April to August - we come 'round full circle with the final days of August - I'm usually out collecting seeds from the garden to either dry them and put them away for next year, give some to friends (haven't forgotten you, jayden and FindingMyVoice!), or scatter them where I want them to start next April. There's almost as much beauty in some seed heads as there is in the flower that preceded it. I try to keep a sharp eye out, because if you are too late, some seed heads dry and pop open before I'm prepared to gather them. Then I get little colonies of plants where I don't really want them (johnny jump-ups, I'm talking to you!) 
For more seedy neighborhood stuff, jump down below the seed-pod with me....
I actually asked my friend Nancy if I could dig up some of her jump-ups a few years ago - I love them so! She made a face, and said, "You'll have them everywhere!" And she was right, they ARE everywhere, but I don't really mind. Even when they become almost as pesky in the raised bed garden as the baby elms I have to weed out every year (and a few always manage to hide out until fall, when I get the bed ready for winter). At least they are much more cheerful than the Siberian elms!
I have been a seed collector for many years. Some years I'll save the seeds from an heirloom tomato that was just so luscious, and other years I'll just scatter the annual and perennial flower seeds out with a flick of the fingers so they re-seed and grow again in the garden. Usually in August and September, I'll take the scissors or clippers and a container of some kind with me as I wander the gardens, and clip off the seeds I want to start again next year. It's a tiny window from flower to full burst of seed pod. You can't be too early, nor too late. If the seed pod is green, the seed is not quite fully formed. If you get there too late, the seed pod has dried and burst open, scattering the seeds willy-nilly into your back patio, to be gathered diligently by the many species of ants and eaten by birds. This year I'm following the heirloom climbing petunias around as they go to seed. 
I love their little birds beak seed pods. I've already got quite a few drying out.
I only buy seeds from the heirloom, non-GMO companies and then they re-seed readily. I've gotten a few hybrid plants from nurseries, or (shudder) even Lowe's, but they don't last long and definitely aren't able to reproduce. It's also fun to see what plants may have stealthily gone to seed without my noticing. I think most seeds will find their best spot, and most of the time I will let the resulting plants grow wherever they landed.
Some seed pods are so beautiful! My favorite is the little prolific jump-up, but they go to seed so fast that I can't catch a photo of them. They have a little four-plex pane, like a pinwheel, full of little tiny seeds. I also love the dill seed head, it's so artistic. This year I've got a few in my raised bed, keeping the black-seeded Simpson lettuce company. (Yes, I let some go to seed, and I'll have lettuce again in April! Imagine that...). The dill seed heads have such a symmetry about them.
In my area, we also pay close attention to the native Gambel Oak seeds, aka acorns. It can be very iffy for the acorns and they are a large part of the food source for black bears, as well as many other native wildlife. Gambel oak acorns can make or break a bear population; in other words, will there be four bears in my neighborhood trying to break into my trash can this fall, or only one???
This year looks pretty good from an anecdotal point of view:
I've got a few plants that have pretty flowers right before they go to seed, and the arugula was a nice surprise this year. It looks so much like a Colorado noxious weed flower, chicory, that I had to look twice. No, really, it's just the arugula...
And, before I release you to get out there to your seed pods, I've got one more favorite to share. The newcomer to my garden, the ever-prolific "spider flower", or cleome. I'll never get rid of these, I'm predicting.
My garden is slowly going to seed. What's going on in your garden?
Source: Saturday Morning Garden Blogging: Seeds Come Full Circle
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