Solstice Seed Inventory
It's time!
The winter solstice is a good day to start planning for the next year’s garden. I got some seed catalogs a month or so ago, and I looked through them of course, but I can never really figure out what I need to order until I see what I’ve already got. So, I take all the seeds out of the refrigerator, line them up on the kitchen table, and take an inventory. (Since seeds take up about half my refrigerator, I also clean the refrigerator at this point! This may be the only time it gets a good cleaning every year, I confess.)
The refrigerator is the best place to keep seeds. But not just in their paper packets, or even in ziploc bags. I put paper seed packets in tightly sealed jars. Larger quantities of seeds go in Ball jars, and I use all sizes from the little jelly jars up to the half-gallon size. Seeds need to stay dry and cool. So when you take the jars out of the refrigerator, let them sit on the table for an hour or two to come to room temperature. If you open them while cold, moisture will condense on the seeds and they won’t be as dry when you store them again.
Here are all the seeds that were in the refrigerator:
The next step was to write down all the varieties I had and what year each was bought or harvested. A lot of these seeds are seeds that I saved myself. Sometimes I don’t keep good records, but this year most of the jars were labeled with the variety and the year I harvested the seeds. Then I decide which to keep and which are probably too old to be worth saving.
Some vegetable types get old pretty quickly. I buy fresh onion seed every year, as onion seed is viable for only one year. I have also found that it’s worthwhile to buy fresh leek seeds every year. I already bought this year’s supply of onion and leek seeds, because I start them in October and November under lights:
Most other kinds of seeds will last a few years in the refrigerator. But I’ve noticed that while old seed might germinate, the plants may look kind of weak. So I threw away a lot of old seed packets today: lettuce from 2021, kale from 2019, kale that just didn’t do very well in my garden, some watermelon seed I saved even though watermelons never do well here, and a big jar of okra seeds because okra doesn’t do well here any more, for reasons I don’t understand. I used to have a hard time throwing away seeds, but I’ve gotten more merciless. Plus, I can really use the extra refrigerator space, for things like, well, food.
If I really can’t stand to throw some seeds away, I mix them in a bowl and throw them out on the ground somewhere. Birds will eat them, or maybe they might sprout next spring. At least I am not responsible for their death if they don’t!
The seed inventory looks like this:
It’s a bit crazy, now that I’m looking at it. Why do I have so many kinds of Southern peas, and kale? Oh right: it’s because I like Southern peas and kale. I also like winter squash, but I only grow one species (cucurbita moschata) because it’s the only one that does well here. Lots of kinds of pole beans do well, so I have a lot of them. I only grow one kind of tomato, Matt’s Wild Cherry, and two kinds of peppers, an Italian type and a sweet habanjero. But for some reason I like to grow a lot of kales and collards, and a lot of different kinds of pole beans and Southern peas.
I think this is ok. My garden is not just about producing a lot of carbohydrates. It’s also an exploration of different vegetable forms, colors, and flavors that is not strictly utilitarian. I go through phases of infatuation with certain vegetables. For a while I was crazy about field corn and had a lot of different kinds. But now I rarely grow it, and if I do, it’s Kentucky Rainbow, a dent field corn, or else popcorn.
While I was going through the seeds, I noted with an asterisk the ones that I know I need to buy more of for 2025 because they did well last year and there aren’t many left. It’s important that I prioritize what I really need to buy, because it’s easy to go crazy with things I want to buy in a seed catalog! Everything looks tasty, beautiful, and interesting in those catalogs. It’s like a toy catalog for grownups. I could easily spend way too much money and end up with a lot of seeds that I don’t even have room to plant. So the inventory is a way to sober up and be realistic before ordering for 2025.
I always get one or two fun things that I don’t really need. In 2024, it was peanuts. It did turn out to be an interesting crop. Some kids in the neighborhood really enjoyed picking the peanuts off the roots and roasting them. And they were delicious. But the peanut crop was pretty small, given the amount of space the plants took up in the garden. I’ll probably leave peanut growing to the farmers with big fields and tractors this time. So now I can pick a new fun experiment for 2025. To be continued.