Quick tip 3 for green thumbs in winter-organize your seeds

Snippet of seed spreadsheet

Friday, December 29, 2023

Winter can be a downer time of year for those of us that love to garden, but it doesn't have to be!  There are many "gardener" things you can do during the cold months of the year.  I'm going to share an idea each week for the rest of the winter on gardening activities that help satisfy the itch and prepare us better for the upcoming spring season.  Here we go with Winter Quick Tip 3-organize and catalog your seeds. 

If you are anything like me, you have lots of seeds stored.  A productive and cost saving thing to do during these cold days is to get out all your seeds, organize them, catalog them and store them so that you extend their viability for as long as possible.

This will save you tons of time having to sort through packets when you start your seeds here in a couple of months as well as money in not buying seeds you already have.

I keep mine on an excel spreadsheet.  This way, I can easily keep them in alphabetically order.  Plus, I have columns with pertinent information like sunlight required and when you can start the seeds so I can sort by these fields if I want to.  After putting your "catalog" together, you only have to add any new purchases to keep it current.

While you have your seeds out, go ahead and organize them and store them for longevity.  I store mine in quart freezer bags in the refrigerator.  I have seeds that are over 10 years old and are still sprouting.  To start, put each crop type in a pile.  Then put each pile in groups for when you sow the seeds.  So you'd have spring, summer and winter seeds together.  I put the packets together in one quart bag that will fit and are similar.  For instance, I have all the root vegetables in one quart bag with the like ones grouped together in the bag to make them each to find.  I have enough bean seeds that they are in their own bag.  Same for tomatoes and herbs.  Pepper and eggplant seeds are in the same bag.  Flowers are in 2 bags.  Summer greens in a bag, spring and fall greens in a bag and winter hardy greens in their own bag.  

Then, when it is time to order seeds, I look back at my garden plan for the year, see what I need to order from my spreadsheet, then get the seeds I already have pulled.  As the new seeds come in, I add them to the spreadsheet.  I have a gallon freezer bag that I label as "Spring 2024" that I put all the seeds I am going to sow for spring in the bag and keep them in the refrigerator until I am ready to start sowing.  I'll do the same for "Summer 2024" and "Fall/Winter 2024" as the time comes to plan for the next season of gardening.

Reflections on the 2023 edible garden and plans for 2024