Inundated with seed catalogs…what to do?

I got a little nervous yesterday. Several seed catalogs have arrived at our house and I was worried that we needed to get our act together and figure out what we need to order. Thank goodness for this blog! According to our entries, we put in our seed order in early March last year, so we have (hopefully) plenty of time to determine our seed needs. Over the weekend, we calculated what we have left from last season and have been trying to learn the best way to store seeds for future germination. In the past, we have kept seed packets in a sealed container in the fridge with a desiccate packet to absorb moisture. So far, they have just been sitting in a box in the basement. Nothing special….I’m hoping they are fine and have read that seeds can stay viable for about 5 years, depending on the type of seed.

The other issue is our gross miscalculation of seeds needed last season. What a nightmare it is trying to figure out the number of seeds needed! Spreadsheets and calculators and scribbled math in notepads and then we just throw our hands up and order a few ounces or pounds of each….Not the most scientific, but if the seeds do indeed keep, then what difference does it really make if we are off. Better to have enough seeds than be stuck in the tail end of the season with no arugula! Okay, I will try to share more details of how we figure this out in the coming weeks. In the meantime, enjoy drooling over the colorful pics in the seed catalogs!