You asked me to show you my seed catalog. Well… here it is!
I know, I know. It’s what I would call a “creative filing system.” Translation: total chaos. It looks like a Tupperware cabinet. There are bags from 2018 mixed in with this year’s, homemade seeds in paper towels that I wrote “tomatoes???” on, and at least ten bags of seeds I got from exchanges that I have no intention of ever planting! (Why do people always give me catnip, seriously!?)
I figured I probably wasn’t the only one in this situation. So rather than giving you questionable advice based on my personal chaos, I contacted an expert: Jean-François Lévêque, co-founder of Les Jardins de l’écoumène, an artisinal seed producer in Saint-Damien, in Lanaudière. He has been producing organic seeds adapted to Quebec for over 20 years. If anyone knows how to manage a catalog, it’s him!
A living organism in dormancy
Before giving you the steps to go from clutter to a perfect catalog, you need to understand certain principles about seeds. The first thing Jean-François explained to me was to change the way I view my seeds. “A seed is a living organism in dormancy,” he told me. Not an inert object that can be left lying around anywhere for years!
The goal of storage is to maintain this dormancy. To do this, you must avoid exposing them to conditions that trigger germination: high humidity, heat, and sometimes light. It makes sense when you think about it! If you want your seeds to stay dormant, don’t give them any signals to wake up.
The suggested method is very simple: put all the envelopes in an airtight container in the refrigerator. That’s it. No need for an elaborate system with silica packets and three-color labels (although I respect those who do that!). The refrigerator provides coolness and darkness, and the airtight container (Mason jar, Ziploc bag) protects against humidity.
How long do these little creatures live?
This is a question I ask myself every spring when rummaging through my seed box. Are these seeds from 2021 still good? The answer: it depends!
Jean-François advised me to make a reference chart to keep handy with information on each type of seed:
Seeds with a short shelf life, about 2-3 years, include onions, leeks, parsnips, corn, and parsley. These are the most finicky—don’t keep them forever!
Seeds with an intermediate shelf life of 3-6 years include Solanaceae such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, beans, carrots, and radishes. These represent the bulk of what we plant in our gardens, and fortunately, they are fairly cooperative.
Finally, the champions of longevity, with 6-10 years, are squash. These seeds are survivors!
But beware: degradation is not linear. A seed may have a germination rate of 95% in the first year, 94% in the second… and drop to 60% in the third. You go from “excellent” to “so-so” without warning. Hence the importance of testing BEFORE you end up with a half-empty vegetable garden.
The germination test: the pros’ tool
At Les Jardins de l’écoumène, between 2,000 and 4,000 germination tests are conducted each year. I was impressed! We amateur gardeners can do the same thing on a smaller scale.
The method is simple: take 10 seeds, place them on a damp (but not soaked!) paper towel, fold it, and put it in a plastic bag. Keep it at room temperature and check after a few days. Count how many seeds have sprouted.
If 9 out of 10 germinate, you have a 90% rate—excellent! If only 5 germinate, you’re at 50%, which is low: you’ll have to sow densely. Below that, it’s better to buy fresh seeds rather than waste your time and space in the garden.
The ideal time to do these tests? Now! In February, while you’re cleaning out your seed collection. That way, you’ll know exactly what you have before ordering new varieties.
I admit that I’m quite hesitant about these tests. I feel like I’m “wasting” seeds… I opened up to Jean-François about it, and you know what he said? Better to “lose” 10 seeds than end up with an empty garden! And he’s so right! If nothing grows, is it my soil, the lack of water… or just the germination rate, which was 20%? It’s important to know, ultimately, to avoid replanting the same dead seeds year after year!
Producer versus distributor: an important distinction
Jean-François raised a point that I had never thought about: there is a difference between a seed producer and a distributor.
A producer, such as Les Jardins de l’écoumène, grows plants, observes their behavior year after year, selects the best ones for seed production, and gradually adapts its varieties to local conditions. They understand genetics, they see how plants evolve and behave in different weather conditions, they know exactly where their seeds come from and what they will produce.
A distributor buys seeds in bulk and resells them. That’s not a bad thing in itself, but they can’t tell you how the variety will behave in our cold nights or humid summers… or even where their seeds come from! When you buy from a local seed producer, you get seeds that have been selected for our climate, our soil, and our practices.
Put your catalog back in order
Step 1: The garden notebook
My consultant insists: this is the key tool. Not to be a perfectionist, but to avoid starting from scratch every year. We note down which varieties we have tested and whether they worked well, the shelf life of our seeds, our observations throughout the season, etc. Anything that can help you understand your garden, with its particularities and challenges.
But the most important thing to do with your notebook, and you (I!) need to do it NOW, is to plan. Know what your goals are for the year BEFORE you get your hands in the dirt. According to him, this is the number one mistake gardeners make: jumping in without thinking, buying seeds on a whim, and ending up with a ton of carrots that are good to eat fresh, but none that are suitable for storage.
I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve never asked myself the question, “What do I want to accomplish with my garden this year?” My goal was to grow as many vegetables as possible and cook up a storm with the leftovers to stock up for winter! But it doesn’t work like that: my yield isn’t great, I plant my spinach too late and it goes to seed, I forget to harvest my turnips and they become fibrous, I have a ton of carrots that don’t keep well…
So I’ll tell you (because I’m really doing the exercise of writing this article), my goal this year is to have a garden full of vegetables for preserving and cooking, which will require little maintenance, as well as a very varied greenhouse, full of vegetables to use fresh and with staggered harvest times to avoid having everything at once.
Step 2: How to organize your collection
Now, let’s get down to practical matters: classification! Jean-François suggests sorting by category rather than alphabetically. This is more useful when planning.
You can classify by plant type (leafy vegetables, root vegetables, fruit vegetables, ornamental plants, etc.), by type (annuals versus perennials), or by growing conditions (full sun, partial shade, moist soil). Within each category, you can further classify into subcategories, depending on what works for you.
Personally, I decided to try sorting by “sowing time”: indoor sowing in February-March, indoor sowing in April, direct sowing that tolerates frost, and direct sowing after frost, then by type of vegetable. We’ll see if it survives the season!
Step 3: Test, discard
Once everything is sorted, it’s time to clean up. The remaining watermelon seeds that Aunt Ursula gave you when you started your garden, because she wanted to plant them at her house 20 years ago, but they didn’t work out: trash. They’ve been at the bottom of my bin for five years, I have no interest in planting them, and they were probably already dead before the pandemic!
Seeds that aren’t as old are also worth testing for germination. A packet of squash seeds from last year is clearly still very good, but your 4-year-old carrots… Check them before you fill your garden with emptiness!
Step 4: Don’t leave my pay at the semen collection center
Now that we know what we have, and more importantly, what we need… THEN we can buy what we’re missing, sticking to our initial plan and our goal. Like a grocery list: storage carrots, early spinach, Italian tomatoes for freezing, etc.
The ritual at the start of the season
Here’s what I did over the weekend (and what I encourage you to do too): I took out my entire seed collection, organized it by category, sorted out what was expired or questionable, tested the old seeds on damp paper, and planned my purchases based on what I really needed.
Jean-François has a beautiful philosophy: observe, understand, then act. There is no single recipe, no miracle method. Just take the time to get to know your seeds and your own garden, then plan with intention.
(I did it! The Ziploc bags will go in the refrigerator, and the rest—lettuce, herbs, etc.—is for my indoor winter garden.)
Bonus for those who save their own seeds!
I confessed to the seed producer that I sometimes save seeds from my harvests, or even plant… mustard or coriander seeds from my spice cabinet… and he wasn’t shocked: quite the contrary!
Experimenting is exactly what gardening is all about. However, he warned me that there’s a world of difference between that and becoming completely self-sufficient in seeds. Seed production is a profession in itself, with its own techniques, isolation distances to avoid cross-pollination, drying methods… If you’re interested, there are courses available!
But where to start? Saving a few seeds from mustard, beans, or open-pollinated tomatoes is entirely feasible. And so satisfying! I’ll be back in the coming weeks with more information on genetics (F1, open pollination, hybrids, and all that), as well as an explanation of the jargon on seed packets. You wanted to chat about my catalog, so let’s chat about it!
Okay, I’ll leave you now. My seed mess is tidied up, but I have another mess of pots and soil to deal with before I can start sowing!