Even if you’re not an avid or successful gardener, a seed collection can pile up. Case in point- me! Whether I’m buying them myself or they’re being gifted to me, the pile seems to double on me at least once a year. Now that I’ve quit my job and have a bit more time on my hands, I want to start planting and actually using the seeds I’ve been hoarding.
But if you know a little about gardening, you know that every plant has an optimal planting time frame during the year. So a good chunk of my seeds aren’t meant to be planted right now and it’d just be a waste to do any planting work on them.
My seeds have been sitting on my kitchen countertop for a while now while I try to figure out what to do with them. I wanted them visible so I could actively try to come up with a solution. I didn’t want to spend much, if any, money on a solution because I’m working on making over our front yard and am still finishing up the dining room right now (and technically the bathroom, but there’s no more expenses for that, I just need to finish installing everything).
And then an idea sparked!
My Free Seed Sorting System
I used to get a lot of junk mail before I figured out how to stop receiving a lot of things. I always felt bad about the waste though and kept the return envelopes that came with a lot of things. I’ve got a pretty massive mile of them that are also waiting for their purpose.
So I grabbed 12 of those old envelopes, labelled them with each of the months, and sorted the seeds based on what the package recommended for my zone.
I now have a small section in a cabinet of my kitchen with each month’s envelopes. At the start of each month I’ll just pull out the corresponding envelope and pick which seeds I want to plant and execute that over the course of that month.
Recycling is an awesome system and I love finding creative ways of doing it in my own home. I know this idea is probably way elementary compared to some more extensive systems you’ll likely find. But given I didn’t spend a single dime, I thought this idea could help someone else out, too!
So remember, save those return envelopes from your junk mail, you never know when they’ll come in handy for seed sorting or something else!
