Saving pumpkin seeds for next year’s garden

The seeds in this year’s pumpkins are getting a second chance. After serving us well through the Halloween season, the pumpkins are now being cleaned out, with the seeds set aside for next year’s expanded community garden.

It’s a simple bit of gardening, but one we enjoy. Saving seeds means carrying a little of this year’s work into the next growing season. Over the last few months, our programs have been working towards expanding the community garden, with improvements to our growing spaces, facilities and plans for the seasons ahead. There’s been plenty of work behind the scenes, and we’re excited to see it all start coming together. Now, as we clean and save this year’s pumpkin seeds, we’re already looking forward to seeing them sprout in next year’s garden plots.

It’s a nice feeling knowing that a little bit of this year’s harvest will find its way back into the ground next spring, helping our community garden grow a little bigger each year.

A few easy tips for drying and saving pumpkin seeds:

  1. Separate and clean. Scoop out the seeds and remove as much pumpkin flesh and stringy pulp as possible. Rinse them in cool water.
  2. Spread them out. Lay the seeds in a single layer on a screen, tray or piece of parchment paper.
  3. Let them dry naturally. Keep them somewhere cool, dry and well ventilated, away from direct sunlight. Turn them occasionally so they dry evenly.
  4. Give them time. Allow roughly one to two weeks for thorough drying. They should feel completely dry and firm, not soft or damp.
  5. Pack them away. Store fully dried seeds in labelled paper envelopes, with the variety and harvest year written on them. Keep them somewhere cool, dark and dry.
  6. Check before planting. Next spring, test a few seeds between damp paper towels to see how well they germinate.

We are particularly grateful to the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s Capital Grants program for helping fund this season’s improvements. The investment has made a real difference to our facilities, garden spaces and shared outdoor areas, giving us more room to grow, work together and plan activities for the seasons ahead.

And for the pumpkins, well, we’re expecting to see a lot more of them next season!