How old is that seed pack?
Carol at May Dreams Gardens started this with her post:
Saving Seeds: A Seed Management System
Nothing like a big bin to store seed pacs. Or coffee cans, zip lock bags, showboxes and all sorts of odd containers. It appears what a lot of gardeners don’t do is organize their seed packages. A number of people had old seed packs, some with leftover seed and others empty. With the mention of “sorting by years ” I went and checked our stash. It may even be that some of us have seeds as old as their childern. I’ll have to go to the garage to find the really old seed packs before I can confirm that.
Why? What makes people hang on to something like an empty seed pack. I don’t have a clue why we did. It couldn’t have been poor organization skills. How hard is it to just throw one away, especially considering how many times some of them were picked up. Yet year after year the seed package collection grew. I didn’t see a reason why but today I realized what we had.
At first I though it was a bit funny. I’ve always teased my wife about the seed collection. I learned early not to downsize any of her collections so she has to take responsiblity for it’s age. We pulled out the collection. A can from under the kitchen table, a couple more coffee cans from the living room and some boxes from a closet. I’m sure we missed some but we had enough to start rummaging through while I joked about how no one could possibly have an older seed package except antique collectors. Unfortunatly the house stash only went back to 1992. But if I know my wife we have some that will date back to the late 70s. And when I find them I’ll make sure they are stored in a safe place.
What we really found were little reminders of the past. The seed packs are keys that unlock memories. We had stopped joking and started to reminisce. And when we go through them again at planting time I know one of us will say “remember when”.
1992
First full year home after 9 years of working away.
The summer I caught a huge walleye. And my 6 year old daughter upon seeing it yelling out “cut it”.
The year I started to turn Perennial.
A year I was pleasantly reminded to remember.
January 6th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Great post… I have some seeds in my garage in a box that are from 1987. I keep them for sentimental reasons, they were the last seeds my Dad and I ordered together before he died. Other than that, I don’t “think” I have any older seed packets. I’m guessing as I moved from house to house, I threw old seed packets out.
Carol, May Dreams Gardens
January 6th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Wonderful. I only WISH I had seed packets from my grandpa’s gardening days. Would definitely be a precious memory.
January 7th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Chuckle….I had some of those old seed packages around too, but not that old. In 1992 I was doing a Masters program, raising a son, working parttime and living in a university-sponsored flat; had lots of indoor plants and container plantings on a balcony come summer, but no real place to plant. Hard to believe it was that long ago.
You’re having fun with your blogging, and that’s great. I’m having fun reading it.
January 8th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Like your site and layout — very clever. As for seed packets, ye gads, I hate to think how long I have had some — but just for kicks I will check them out. Enjoy the warm temps, flood warnings in effect and white stuff headed our way Wednesday, ya gotta love the North Country
January 9th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Carol,
I hope your fond memories outweigh the reminder of a loss.
Michelle,
Have your little garden helper pick out some seed and start your own collection. Becoming “grand” kind of sneaks up on ya.
jodi,
It was nice to look back and remember the good times.
Blogging will be more fun in the future. I’ll be able to look back at my posts and groan as if I heard a bad pun..
bamapat,
I must admit that tweaking the layout and style was one of my main enjoyments of starting a blog. Now I’m indulging myself by visiting others. I’m glad I found your’s and your brother’s. It’s good to see “neighbors” close to home.