Once you grow plants you can start to save seeds so you can grow them again next year.

Here’s a great article about saving seeds from RealSeeds

Many of us will have had vegetable plants go to seed – For the person who wants to eat the plant it’s a disaster when a plant puts its energy into making seed but for the plant it’s how it’ll survive into the future.

There are things to bear in mind – if you grow lots of types of the same plant then you will get cross pollination which means the seed you save won’t be true. Always save dry, ripe seed.

There’s also this great book you can buy – Back Garden Seed Saving: Keeping Our Vegetable Heritage Alive

The book covers saving seeds from: beetroot, spinach, beet, chard, broad bean, carrot, celery, celeriac, cucumber, french bean, leafy brassicas, leek, melon, lettuce, onion, parsnip, pea, pepper, chilli, radish, runner bean, spinach, squash (marrows, pumpinks and courgettes), tomato, turnip and swede.

Each vegetable has a small section on how to grow them and then focuses on selection and saving and drying seeds.