As those seed orders start to roll into your mailbox what are you going to do with them? Throw all the packets into a big bowl and hope you remember what’s in there? For me, I need to GET organized. Having an organization system for my seeds has saved me a *ton* of time, and the best part? It’s made planting a crop on any Spring day seem like a quick task, rather than a big event.
I already tend to be super organized (though my children sure are grinding down my perfectionism!), but this kind of a system is perfect for all gardeners. It’s not only for those of us who try to organize everything in life, and it’s not only for gardeners who try to grow everything – it works well if you grow ten things or 50. So here it is! A few years back I started storing my seeds like this:
Ok, ok, a little unimpressive, eh? I’m hopelessly frugal and resourceful, so it’s not beautiful, but it has been super functional and I put it together with what I had lying around the house. This box has also seen many a muddy planting day, and more than one of those envelopes has stuck through a rainy planting session with me. Maybe someday I’ll pull together a permanent solution in a wooden box, but for now, I’ve made use of a bunch of large mailers or manila envelopes that I received various mail or printed photos in. When the stuffing-end is tapped shut, and the envelope is cut in half, they make the perfect size pocket to store each plant type.
Now, when I head out to the garden, I grab a few big envelopes of what I’m planting and I have all the varieties of each type ready. This, as opposed to carrying ten small envelopes that have been resealed five times, has been much easier.
There are a few plant types that only have one seed packet in the larger envelope, but for most plant types, I do grow more than one variety. Here’s what’s currently inside my lettuce pocket.
Even if you just have one variety for each plant type, I find that the larger envelopes and font size of my label, make grabbing seed way more straightforward than digging through small envelops, looking at tons of pictures on each packet, and reading small font titles.
This pocket size also works really well for larger quantities of seed, like this 1oz packet of beet seeds. It still all fits! I’m loving the flexibility, ease and organization of this system so far.
Additional Organization
If you want to take your organization one step further, it could be helpful to have two sections in your box – one for cold-weather crops and the other for warm-weather crops. Alternatively, you could consider keeping a separate section for seeds that you will make multiple sowings of throughout the growing season, like turnips and radishes.
So far, I have personally been really content keeping it all together in alphabetical order, grabbing what I need when I need it. If there is something that I know I need to plant soon, but didn’t get to that day, I’ll prop it on its side in the box so it stands out to me to grab it when I’m outside next.
How do you store your seeds?
