Seed companies don't want you to know this one fact!
I'm feeling smug about my seeds.My collection of seeds is all organized. That should last until, oh, about April, if I'm lucky. They'll be all muddy and confused when the time comes. Only right now I can feel smug.I've got all my seeds grouped into baggies, which handily hold seed packs new and partial, and all the other odd sizes of envelopes which accumulate with saved seeds and old seeds. Today is bean planting day? Grab the bean bag, and then I can strew around my different types of bean packets and still have the fun of "ok, here I think I'll put some yellow beans...maybe I'll see if any of these from 2011 germinate over here..." I can't micro plan too much.
Aside: mind blowing new information of 2017! Seeds generally have a shelf life of two years in normal storage conditions, right? Right? NO! Some seeds actually become more likely to germinate the longer you save them!!! You can bet seed companies don't want to hear that.I have to say my experience bears this out. I was tracking germination rates on my old seed packets- and I'm willing to admit that I have seeds that go back to 2003 - say in 2016 I got 1 out of 3 germination on whatever tomato from these old seeds, to compensate, I put in three seeds per cell the next year. BOOM, all of them germinate. For a number of seeds across species (and I'm often trying old seeds because of course I want to use them up), my germination rates increased! They were doing the opposite of what I expected, year after year.More experimentation is in order, but when my friend told me this revolutionary notion (she was reading a French agriculture book), I went "That explains my tomatoes! I thought I was crazy"
I like the ziploc method, because it translates well to grabbing and going to the garden, and can even save the paper seed packs from melting in the dew if they get left out overnight. It's happened.I've definitely outgrown my Lee Valley seed saving binder, which is a good idea with limitations, but taking the tri-zip "pages" out of the binder makes them useful again - they're really handy for all the oddball seeds or small amounts (like, I don't have enough melon seeds to warrant a "melon" baggie).My brain is worn out from doing my garden plan today. It mostly consists of plotting the seed start and transplant dates for all that I want to grow, estimating quantities and therefore square footage, and then mapping which areas will be roots/greens/etc, based on my crop rotation. Then I sort over my seeds and a shopping list is generated (it's a short list).Then all those dates get stretched out onto a calendar, so every few days there are certain seeds to start, or put out, or direct sow (and the quantity of each is indicated). Some days (tomato day) are big days, but the work is distributed quite widely, done right, and the best part is I never think again about what is the right time to plant this or that, because I did all that thinking today. I just look at the schedule and keep marching.It's not like it all turns out according to plan, but planning day is the single most important thing I've done to improve my gardening. Success is many times more likely with a reasonably detailed plan of when stuff needs to be done and where it has to go. There's plenty of latitude for adjustment but the basic schedule is invaluable.Also because you can't learn everything all at once and still get outside, planning day is a chance to fill in some corners of research, as I add things I want to try this year (When do I have to start those? Perennial/annual? Do they reseed themselves/save seeds? What do they like to grow with?), and adjust according to the record of "mistakes" I note every year (Put melons out later! Lemon balm earlier.).This year I intend to give flowers a better shot, and also make window boxes.I know some people just squint at the sun and sniff the breeze and go "time to plant potatoes", but that's not me. In time the scheduling will probably become much more "instinctive", but "instincts" are often habits created by practice, passively or deliberately. Don't get me started on habits.