Getting organised – seed saving and storage

We’ve been buying seeds to sow in our garden for over a decade… and I know that it has been that long after I sorted through my Diggers Club seed saving box and found a ton of seeds which expired in 2012!

Yep, our seed saving efforts were a mess. In addition to this random collection, we also had two drawers in our hall table jam packeted with both bought and saved seed. It was time to act!

Cue pokemon… stay with me…

It was our son’s pokemon collection that gave me this idea. Neat little pockets in which we could display all our seeds in one spot. As much as I hate to add more plastic to the world, our son couldn’t be convinced to give up any of his existing plastic pockets so a quick trip to Kmart opened up room for saving and collecting 90 different seed types at once.

For a brief moment I had hovered in front of the Kmart display actually pondering if 90 pockets would be enough… never let it be said that I’m not ambitious!

A few old pieces of cardboard cut to size gave the perfect little removable labels to pop into each pocket. I liked this idea over sticky labels on the actual pockets as I wasn’t quite sure how I’ll end up organising my seeds… do I sort into planting months, alphabetically or maybe split summer or winter planting? I like that the cards give me the flexibility to work out a system that works for me without committing to any particular order just now.

A few years ago, I’d attempted to organise my seeds by using some tiny snap lock bags. Those little pouches were the perfect size to replace the inner packets of seeds that come with store-bought seed packs, which tended to leak seeds all through my storage box.

That system failed because I couldn’t easily see my seeds without digging through my box. But, the new system would be simple and accessible allowing a quick flip through the folder to find what I needed.

With help from small hands, a funnel allowed us to transfer our (unexpired!) seeds into the individual packets and then write key information on the label card, together with the seed expiry date.

I also found a huge bag of saved spring onions seeds that I hadn’t bothered to sift and separate from the husks.

It actually didn’t take that long but I couldn’t quite separate out all the seeds from the surrounds so I’d love any tips on how to do this better next time 🙂

The end product was even better than I’d imagined. Within minutes of sorting and storing my last seed I was out at the greenhouse sewing again. But that is a story for another blog post!