It's January everyone and just because there's snow on the ground, being a gardener can be a year round hobby. Though everything outside has gone to sleep, there is still plenty to do inside!
One thing gardeners need to do in January is: Seed Inventory.
We need to do this to avoid buying duplicate seed packs, making sure to restock on our old faithfuls and maybe pick a couple of new varieties for the year to come. Laying everything out on paper gives us an overview of what could be in the spring.
Seed Inventory Sheet
Having a birds eye view of your inventory might give some not only a reality check on how addictive seed buying can really be, I am most certainly guilty of that, but it will help give all an opportunity to plan their spring gardens.
To help get you started, I made up a seed inventory sheet that will allow you to write down each variety of the vegetable you have. Whether you are a beginner with only a couple of seeds or a seed addict and experienced gardener I have multiple sheets for you to try.
Beginner Gardener
Put your seeds in whatever order you desire. Try to make sure you write down the date when you got them, older seeds might not germinate as well. Knowing when you bought them, could save some heartache and assure you have enough seeds for your spring plans!
Seed Addicts and Intermediate/Advanced Gardeners
One method of classifying vegetables is to define them by the part of the plant we eat, whether it is the Roots, Stems and Shoots, Tubers, Bulbs, Leaves, Fruits, Flowers or Seeds.
Sometimes it's obvious: Beets, Carrots, Parsnips are all Root Vegetables.
Sometimes it's not: Florence fennel, Celeriac, and Kohlrabi may look like root vegetables but are actually swollen stems.
Such classification can present your seed inventory in an orderly fashion and help eliminate repetition of the same vegetable (cause we know that can certainly happen, easily).
Most importantly, from the consumer and post-harvest handling point of view, it can help you LEARN and IDENTIFY what kind of vegetables you are going to be growing and eating. Most often, they are harvested the same, stored the same, prepared the same, and even cooked the same.
Have you started your seed inventory this year? I'd love to see it! Tag #jobinkitchengarden on Instagram.
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