Seedy business
‘Sense and sensibility’ tend to fly out of the window whenever gardeners come face to face with those impossible to resist, so temptingly displayed, colourful packets of seeds and, totally irrespective of the amount and variety of seeds waiting to be sown at home, we inevitably end up buying even more and then wonder, in genuine puzzlement, where on earth are we going to grow them.
Accumulating — no, let’s be brutally realistic and admit to hoarding — seeds is, unless it is done with the sincere objective of establishing a ‘seed bank’, part and parcel of a gardener’s psyche. I personally know of gardeners who, for various reasons, no longer have an actual garden but reside in minuscule apartments yet still have their seed hoard intact, continually adding to it because ‘you just never know’ and yes, they are quite right.
The thing about seeds though, is that unless you have access to a purpose-built, temperature and humidity controlled, bunker in which the highly individual storage requirements of individual seed varieties can be met and maintained, seeds both can — and do — expire.
Don’t hoard on or overstock your seeds as they do tend to expire, if not stored properly
It is much better, therefore, to sow away to your heart’s content, utilising every single millimetre of ground space, roof space, balcony / veranda space, pot / container and whatever else is capable of holding soil until your seed stock is — aside from just a few for ‘emergencies’ — well and truly full. When it is full, and you still have seeds to spare then you seriously need to think: will excess seeds, in meticulously sealed containers stored in the salad drawer of the fridge, still be viable when their next sowing season comes around? Can you spare the fridge space? What happens to them when the electricity vanishes for hours — maybe days — on end? Can you simply store them, in airtight packets / jars, in a cupboard / drawer or will the intense summer heat kill them? Can you bear to give them away to friends and neighbours or to barter them for different kinds of seeds ... but that leads back to the storage problem!
Some seed companies purposefully, and for their financial gain, put far more seeds in a packet than a person with an average-sized garden can possibly sow in one season, unless they are happy to grow nothing but cabbages, for example. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with cabbage, eating it for breakfast, lunch and dinner, day in, day out for months on end is pushing the culinary limits, plus, the soil / environment will not thank you for mono-cropping either.
With the price of seeds, especially seeds of something out of the ordinary, showing an ever upward trend, it just may be time to re-think seed buying habits by a) Making a check list of possibly viable seed varieties in your hoard and keeping this list with you at all times, especially if you are going anywhere near a seed store, so that you don’t buy something you already have. b) Make a seed sharing deal with a friend, splitting packets and cost 50/50. c) Organise a ‘seed swap’, maybe with the help of your local horticultural club, where all comers can swap their excess seeds for other seeds, no money involved. d) Save your home-grown, home-produced seeds — from heritage varieties only — so that you never have to venture near a seed store again!
And this, of course, is the perfect month to begin your seed saving venture as the vast majority of dazzling winter flower displays will have reached, or be reaching, the seed harvesting stage right now.