Going to seed....

Thoughts at this time inevitably turn to seeds and new beginnings. And also to old packets of seeds and the age old gardening dilemma of what to do with them. Will I try them, will they be viable and will I ever throw away a half full packet?

I suspect from browsing through other garden blogs that I am not the only one that has a lot of seeds squirreled away...

In the past I only admitted to this one box... partly because it's rather a beautiful box bought specially to hold packets of seeds (and labels and anything else I deem fit). But it's too small...way too small on it's own.

There are a few more....


This one contains flower seeds

 And this one contains seeds for the kitchen garden

If I'm asked I would say that I buy most of my seeds from the Organic Gardening Catalogue (10% off if you're a member of HDRA) but on having a browse I was a bit taken aback at how many seeds I have from other sources. Some are free from magazines, some are from friends and fellow bloggers (thank you Karen at An Artists Garden ) and some I save.
But the majority of "other seeds" are picked up at Garden Centres and Nurseries, supermarkets and local shops. A few packets here and there soon fill a box!


So these three boxes here all pop neatly (with space to spare) into this wonderful wooden box that I snaffled from P.  As you can see it once contained family slides and prints which we have now digitalised. There's a never ending and slightly confusing task as everything seemed to have been saved in triplicate!


It could do with a coat paint at some point or perhaps even  a bit decoupage. I've been rather inspired by Bridget and her fireplace over at Arginagardener.

So that is all the seed boxes well nearly... there is a small plastic one at the very back of the fridge containing a few packets of more exotic seeds.

I did come to a decision this year in the light of my seed collecting tendencies that I wouldn't buy any more at the moment. I surely could get through some of these opened packets.( I've got over my dilemma at the beginning of the post). Some of them may be very old....

I only recently threw out the seed packet (empty) of Hyacinth Bean seeds (Dolichas Lablab)  from Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's house and garden in Virginia USA)  which I visited in the mid 90s. I never managed to get them as far as flowering. It was just not warm enough here for this tender annual vine. It grows to twenty feet and produces attractive purplish-green leaves, showy rose-purple flowers and pods, and unusual black and white seeds.

Maybe I'll try them again one day...