How to Save Seeds from Flowers in the Yard

I am DONE weeding. The vegetable garden, all the flower gardens, the driveway, the patio & the walkways- all weeded! Now, I'll be all set for another what? day or two?

As I was weeding & deadheading I was thinking of how many plants I will be able to grow in the spring for nothing. Why? Because I have let many of the plants go off to seed and harvested them for next year.

Pink Cosmos- either sensation mix or sensation radiance- I'm not sure which anymore. Beautiful, heavy & long term flowering plants. Some of mine grew up to 5 feet without needing to be staked.

These seed very easily- in fact, there are so many flowers, it's hard to keep up with the deadheading & they can go off to seed and they don't look that bad. They just fall off with a little rubbing. Easy!

I also have Orange Cosmos- Bright Lights Mix. They also flower for months beautifully. Not as tall as the pink cosmos, but sturdier. (The pink ones sometimes do fall over)

The easiest of all to harvest. They dry out and fall right off the stem.

I also tried to dry out some hydrangea flowers. They are drying okay. I'm not sure how useful they will be. (not for saving seeds, just for decoration)

But, after many different setups, this is what I found to be the easiest. I hung a clothes line in the shed, then used the clothes clips to hang the flowers. The clips were able to get around the line & still be strong enough to hold the stems. (If anyone has any tips for this, I'd love to have them)

I also have many nasturtiums around this year. Love them!!

And I'll have to take back my statement about the orange cosmos being the easiest because these literally fall off themselves. The only problem with that is I have them coming up in the patio and the driveway!

I've been letting them fall themselves and collecting them from the ground. This is my first year collecting these so tips are appreciated here too.

The sunflowers are not quite ready to harvest so I'm letting them stay. Although it does bother me as they are quite unsightly.

Everything I harvest I put into labeled brown paper bags. This way they don't build up any mold. I store them together in the basement. I have not (YET) had any trouble with mice eating the seeds.

So how about you? What are you saving??