimens that have the characteristics you want to promote, and then collecting, storing and replanting the seeds in the next season. Seed saving is a cycle from seed to seed, harvesting the abundance that plants produce at the end of their lives to continue the next generation. When you grow from locally saved seed, you get plants that are adapted to your climate and soil and are more likely to thrive. Each food plant will produce an abundance of seeds, often so much that you want to join a group to swap and share the abundance. A single lettuce seed will produce a plant you can eat from and also thousands of seeds for future plants. A single tomato will give you a delicious summer salad and produce enough seeds for you and your neighbours (and their neighbours!) for next season.It’s much cheaper than buying seedlings and when you grow from and save and share seeds, you can access an amazing range of plants and unique varieties you can’t find in your local nursery.

Seed saving is also crucial for the future of our food security and food sovereignty, for the future of humanity. During the twentieth century, many, many thousands of varieties of food seeds were lost due to consolidation of control of seed stocks in the hands of multinational companies. Today, four corporations — Bayer, Corteva, ChemChina and Limagrain — control more than 50% of the world’s seeds. These staggering monopolies dominate the global food supply. Saving and stewarding locally grown seeds is how we as communities can protect our food security, ensuring that our food system is resilient, adaptable to climate shocks and locally controlled. 

This website is dedicated to sharing the wealth of knowledge and experience from seed savers across Australia and helping seed saving groups to connect and cooperate. We are building on the work of generations of seed savers and we aim to share the knowledge and experience they have gained and passed on. Seedsavers.org.au is a collaborative, living project created and administered by passionate volunteers. Anyone can register to join in the discussion forums or to add material to the guides or to share stories and knowledge.