Help requiring organising seeds, please.

[veggiechicken]

Thanks Endymion. What if only half of the packet has been sown? Does it go to the back or the front? I take mine out, put them in another box labelled "opened" and then forget all about them and open another packet or, even, would you believe it, buy another packet!
I think you are very organised if you have a chart with so much information on it. It sounds far more organised than those index card thingys. Is this the first year you've tried it?

[endymion]

Thanks Endymion. What if only half of the packet has been sown? Does it go to the back or the front?

It goes to the back. The seed trays/pots are labelled so if there are any gaps we know where to look for the seeds to re-sow, otherwise they'd get mixed up.

I think you are very organised if you have a chart with so much information on it. It sounds far more organised than those index card thingys. Is this the first year you've tried it?

I don't think I've ever been called 'organised' before! It's an illusion, I promise!

This is the first year, for ages, that we've had a 'dedicated' veg patch, we've always grown a few bits and pieces in amongst the flowers - more for fun and an unusual taste than to do with subsistence. This year's different because money's a bit tighter, and we felt we could do without some of the lawn.

We've grown more less-usual stuff mainly because that's what's expensive and adds interest to the dinner table. Potatoes and orange carrots are, for example, cheap to buy where we live and because of blight we can't grow either potatoes or tomatoes without rather a lot of effort.

It's only a Word-type chart, nothing fancy - just an alphabetical list of all the seeds we'd got (name/variety) and a column for each event - date planted, date germinated etc.. It was my idea, I'm a list maker - I find it's the easiest way to plan or remember things I'd easily forget, or 'misremember'. It was also something to do!

It worked for us because it seemed, sometimes, easier to check the list and spot gaps than to check either the seed box or our rather crowded cold frame and cheap plastic growhouse.

Last March is already a long time ago, and the gaps on the ground were filled with something else so as to make the best of the space - and could we be sure what type of carrot didn't grow without having written it down somewhere?

But, without even referring to the list, I know we won't bother with Basil again, because it refused to grow, and are unlikely to bother with Rainbow Chard either, because we never got round to eating it, and what did grow was an excellent home for leaf miner!

[horticultural_hobbit]

Seeds are in a tin seedbox in Dad's shed. Are organised by what they are. So all the chillies are together, aubergines, lettuces, legumes etc. And the flower seeds are together bunked up with the herbs. There are also brown paper envelopes in there, for saved seeds or other acquisitions. And labels, plastic and wooden. The dividers that came with the box are flimsy and just sink down. And with trying to start things in January such as chillies, I'm not a hard and fast fan of rigid timings.

I have also, when feeling pedantic, photocopied the seed packet and stuck it into the log book.

[veggiechicken]

Thanks again Endymion. I like the idea of a list as I am also a bit of a list maker, but I'm not very good at keeping them up to date! I'm also not very good at labelling pots and rows of seeds, so draw plans, then lose them. In fact, I am totally disorganised but most of the time I disguise it well!
I'm with you on the basil - I've never been able to grow it successfully. I have loads of basil seeds too as they seem to be given away free with lots of magazines. I wonder why?

[veggiechicken]

Thank you HH for your contribution. I've been keeping all the same types of seeds together too. The small plastic coin bags that you can get at the bank are good for this as they are seed packet size. I've never photocopied a seed packet (yet) but have cut the picture out of seed catalogues and stuck them on a page of A4 which is then filed in a looseleaf binder, with notes about sowing dates etc. That worked well for a short time too!