Many gardeners are ambitious when it comes to saving seeds, even when there are good reasons to skip it. When you garden year-round, you don’t always have time to let plants go to seed so you can harvest them because they take up too much space. Plus, every plant needs its seeds differently, and you need the space to do it in a way that allows you to actually identify and use the seeds later.

But as seeds have become more expensive in recent years, I’ve become even more motivated to save seeds where I can. While I don’t leave celery long enough to produce seeds for me, there are many types of plants that you can easily save seeds from without sacrificing space or waiting long.

The first year I grew each tomato from a seed that I had saved the previous year. This has two advantages: I saved a lot of money on seeds, of course. Each packet of tomato seeds cost me almost $6, plus shipping. But because I saved seeds, I simply took them from the tomatoes that I liked best, the ones that did best in my garden. This results in a stronger garden, and it’s as easy as setting one of your tomatoes aside and scooping out the seeds.

Same goes for your tomatillos, peppers, and squash, including those pumpkins. You didn’t want to eat the seeds anyway, so just set a fruit aside and scoop out the seeds.