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Getting my seeds organized for gardening

Last fall after I put my garden to bed for the year, I decided to organize my seeds. I have lots of seeds, some I bought and many others that I saved from my own plants. I am always getting confused as to what I have vs. what I need, so I really needed to straighten this mess out! 

Garden seeds separated in separate squares of a dish

Especially since I love to try new varieties each year, and sometimes I will find I already bought the new seeds I wanted...but forgot because everything is a jumbled mess! *sigh*

My usual method had the seed packets in small individual bins. I always separated them into 3 categories: flowers, herbs and edibles. I've always used a 'seed wallet' when I go out into the garden to plant. While this worked when I had a small garden, with my recent expansions...I needed more organization. 

I bought one of those photo boxes from the craft store, which works really well for seed packets. It holds a lot of store bought packets! They sell them at craft stores like Michael's and come in lots of pretty colors and patterns. I do like when my storage looks good, don't you?

I decided to try the photo album idea that was so popular last spring. Now I have 2 types of organization going on and I think it's going to work better than ever!
Related reading: How to read and understand a seed packet.

Organizing seeds

Let's start with my daily 'seed wallet' first. Every time I head out to the garden to plant, I take what I call my 'seed wallet'. It's really just a coupon clutch. It works great to hold the seed packets that I'm planning on using that day. It has a zipper so I don't have to worry about seed packets falling out when I toss it back in mygardening basket between using different seeds.

Organize garden seeds

I don't like to take the whole container of seed packets out to the garden with me, that's just asking for trouble! My luck I'd spill them all. So this daily seed organizer keeps the packets separated and dry and I can just zip it closed and throw it in my gardening basket. It works great.

Originally I used one of those cheap plastic coupon clutches from a dollar store. My old one finally fell apart after about 6 years, so last year I got a brand new one with a zipper.

That takes care of keeping the seeds straight when I'm actually using them. What about storage though? This is where that photo album idea came in. 

organize seed in mini photo albums

I bought 3 different mini photo albums from the dollar store. (I actually buy a lot of gardening supplies from the dollar tree!) I used 1 album for each of my 3 types of seeds. In one album is all my herbs, another holds my flower seeds and still a third for my vegetable seeds.

All I did was put a different seed packet in each picture sleeve. If I had more than 1 packet, I put them in the same sleeve with the oldest one on top.

Hopefully that will keep me using them in order! This worked for everything but the largest seeds. Peas, beans and corn ended up staying in their original bin. They were just too wide for the albums! However, the albums actually fit into the photo storage box!

Organized seeds by category in small albums put in photo box.

This weekend I pulled everything out to get some flowering plants started early. I was happy to see that everything was still organized unlike those bins that would sometimes get knocked over. I easily found my lavender, chamomile and basil so I could start the seeds. 

Normally I don't start seeds quite this early, but these are my favorites and I keep them in the house as long as possible. I can't wait for them to start growing!

~L

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13 comments:

  1. What a nifty idea! We just bought a house with loads of land, and I can't wait to get started on our fruits and vegetable garden! Thanks for the organisational tip - definitely something I'll be doing :)

    Pinned!

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    1. Oh my goodness..how exciting! We bought this place almost 6 years ago and I still remember standing in the huge yard, looking at a tiny garden and thinking "this is gonna be huge when I'm done with it!" lol You're gonna have so much fun!

      Good luck to you and thanks for stopping by!
      ~Lisa

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  2. This is a great method for sorting seeds! Thanks so much for linking up to Awesome Life Friday! We'll be pinning this - we're looking forward to seeing what you have to share this week!

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    1. Thanks so much! I'll stop by and see you this week too!

      ~L

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  3. Those are great ideas! I unfortunately do not have much of a green thumb. Tried a garden one year and got some stuff. I was so proud of that first radish! LOL All of my friends here have small gardens that did pretty well last year. I was thinking about doing a garden this year, but will probably be going to visit my family for in FL for 3 weeks and doubt that my hubby will want to be burdened with another one of "my gardens". And you're right! We are pretty close. Boy did we get blasted with more snow yesterday!

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    1. The first radish is exciting! I get that way about tomatoes every year. I just love them fresh!

      The snow and cold has been unbearable! I'm dreaming of summer......I bet you can't wait to get to Florida!

      ~L

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  4. Such a great idea for anyone with a lot of seeds left over or if you get a bunch to plant! I'll be sharing your post this week and pinning to my boards. Thanks for sharing @DearCreatives and hope to see you again this week! Theresa

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    1. Thanks so much for the share! I'll stop by and link up again this week!

      ~L

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  5. What great ideas for seed organization and storage! Please come share your blog posts over at the Home Matters Linky Party! We'd love to have you for a visit. The Door is OPEN. http://lifewithlorelai.com/2015/02/05/home-matters-linky-party-23/ :)

    ~Lorelai
    Life With Lorelai

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    1. Thanks so much!
      I'll stop by to link up again this week!

      ~L

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  6. I just picked up an old record box at a thrift for $1. I thought it would work nicely to hold my envelopes of seeds. Can't wait to start gardening! Thanks for sharing with SYC.
    hugs,
    Jann

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    1. Great idea Jan! I use an old "Bare Minerals" box to keep all of them in. Some of those cardboard boxes are really sturdy!

      Thanks for stopping by. See you again at SYC this week!'

      ~L

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  7. This is such a great idea. We have heaps of seeds too and they are in a big bucket (with lid). I might give his a try as we never really know what and how much we have. Thank you for sharing this at Good Morning Mondays. Blessings

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