Seed catalogues are out.
Most of them are online nowadays but Buckerfield’s and Dinter’s in Duncan both carry the real thing for free; the kind you can drool over, dog ear, draw circles and stars on, rip pages out of and sit down with in a cozy room and a cup of tea.
I’m going to pull out my seeds and make a list of them so I can see what I need to buy. I like to order them directly from the company because they usually take the seeds straight from their cold storage area and put them into sealed bags for shipping. The less time seeds are in warm, moist conditions, the better. Seeds kept dry and at 4 C can last three times as long as if they were held in household conditions.
I store mine in sealed glass jars in the pantry that stays plenty cold in winter and gets warmer than I’d like in summer, but life isn’t perfect. Gardening author Steve Solomon suggests storing seeds in a sealed container with a sachet of silica gel that is as heavy as the seeds in the container, although a tissue wrapped around milk powder will do in a pinch. I’ve been using the desiccant packets that come inside vitamin bottles but there aren’t enough of them so I’m putting silica gel on my “to buy” list this year.
When Solomon began gardening he found the perfect storage temperature in the fridge. He couldn’t understand why his wife complained about HIS seeds taking up room in HER fridge. It was only one shelf, he pointed out, but his protestations were in vain. Beaten, he installed a small fridge that he dedicated to seed storage. If I kept the seeds in our fridge David probably wouldn’t notice because he’d figure they were leftovers that were taking up a lot of room, but I’d notice. My fridge is already not big enough but I refuse to increase my power bill by using another fridge just for seeds, so I’ll stay with my imperfect pantry.
As I write out the seed list, I note the variety of seed and how many packets I have, then I sort the list alphabetically because the catalogue I get lists them that way. As I go through the catalogue I’ll see what’s missing and what new varieties I want to try. And I’ll have a lovely cup of tea while doing it.
Please contact mary_lowther@yahoo.ca with questions and suggestions since I need all the help I can get.