Grow Your Own Magazine

Can I ask you all how you organize your seeds?

I want to organize mine by sowing times but obviously it doesn't work to organize them by month as they have a sowing season. It doesn't really work to organize them by season as their season is often different to 'our' seasons or they have two or more viable seasons or indoor/ outdoor germination etc.

I don't have that many seeds compared to many of you on this forum but increasing rapidly and I'm already fed up with rummaging through to see what I can sow now, especially when I find I've already got the same seeds as I've just bought!

Any advice would be appreciated - Thanks

Hi Loveday

I have mine in an old shoe box with the lid cut off and use white postcards to separate the box into sections i.e. chillis, tomatoes, salads etc etc. I also have a sow now section for stuff going in within a month. I keep them in the spare bedroom so don't have to worry about mice getting hold of them.

Hope this gives you some ideas

Regards

I keep meaning to buy a monthly accordian type file, so that I will put the seeds into the first month they can be sown, and move them backwards as long as they can still be sown in the curernt month and then put them back into the earliest sowing month again.

I actually have a tin box (that the lid won't close on) inside a paper bag in a cold dry cupboard high up in the kitchen and I just do that rummaging act all the time.

OK - it's lunchtime - your post has made me decide to go to an office supplies place today and buy that file! Thank you LoveDay

There is a thread about this somewhere but blowed if I can find it at the moment.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

I use the system Winged One mentions.

Monthly dividers in a box just wide enough for the seed packets (so they don't flop about and spill their contents everywhere.

I file the packets into the first month they can be sewn. If I don't get round to it that month, I move them on a month, and if they need repeat sewing, I either leave them in the current month or move them on (depending).

For me 'rummaging through' is one of the best parts of growing your own. Many winters evenings I say to my OH 'I'm just going to have a look at my seeds!'

I have a deep tupperware type box and, because I try to garden by the Moon's phases, simply section them into root, leaf, flower and fruit types, then put the earlier ones to the front of each section and the later ones to the back.

Thanks everyone, I must admit I hadn't thought of moving them on to the next month if I hadn't sown them - Doh!

Off I go to the stationery shop (another love of mine)

I have two plastic biscuit boxes. One for opened packets and one for unopened new packets. Within each box I then have the seeds divided into groups like root veg, salad etc. Each group is then kept in a plastic bag (obtainable from the fruit and veg dept at the supermarket). I have a master list on the computer which is updated every time I purchase a new packet of seeds and at the end of the year when I take off the list all the packets that have been used. Updated the computer yesterday and compared with actual packets and at present I have 150 unopened packets. Why do I still keep buying more??????

Ian

Blimy, I have a shoe box nibbled by resident woodmouse despite it being in the dining room. I also have seed packets in my handbag, beside my bed, in kitchen.................in the car....................

Wow - so much organising. I have one old gordon ramsey easter egg box for the shop bought general including F1 seeds. And one old glass container that was too big to get into the recycle bin full of heritage/real seeds that can be saved.

i also have them in the car, in the kitchen, the garage, both sheds, and in the openy bit of my kneeler in case I find a spare bit of ground that needs an onions carrot seed mix sprinkled on it [these are kept in an old but unused sample bottle given to me by the doctor - makes a fab seed container for mixing random carrot and onion seeds].

I wish I could move stuff from one month t'other - but I'm too unorganised for that. I just have a look through every week or so and if there is still time to get a harvest in - albeit a sneaky late one - I'll sow some seed.

Don't have them beside my bed tho - that's Weird!!!

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Andrea :wavehello

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...logs/zazen999/

moon trials completed:
tomatoes
[46% increase in crop per seed sown and 10% increase in crop per plant]

currently underway:
calabrese
garlic

We keep our seeds in one of those plastic sandwich tubs that you can suck the air out of with a vaccume. The seeds store better in an air tight (or in our case) airless container.

As for sowing times, all our seeds, except one, needs to be sown in March/April so it isn't hard to decide what needs sowing and when.

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Read our chicken keeping and veg growing diary here:
http://www.naturalaromas.co.uk/the_good_life
Veg section: Last updated on October 8 2008
Chicken section: Last updated on April 22 2008

All of mine are in a roses tin, when I have time to throw some seeds into pots or the ground, I pull out all the viable ones, and go from there. organised chaos works well for me!

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http://clairescraftandgarden.blogspot.com/

I've got mine in an airtight plastic container, alphabetically (it's the librarian in me) and I also have a list on my pooter of what I've got. There are odd packets that haven't got into the "system" yet, and a big bag of sunflower seed my mum gave me from her harvest last year. I keep meaning to get around to building a spreadsheet that will show what can be sown when, or something clever like that. At present, sowing tends to be triggered by (1) I've just got the seeds and I want to sow them *now* or (2) I've just read something on here that's reminded me to sow another batch of something I sowed already, a few weeks ago! Possibly I will be more organised next year. But I'm not holding my breath

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Warning: I have a dangerous tendency to act like I know what I'm talking about.

This is exactly what I have done this year and found it worked really well. They've all gotten a bit mixed up since I started to sow them directly in the ground on the plot this last week or so and just stuck them back in the box anywhere. Gonna go sort them now

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http://potterspatch.blogspot.com/

I'm still undecided on this one - I did have them by month and then was moving them back but through April and May they were almost all in the same section so I ended up getting impatient and rummaging them into a mess. Now they are in no order at all! I have a timetable of when I need to sow in my gardening notebook so I think I will be joining Demeter on this one and going for alphabetical!

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My garden blog
http://michelles-garden.blogspot.com/
Updated 20th August 2008

I bought those pop stud CD boxes with lids and then bought loads of CD plastic wallets from Poundstretchers.

I put the opened seed packets in the clear CD wallets and some packets get folded over to fit. All the wallets then fit into the Cd Box. The clear wallets are a good idea when taking them into the garden/allotment as there is no seed spillage and if it starts to rain no soggy packets either.

I put them in the box in 5 sections of my Plot numbers (so I can remember what is in each plot without going outdoors), mini greenhouse sowings and one labelled Other. I just used some card to make the dividers in the box.

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Join me on my Voyage of Veg Discovery - http://mostlyiwillbegrowing.wordpress.com

Brilliant - I might be pinching this CD wallet idea

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Warning: I have a dangerous tendency to act like I know what I'm talking about.

Mine are in a 12-month accordion type wallet/holder.
It works brilliantly, pop a seed packet in the right month for sowing. You end up with a lot of seeds in the March pocket, so I have two for March, and none for December.
When March comes round, I take out all the packets for March, have a look through, sow what I want, then put the seeds back. Some go forward into the April pocket, or May and so on.
I religiously sellotape the packs back up, to avoid spilled seed all over the place.
I'm also being a bit ruthless this year, and getting rid of any that I know I won't use.

This year I'm even more organised, and charting what I sow into an Excel document, because every year I end up ordering seeds that I already have in my collection. Having a printable list on the computer will give me an at-a-glance look at what I have and what I need to order more of.

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi

I got a bargain-basement steel bread bin that Homebase were selling for cheaps. Seeds are organised by the type according to the lunar calendar - root, leaf, flower, fruit - so I can look at what's good to sow on that day and rumage through the selection.

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Dwell simply ~ love richly

Mine are in a couple of biscuit tins. One for unopened packets, one for opened. That's about as organised as I get.

Maybe why I don't do as well as I could...

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A simple dude trying to grow veg.

http://haywayne.blogspot.com/ - Minor update - 10th November

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I like the cd wallet idea, thanks todayiwillbemostlygrowing - love the name btw

Hi I keep my seeds in an old floppy disk box, the sort which lock and have dividers, they are sorted by what plants together in the beds. Brassicas, salads, peas and beans e.t.c.