Sunday, May 9, 2010

The Seed Keeper Kit - A Review


This might come as a surprise, but I'm kind of disorganized when it comes to certain things. While I love to have my cupboards and drawers all neat inside, and when I worked at the front desk in a dental office a few years back, I could find everything at a second's notice, it isn't always that way.

I have a problem with paper clutter.  It could be magazines or newspapers or any other bits of informative ephemera. I can't bear to throw it out unless I've at least skimmed over it for important content. The thing is, I tend to have another problem that compounds the first - finding the time to look at it beyond seeing it get buried under a pile of more of the same.

Because I'm a gardener, I've got a related issue of not knowing quite what to do with seeds I've collected from plants in my garden, or those that I've purchased but haven't used yet.  The truth is, I would never have to buy another seed as long as I live and I'd have enough to plant until I'm seeding daisies over my own grave.

I've got seeds in spice containers, seeds in little bowls, seeds in zip-lock bags, seeds in paper homemade envelopes, and seeds in unopened original packages.  There are even seeds laying in a little pile on the bathroom counter, where they've laid all winter.  I should put those in an envelope and mark them before I forget what they are. (Seed dahlias.)

I need help!

The Seed Keeper Kit to the rescue!  If you're not familiar with this clever box of seed keeping paraphernalia, you are going to want one (or two) of these for your very own.  I fell in love with it from the moment I first saw it at the Chicago Flower & Garden Show in March.



When my package from Carol and Kerrie arrived in the mail a few weeks ago, I was ecstatic.  Inside was a durable plastic container, full of just about anything you'd ever need to keep your seed collection in one place, and organized!

I opened the Sterilite® container, which has a nifty latch-type lid to keep it securely closed, and here's what was inside:

  • A-Z divider cards for filing seed packets in alphabetical order, making them easy to find

  • Glassine envelopes for storing seeds

  • A plastic tray for separating the chaff from the seeds

  • Wooden sticks for use in labeling planted seeds in the garden

  • Permanent marker (fine tip!) to label the ID sticks

  • A pair of garden gloves

  • A French clip for attaching gloves and/or seed packets to your belt or waistband while in the garden

I think they've thought of everything!

The size of the box is just right (11"L x 6⅝"W x 5⅜"H), accommodating small and large seed packets, as well as those you've put into plastic bags.  The A-Z divider cards each have wonderful tips and helpful information, such as the USDA Hardiness Zone Map and how to successfully store your collected seeds.  If I could suggest one improvement, it would be to make the divider cards from a heavier card stock, perhaps even laminating them.

It didn't take me long to gather up all my seeds from their various locations and get them tucked into the proper slot in my Seed Keeper Kit.  No more racking my brain to try to figure out which pile a particular packet of seeds are in.  I now know just where to find them.

Do you know where your seeds are?




Where to Buy 

 Kerrie Rosenthal & Carol Niec, developers of The Seed Keeper Kit


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The product or merchandise being reviewed in this blog post was the sole compensation for testing and reviewing the product. All opinions expressed here are mine, with no suggestions whatsoever by the manufacturer or distributor. If I like it, I'll say so. If I don't, I'll say that, too.

2 comments:

Sue Catmint said...

Interesting and useful receptacle. I admire such thrift but I'm afraid what I can't use or give away, I compost.

Shady Gardener said...

I have the same paper/clutter problems. Haven't you posted about this seed-keeper kit before? It seems very familiar... Great idea. Enjoy!

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