December is the time of year I do my annual Seed Stocktake. I am very methodical about this. I get a piece of A4 paper, draw a line down the middle and head the left-hand column “Seeds in Stock” and the right hand one “Seeds Needed.” Very technical! I know Terry Walton, he of Garden News and Radio 2 fame, and some of my allotment friends sort their seeds in order of sowing time but I don’t. The way I keep my packets of seed is by category. I have large freezer bags labelled brassicas, salads, roots and so on. I always keep all the empty packets of last year’s seeds, so that I know which varieties I grew. Then I go through each bag cataloguing what is in stock and what I need for the coming year.
Until last year I was a seed hoarder. Subscribing as I do to two gardening magazines, I am forever receiving free packets of vegetable and flower seeds. Mostly these are neither use nor ornament, as they are invariably things I have never heard of or would ever wish to grow. The seed companies obviously give them away because they have no commercial value BUT I used to keep them anyway. Then last year my ruthless streak kicked in and I binned everything that in my heart of hearts I knew I would never sow and everything that had a “sow by” date that had expired by more than one year. The space that exercise created!
Stocktaking time is here and I shall again be methodical and ruthless.
