somebody's excited lol

HeeHeeHee

Hey, Mikki, congratulations! I am betting you won't be disappointed. I'm a vet (sower, that is), having done this for nine years now, and just moved to a new home June of 2010 in northern AL after 14 years in Gardenweed's area. I have an amazing number of wintersown plants established now already, with plans to do a lot more this year.

As far as organization goes: I used to keep a spreadsheet with name, botanical name, container # (I still # my containers - I have a lot, and it helps me to cross-check easily), date sown, date germinated, date transplanted, source (gathered, trade or commercial), year packed/gathered, whether or not there were seeds left over, height and color information. It got to be too much for me, so now I just keep a notebook I hand write in: date sown, container #, botanical or common name, source & year, seeds left?, germination date?, transplant date. Much easier for me.

Organizing seeds, and I have a LOT (thousands): I separate into 3 large categories - commercial, trade, gathered. Gathered, which is the smallest, gets separated by year gathered, then alphabetized. The other two, which have tons of seeds, get separated into type (annual, perennial, vegetable, herb) and year. Trade seeds then go into the emptied small boxes that held the coin envelopes I use to pack my own trades, marked with year and type. Commercial seeds get alphabetized and held together with a rubber band. The whole shebang gets stored in two rather large plastic containers (potentially 3 this coming year....)to stay cool & dry. For the most part, this insures that I can find a particular variety from my 60-something page "Seeds I Have" list easily. I recommend having less seeds, but I am a full-fledged member of SA (Seedaholics Anonymous).

Most important is to have fun - you will develop your own style, more or less different from everyone else's, as you go.

Nope, not dancing nekkid on Solstice - don't much like the cold! :)

Who else would get excited about a truckload of horse sh*t?

Love it!

So do you think expandable coupon holders is a bit much?
Would it be best to sort them based on the people who sent them and which ones I am most interested in planting?

You and Gardenweed seem to have the same strategy on organization, so I think I need to keep it simpler.

I absolutely gets nuts about a truck load of mushroom mulch, would take off work early to get it hauled about,

MIcki,
I'm just now looking for a new seed organization strategy. I've had them in various category bags, such as "natives", "tall", "vines", "annuals", "veggies", "butterfly hosts". I'm thinking I might get some of the card collector pages, those that have clear slots for baseball cards, etc. Or maybe just a 3x5 inch flash-card box like many use for recipes. I could put the seeds between the labelled cards. I'd love something that had some sort of clip to hold the little bags. Maybe I'll do a search of this site. I haven't done that in a while.

Martha

Who else would get excited about a truckload of horse sh*t?

...or having eight 55-quart bags of MG potting mix in the garage along with a 3.2 cu. ft. bale of Fafard professional growers mix?

...or being more giddy about Dec. 22 than Dec. 25?

...or the dozens and dozens of new seed types waiting to be WS?

Hi Everyone,
to Docmom, I started out with coupon solders - small epandable files, and bought 2 sets of tiny little drawers 3 layers deep, clear plastic construction. I nearly blew 20 bucks. this didn't seem right in lue of the fact that we are recycling most everything else. So I bought envelopes for a dollar at Dollar General and have plenty room for seeds. I have about 5 boxes, I already had one. But you can even tell your friends to save those for you. And you can use index cards for deviders. I actually used a postoffice box, taped it shut so it was now a square (in general). Then I cut it in half, or you could make a lid and not cut the halves equally. The envelope boxes fit perfectly in there.

I had everything Alphabetized by the Botanical name but am changing my mind and alph. in the common Name. I will hopefully be selling some of my plants and intend to make a corresponding bulletin board.

I also have a Spreadsheet which is quite detailed and I put down who gave me the seeds and see how well they germed.

Transplant date is important too? Yes I can seed that? Incase they went into shock, or if they did well you could repeat it next yr.
Micki

Awww. So sweet, and thank you so much. Thank you everyone.

I'm looking forward to Solstice Sow this season, hoping it will pull me up and get me back on track. My son married a wonderful lady this fall and then promptly moved to the other side of the country ;-O I've been on an emotional roller-coaster ride but lately I'm a bit more steady and feeling a lot better. Solstice Sowing, I think, will help a lot to reground me to all that is wonderful and right in the world.

I'm not sure if I'll be prancing around butt nekkid outside as it's been drizzling icy rain--Solstice is at 5:30 UTC--but, I do have up my winter drapes and nobody can see through them, lol, so maybe something scanty will do, too bad I don't have camouflage undies.

I'm trying the puzzles, I made these so many years back, and you know what, I've forgotten many of the answers. I need a refresher course in Winter Sowing.

...or being more giddy about Dec. 22 than Dec. 25?...or the dozens and dozens of new seed types waiting to be WS?

These are so true Gardenweed,LOL

Hi Trudi hope you've gotten your grove on and have started dancin' too. When my daughter got married and moved all over the country I really felt the empty nest syndrome, I can feel your pain girl. Your quizzes are amazingly made.

Docmom, let me know how you're coming with a seed organizer. but for now whats working for me are the small envelope boxes cut in half horizontally. I mean cut the tops off, then reinforce with duct tape, (we have that handly right?) Ha.

Let me know you all if there is a special forum to applaud all these people that have helped me, like a REVIEW board. Then do you start a new post or look up the person's name and add onto that? I looked up Gardenweed and saw a lot of posting with her name in them and landed here, so I made sure I answered everyone that's been here since I started this post. Glad I caught Trudi, clap clap.
And clap, clap clap to all of you Veteran or beginner WSers, the Craziest people around.

Who else would be truckin' jugs out in the garden when it's freezing rain and snow. LOL

Keep having fun.
Micki
up to 153 jugs

What is the spreadsheet?