How do your organise your seed packets?

[veggiechicken]

I have far too many seeds to be organised by sowing date etc.
I keep all seeds of a type together in a plastic bag - eg. all lettuces (summer sown) are in one bag, winter ones are in another bag. When its time to sow lettuce, I find the bag and have a rummage.

[Alison]

I have mine in various tins as they've overflowed the original storage container. One is for direct sowing, one is general seeds, one legumes and another one for green manures. They're not organised in the tins with the exception of a zip bag of lettuce seed packets in the general tin. The organisation comes on a spreadsheet which lists all my seeds and the dates at which they should be sown. I like rummaging through the tins, gets me excited about what's to come.


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[NicolaD]

Taking notes.
I have a new collection of seeds and just placed an order on ebay for another 16 packets, meaning I will need to think about putting them in some kind of order. As a newbie I need to keep track of when to sow etc so will probably be more important to be organised whilst I'm still learning.

[Kristen]

Just checked my spreadsheet and I have over 80 varieties (inducing Garlic and Potato varieties) of Vegetables ... and 300 packets of Ornamentals ... hence the need for a spreadsheet

Some are just experiments though, for example I normally grow Board Bean Aquadulce, but the seedlings looked rubbish this year for some reason, so I re-sowed some Spring varieties and bought two packets (stood in the shop: "I wonder which of these would be better?" ) and then WHEN I go home <sigh!> I Googled "Best Tasting Broad Beans" and found that the two I had picked were good choices, but there was a third that was the clear favourite ... so I went back to the shop ... and that makes 4 varieties of Broad Bean I am growing this year. There WILL be (hopefully!) a clear favourite in the household, and thus I will just grow that in future years.

[MarkHackwell]

I have put all mine that I have from last year in my blog but I found another lot (all out of date) the other day in a zip bag so have to add them now, wouldn't surprise me to have over 100 lots of seed :L I have 3 seed tins and a zip bag now so a bit of a seedaholic

[Tripmeup]

I have all my non bulky ones in one of those fan like box folders (cant remember the name of them)...so alphabetically

[poly]

I keep mine in a box A-Z with dividers for each group eg carrots, leeks etc. Which are again kept A-Z for varieties. If I've loads of of one type of veggie like tomatoes or peas they get their own box which can then be sub divided, like with peas to tall, short, mange tout, Sugar snap.

For some things like cabbages and cauliflower they are subdivided into early mid or late sowing.

For sowing I take out whatever varieties I want to use in the next few weeks and keep them all together, easier to take to the plot and once sown I just slot the packets back into the main box. If I don't get around to sowing something it remains on the top of the pile to remind me.

[Bill HH]

I have a clock on the mantel piece, I stuff the seed packets behind it, just before it falls off said mantlepiece I move them into biscuit tin. This is highly organised because it has the word "seeds" on it.
When I need a particular packet I rummage for it but can never find it so i go and buy a packet. When I go to put it into the tin, the packet i originaly looked for is usualy on the top! I have tried to beat this by pretending to go and and buy the needed seeds then later running in and opening the tin to see if they are there, unfortunately this system is somehow foolproof and just wont be fooled.

[Maddiesaur]

I've just started out so I don't have the hundreds of packets that some do and I didn't have a biscuit tin available either..

So I bought a £1 ball of wool and I've crocheted a wee bag to hold seed labels, small baggies, a pen, some twine and such alike and a separate purse type thing to put all the seeds in. Stops them running around my backpack when I'm up at the allotment

[Kristen]

I have a clock on the mantel piece, I stuff the seed packets behind it, just before it falls off said mantlepiece I move them into biscuit tin. This is highly organised because it has the word "seeds" on it.

Wow! You have a Seed Clock? Like a Burpee Seed Planting Clock you mean?

I rather fancy one of them ...

[veggiechicken]

More like a Dandelion clock............ just one small puff and you can tell the time

[Kristen]

More like a Dandelion clock............ just one small puff and you can tell the time

Hmmm ... I think its "just one small puff and you'll have them all over your garden until the end of time"

[hamamelis]

In a biscuit tin.

Okay two biscuit tins.

Oh, alright, plus a sweet tin the same size as a biscuit tin.

Plus some in bags randomly dotted round the place, because I'm 'going to do something with them soon'

Broadly speaking, one tin contains opened vegetable seed packs, one contains unopened vegetable seed packs, and the last one contains flower and herb seeds, which may sort of count as organised.

I am trying to cut down, and now I can actually close all three tins with minimal effort!

[Linzy]

I have a wooden try with two halves the back is for veg the front for flowers. Then in january i go through everything decide what i want to sow this year and write them down in my note book under each month to sow in. Then after ive sown one batch of seeds the next months ones im going to sow i tie with a rubber band to my notebook so i dont forget to sow anything.

[Kristen]

Two shoe boxes for seeds A-M and N-Z, and one for empty packets in case I want to refer back to them, and the small one at the front for seeds sown this year ...

Spreadsheet: