People say I have too many seeds. Heck, I think I have too many seeds! Regardless, I’ve had many different ways to keep them contained, but I think I finally found something that keeps my pattern-seeking human mind content.
Initially, everything was kept in a ziplock bag. There was no organization, but it kept everything contained. Even if I had a spill, at least it was all in that bag, I could sort it out later.
My wife bought me a binder this year. Inside, a dozen or so clear card sleeves, you know, the ones for sports or collectable cards. Each seed pack got its own sleeve. Even that was hard to use, seeds like peas or beans- those bigger seeds, didn’t really fit well. Some of the seed packs had to be folded to fit. Some were so small or in clear baggies, that you might miss them as the sleeves were a window to whatever was behind.
I’ve seen people use photo albums (which seemed like a great idea, except the seed size thing). I’ve seen totes, full to the brim. Boxes with no organization. All of these will work, don’t get me wrong! But, because of how I’m trying new things every year, and purchasing from a range of sellers with their own unique packaging, I needed to find something that works just a bit better.
I have a couple things that I really needed my system to provide.
-I needed a way that was uniform. Everything needed to be the same and orderly. I want to be able to order from six different sellers and still have everything tidy.
-I needed to be able to have a way to keep dates of all the seeds I keep. I noticed, this year, some of my seeds were germinating poorly because they were hitting 4-5-6+ years old. Old seeds need to be used, and I need to easily see that.
-I didn’t want to spend too much money. The system should be accessible to most anyone who wanted to use it.
Onward to Amazon. I found these plastic ziplock baggies that I see a lot of vendors using to package seed. A pack of 500 was about $8. 500 seed baggies will last me a long time! The kraft paper 6×9 envelopes are .10 each in a pack of 100. The envelope is plenty big to store a good number of beans/peas but can also fit any sized seed pack without bursting at the seams.
I sticker label from the dollar store allows me to record the date/year of collection or purchase, and will let me be able to reuse the baggies if I choose. Each 6×9 envelope will have the seed type/variety name on a label. Again, easily reused. All the envelopes are uniform and can be stored in a container or box. I can sort them how ever I want- by type, by date I’m planting, by age of seeds. This will be a great way to keep a large quantity of seeds, too, since I want to start purposefully collecting seeds of some of the harder to find varieties I’ve been collecting.
The Bored Gardener 