Getting Your Garden in Order

When we stumbled upon photos of Stacie Abdallah's, gorgeous backyard, we had major garden envy. Her entire set up, complete with a greenhouse for cultivating and growing her own plants from seed, is an absolute dream! She's sharing all the details with us on how she keeps her seeds organized, so locating them is a breeze, no matter the season. 

When I first started gardening I only used plant starts or seedlings. I would simply go to the garden center and load up my cart. After a while, I determine it would be both cool and cost-effective to actually purchase seed packs and grow my plants from seed instead. I usually find one pack of seeds for a couple of dollars and it has hundreds of seeds! So for the cost of one plant, I can have 100 plants if I grow it from seed myself. Once I did that math, it was a no-brainer to me that I needed to grow from seed. Growing from seed also allows me to try a variety of fruits, vegetables, and flowers that I would not typically have access to. I got so excited when I started ordering and because they were so inexpensive I kind of went overboard. All of my organized and especially minimalist people understand how I was potentially setting myself up for chaos. 

My seed packets came in the mail and I must admit that I was initially a bit overwhelmed by the number I purchased. I seriously could not even remember ordering half of the varieties that I ordered. As I flipped through the packets, I got even more excited about planting and watching these plants grow but I didn't have a clear cut plan for how to organize the packets. What I learned fairly quickly was how important it is to properly store your seed packets to maintain freshness and to keep those germination rates high. So, I was on the hunt for two things, a container to store them in and space in my refrigerator! With a house full of boys, that last one is no easy feat! 

I found that this photo storage box and the accompanying smaller boxes were perfect for the seed packets. Due to the amount of seed packets I have, I had to figure out a logical way to group the seed packets for storage. There are so many ways that this can be done. You can group based on seasons, cold-weather vs. warm- weather, or based on plant type, etc. I chose to do a little of both. I gathered them based on plant type, which in most cases goes hand in hand with the season in which they are planted and harvested. For instance, I placed cauliflower and broccoli in the same group and kale, spinach, and collard greens in the same group. 

Once I had all of my groups, I ran and got my label maker! I absolutely love my label maker! I quickly labeled all of the smaller boxes by plant type. Of course, I had to then place them in the larger box by plant type and in alphabetical order! I just love the way that this turned out and how organized everything is. I seriously feel so much better being able to see and easily find all of my seeds!