How to Organize Your Garden Seeds and Choose What To Grow in Your Vegetable Garden

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We’ve been tucked away and hibernating for what feels like forever now, but all signs point to an end to winter and a new beginning in the form of spring. Spring historically symbolizes rebirth, renewal, a reset button on the weather and by extension our moods and habits. And while tending your vegetable garden may still feel a long way off depending on where you live, now is the best time to start planning a garden bed.

The seed catalogs have been arriving in droves, and I’ve found myself more than once justifying adding another to my collection. For the months of January through April, I treat seed catalogs with the same care as a beloved book, kept in a tidy stack and savoring each page daily as I plan and dream what we will grow this year. Why are seed catalogs so important to me? The truth you may not know if you haven’t had one delivered to your home before is that these catalogs are so much more than places to see and buy seeds - they can serve as a garden planning guide too.

How to use a seed catalog

A seed catalog can seem overwhelming at first. They are packed full of information and item listings, plant descriptions and charts. It’s a good idea to go into your seed catalog reading with an open mind - skim through and see what you are drawn to, while keeping in mind the foods you already know you enjoy eating. Pull out a pen and circle your favorites or write notes in the margins/on a blank piece of paper. This piece takes me less time each year as I have grown as a gardener, but the earlier in your vegetable garden adventure you are, the longer it will take. Give yourself at least a week of casual exploration before moving onto the next stage.

Where to buy garden seeds

It can be trickier than you’d think to identify reputable seed companies. Due to the monopoly created by Monsanto, there are many companies that carry Monsanto owned seeds that may surprise you. This is because Monsanto owns such a large proportion of the world’s food supply seeds (and then “retires” them so no one can access them any more - yes, it’s as bad as it sounds).

In recent years they’ve bought one of the largest garden seed wholesalers in the world, Seminis, which is stocked by companies including Johnny’s and Territorial.

These companies offer a wide variety of high quality seed and their partnership with this Monsanto subsidiary is small and accounts for a tiny fraction of their inventory. But in order to avoid supporting Monsanto when purchasing through these smaller suppliers you’ll want to email them directly to confirm which seeds may originate from a Monsanto subsidiary so you can avoid them.

three seed packets for melons on a wood table

Tap here to shop My favorite seed company, which has consistently offered the best variety of organic and conventional seed with beautiful packaging, high germination rates, and healthy plants.

How to get free seeds:

Want free seeds? I occasionally give away excess seed from my own garden to newsletter subscribers. Click here to sign up to be the first to know when seeds are available.

Per AltNPS: “Pollinators such as bees and butterflies, play a crucial role in maintaining and improving our ecosystems. They help to grow the plants that we eat every single day, are vital parts of the natural food-chain, and serve as ecosystem barometers due to their sensitivity to climate change.

In the past 5 years, bees and butterflies have declined remarkably. Saving these creatures is imperative to humankind since approximately 75% of the fruits, vegetables, and nuts we eat are courtesy of pollinators. Bees and butterflies also beautify our planet; their important role in plant reproduction perpetuates floral growth and provides aesthetically pleasing landscapes for human enjoyment and faunal habitat.”

There are free seed programs online specially designed to help gardener’s plant more pollinator-friendly gardens. Go to https://altnps.org/seed-packs and fill out the form to have free Milkweed or Black-Eyed Susan seeds sent to your door!

How to choose what to grow: Planning a vegetable garden

At this point, you should have a few plants in mind that you notice you are most excited about growing yourself. Make a list with those plants at the top, then add on to the list by including whatever fruits and vegetables your family eats most. Last, add any plants you’d really like to just experiment with and see what happens.

Next, head to Google and find your growing zone by searching “Grow zone + your zip code”. Write down your zone - this determines your average climate, temperature, and weather pattern. For example, we are in zone 6B in Massachusetts, which means we have short, moderately hot summers and long, deeply cold winters. Not a great climate to try and grow slow to ripen tropical fruits or even peppers in, since both of those categories of plants demand intense heat and long seasons. As much as I might *want* to grow papaya, I know it’s just not going to happen in my grow zone. However, if you live in Florida your papaya plant would thrive.

Using the charts within the catalog or Google again to cross check your list and eliminate any that can’t thrive in your growing zone. If you’re noticing any gaps or your list doesn’t seem long enough, consider adding some beneficial flowering plants to support pollinators in your garden. There are many good reasons to support pollinators in your garden - they are responsible for helping your fruiting plants to grow and thrive.

When should you order seeds for your vegetable garden?

Seeds have an exceptionally long shelf life - most varieties will survive in dormancy for 1-5 years. So it is never too early to start ordering seeds for your vegetable garden. Some gardeners on a budget even take advantage of end of season and holiday sales to stock up on their seeds for next season as early as November of the year before. Of course, the best seeds are free, saved from your best plants grown the year before. There is nothing more rewarding than following the family tree of your garden vegetables and continuing their legacy through seed selection and saving.

Organizing seeds

When you’re thinking about how to plan a vegetable garden, organization should be at the top of your list. Especially once you start saving seeds, a proper labeling and organization system will be the only way you can possibly keep track of everything. Don’t convince yourself that you will just “remember what everything was” next year. Unless it’s a very distinct seed like a nasturtium, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to keep all those tiny parcels straight without a system.

There are as many ways to label and contain seeds as there are gardeners in the world, but here are a few of my favorites, after years of experimenting:

Storing seeds

If you’re planning to create a seed bank where you store your seeds indefinitely for 10+ years, the best thing you can do is store seeds in airtight glass containers in a cool, dry, dark place. However, most seeds in regular rotation will store just fine for up to three years in their paper packets as long as the area of your home where you store them isn’t exceptionally hot or humid. Many gardeners collect TicTac containers to hold their vegetable seeds as they are small and easy to store and label. In the past, I used a plastic photo organizer in combination with paper seed envelopes. While this method allows me to categorize by type (greens in one plastic container, beans in another) and variety (separate envelopes within the ‘greens’ plastic container for lettuce, spinach, kale and chard) while keeping the seeds well protected from external forces that could shorten their lifespan, after a few years I found it frustrating - seeds would fall out all the time, I hated having the dig through each container to find the one I wanted, and packets inevitably ended up just sitting on top of the box waiting to be put away. It was also bulky and heavy to carry out to the garden with me on big planting days and I dropped it more than once.

My favorite method for organizing seeds is the binder method. All you need is a 3 ring binder and these photo sleeve inserts. It’s kind of like how you might have stored your Pokemon or baseball cards as a kid - you can see everything at once, and it’s easy to put away any seed packet you just used. However, this method only works for standard size seed packets - corn and beans won’t fit. And, if you save seeds from your own garden, you’d need to also make your own paper seed packets to contain them first.

In addition to this binder method for my store bought seeds, I also have a mini “seed bank” going. This is a wooden box that custom fits tiny glass bottles in which I store seeds saved from my own garden. There are limitations with this as well when it comes to larger seeds, but overall it’s beautiful and functional for small quantities.

Labeling seeds

This can be as simple or complex as you would like. A sharpie pen on the outside or lid of your chosen container will work just fine. Or get an old school label maker and punch out your labels with that. There are even custom printable labels available on etsy if aesthetics are important to you. The only thing that matters is choosing a system you will actually follow through on and use - because labeling your seeds is vital to an organized system.

What to grow in Your Vegetable garden:

Are you still wondering what to grow in your garden this year? Here’s my list of nearly everything I’m starting from seed for my garden this year. You can tap individual seed packets to shop: