“Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.”
–Henry David Thoreau
Around this time of year I normally take inventory of my seed collection. Over the years I have tried a number of ways to store my seeds, and for now I have settled on keeping them in their original packets that I store in air-tight plastic boxes. I have them further organized into various groups like brassicas, salad greens, tomatoes and peppers. That makes it easier to find the seeds when it is time for sowing, and also makes it easier to keep track of what’s on hand. Once the seed inventory is done, I will organize what I need for next year and decide what seed suppliers I will order from.
seed storage
seed packets
Recently I ran across an old photo of our cat Puddin, who was ‘helping’ me do seed inventory a few years back. We lost her last year, and I miss her quiet presence in our lives. I can’t imagine the two cats we have now behaving so well with seed packets all over the floor like that!
Puddin helping with seed inventory
As for garden planning, I make notes throughout the year on what is doing well, and things I do or don’t want to plant again. I keep notes those in an online garden log, using Word or Excel software. That makes it easy to go back to a previous year for reference if needed. I also make a garden ‘map’, which is valuable for rotating the crops from year to year as well as documenting location of things in case plant tags get lost. I’ve been doing this a long time, and I ran across an old computer printout from the early 1980s of my garden layout. I pretty much tilled up my whole back yard for that garden, and it is interesting to see what I planted.
garden map from 1980s
This all makes for pleasant work on a cold winter day, and I can begin to get excited for another year of gardening. I have been gardening for over 40 years now, and I can still recall many of the gardens from years past. I hope you have enjoyed this look at what’s going on here in early December!
I’ve been full of cold for the last week, so I’ve been organising, planning and writing all week too. I love the planning process and a good plan makes a huge difference to the amount of food I harvest, much more than any other intervention I’ve ever made, no-dig, fertiliser etc
I still love reading your blog even though I do not have a large garden anymore. Yours is amazing.
We need to sort out the seeds we need for next year. We do a large order for our allotment site that is sent of on January 2.
Yes, it s that time in the year isn’t it? I was surprised when I looked at Puddin’s phot there… so much like our Luna, Just give her little white socks!! Good ness knows how she will behave when those seed boxes come out… badly, I’m thinking, , very badly lol