Seeding the Future
Seed collection for Landcare and Friends
DVD
Judy Allen
Review by Brian Bainbridge

Seed collection excites the imagination of many people interested in nature restoration.  The tiny parcels retain the magic instilled by childhood windowsill experiments with broadbeans and cress on wet cotton wool.  Intense observation of plants, weather and fauna is crucial to this craft, re-awakening kinship with traditional food gathering and ancient agricultural skills.   However the uncomfortable reality of sweat, prickles, flies and paperwork can extinguish the enthusiasm of the inadequately prepared seed collecting novice.

This DVD is designed to equip individuals and groups with basic seed collection knowledge and technique.  Protocol and techniques specific to particular plant groups are covered.  Judy Allen, an experienced propagation manager, uses a few basic tools to collect and process seed of several indigenous plants.   The video format is able to convey the degree of  pod crunchiness, the sloppiness of fermented berries and the varying amounts of physical exertion and patience required to process the seeds.  We watch Judy’s fingertips delicately pluck a single wallaby grass seed and see flower to seedfall compressed into a few moments. It is the next best thing to working alongside an experienced seed collector over several months.  The footage reinforces the message that a few seasons are needed to become a proficient seed collector. 

Video is a demanding medium to carry out well, it is a tribute to Judy’s perseverence and guts to see this project to completion across uneven financial terrain (it is funded by several sources, primarily a Melbourne Water Grant) and the inevitable crises of confidence that an extended project entails.   It is a particularly apt that IFFA has been able to contribute financially to the production that is well aligned with IFFA’s objectives of sharing and disseminating knowledge of indigenous plants.

This is not a slickly edited TV garden program.  There are rough edges (and fuzzy ones, uneven lighting, wind noise, awkward script and cutting etc), however these should not prove so severe as to distract from the flow of  know-how.  The straightforward presentation and gentle pace (think Kevin Heinze rather than Jamie Durie) is enlivened by a bluesy soundtrack provided by Sal Kimber and the Good Ol’ Boys.

This DVD is to be available free of charge to Friends and Landcare Groups.  Judy and her team have performed great service for local revegetation efforts.  

Judy Allen will introduce the DVD at MCMC's coming AGM on 18 October.

DVD Contents:

• Drying and cleaning techniques
• Labelling
• Is there seed? (Juncus)
• Colour change (Dodonea)
• Fruit (Solanum, Rhagodia, Dianella, Melicytus)
• Dry Seed Pods (Acacia, Bursaria)
• Cones (Allocasuarina, Banksia)
• Valves (Eucalyptus, Leptospermum)
• Pea plants (Indigofera, Kennedia)
• Differential ripening (Bulbine, Arthropodium)
• Green seed collection (Convolvulus)
• Grasses (Austrodanthonia, Themeda)
• Geranium
• Storage

To order the DVD (available free to IFFA members, while stock lasts) email editor@iffa.org.au giving your name, postal address and phone number.