This week in the garden - Organizing my seed packets.

OK, I will admit my seed buying may just maybe, kinda a sort of, slightly verging into being a problem.

This doesn’t include my own seed saving.

This is only a fraction of what I have.

I have jars of saved seeds. Milkweed, iris, cilantro, arugula, lettuce…

Where do I even begin?

I start with the dates on the back of the packs. On the back, usually at the bottom, the package will tell you what year the seed was packed for. The year listed is when the seed is best and has the highest germination rate. The germination rate is how many seeds germinate/sprout. There is never a guarantee of a 100% germination rate. The high 90s or even the 80s is great.

However, that doesn’t mean that seed packaged for 2020, 2019 or even 2016 is ‘bad’. What it means is the germination rate may have dropped. Some seeds can last for years - there were palm tree seeds in an Egyptian tomb that sprouted and were over 2000 years old. And then there’s lettuce seeds that will last one year.

How to test if your old seeds are worth planting? Take ten seeds, a damp paper towel and a ziplock bag. Place the seeds on the towel and place in the ziploc bag. Leave it somewhere that is room temp. If five out of the ten sprout, then your seeds are viable enough. You would plant more seeds than normal to make up for the dropped viability.

Next, I am sorting them into when to plant groups.

The ones that can be started indoors and mark my calendar when. The back of the packet will tell you this as well.

Next come the ones that can be direct sowed in early spring - peas, some lettuces and some cabbage family. Again, the back of the seed packet will tell you when to plant. There’s a bit more to this - how wet the ground is and what the temperature trend is.

Next group are the ones that can be started after the last frost, followed by any summer sowing. And after that, come the group that can be reseeded for a second sowing in late summer.

After I have done all of this, I put them in order and then check what supplies I need for seed starting and order seeds I’m missing.

Next week - I start planning the layout of my garden now that I know what I have.