Seed Keeper Company www.seedkeepercompany.com is coming
to the Garden Club meeting in March – check out the Garden Club website for
more details. That got me thinking about
my collection of seeds which is not organized at all. I do keep them in a cool dark place (bottom drawer
of a filing cabinet and in a recycled plastic cat litter container.) But, as you can see, they are in envelopes,
tins, plastic bags, seed packets, my own handmade seed packets, and my favorite
-- paper bags. Lots of paper bags, most
with a single scrolled half name of the original plant on them. And I would not
call them organized.
Many of these seeds are three years old or more and I felt
it was time to either use them or give them away. We are having a mini seed swap at the March
Garden Club Meeting where members and guests can bring seed to share or just
pick up seed. I am going to provide
paper bags and coin envelopes and people can pick up a few seeds and then at
the meeting learn about the history of seeds and some seed starting and
preserving tips from Carol and Kerrie of Seed Keeper Company. They will also have Seed Keepers and other
garden accessories available for purchase, so you can get organized too. They have a soil thermometer that I
absolutely covet!
How did I organize my seeds?
Gather
First I took them all out of the drawer and the plastic
storage container and spread them on the table.
I placed those I thought were quite old to the far left so I could check
the germination.
Sort
The rest I sorted loosely into vegetables, herbs and
flowers. And then subdivided into
species as needed. At this point I check seed for germination. I placed 10 seeds on a damp piece of paper
towel, folded it over onto the seed and placed them in a warm area (on top of
my refrigerator and in my upstairs bathroom) and waited to see of they would
germinate. I get a loose percentage of
germination rate by how many of the 10 seeds actually germinate and can give
people a loose idea of how well the seed will do for them. Since all seeds have different lengths of
time they can be kept before they lose vitality this is an easy home method to
check to see if you save that seed a bit too long.
Research
Then I grabbed a few reference books. If I was going to place these in bags to take
to the meeting I needed to include information about the soil needs, growing
habit and germination periods for the plants so others not as familiar with
them as I am can enjoy them. I chose to
put this information on an Index sized card, rather than writing it on the bag
or container, then I can transfer the seeds to different containers and never
lose the information. Now only a name
needs to go on the bag, box or envelope.
I used the Park’s Success with Herbs by Gertrude Foster as my main
source for info. Nobody knew seeds like
Park’s back in the day!
If you want a copy of that seed info card - download this PDF!
For the Swap I decided I would put a large amount into
envelopes or bags and people could just pick up one small package with 10 to 20
seeds in try out at home. For those with
a larger garden I also kept some seed that I had in larger amounts, in paper
bags. Then they can scoop out some seed
to grow.
Share
These are the finished collections of seed. I have kept a manageable amount for myself to
plant both indoors and outside (back into the drawer they go.) And have two containers
of seed to go to the Garden Club meeting.
These are well labeled and can be used by visitors to the March Garden
Club meeting to enhance their own gardens or start a new one.
If you live anywhere near Villa Park, Illinois (that is a
direct west suburb of Chicago) then please feel free to stop by, our meetings
are free and open to members of the public, even if you are not a member of the
Garden Club of Villa Park. The March
Meeting will be held Tuesday March 27, 2018 7:00 PM for the seed swap, 7:30 PM
for the informational meeting featuring Seed Starting at 320 E Wildwood Ave Villa Park, IL (Lion’s Recreation Center.)
I would not say my seeds are organized yet, but at least they are in manageable groupings. I will get a Seed Keeper at the Garden Club Meeting and then I can file them with the information on my seed cards! Wow aren't I organized!
No comments:
Post a Comment