My seed inventory

Well, it's November 1st.  The garden is still a mess, the leaves need to be raked and already my thoughts are turning to spring.  It's a sickness.  It's involuntary and I can't help it.  But it's not completely my fault - around here seed catalogs start arriving in November.  And you better be ready for them because I've learned the hard way that some of the new or rare varieties are already sold out by Christmas time.

So today I parked the little man in front of a Charlie Brown special for half an hour and emptied out the contents of the crisper drawer onto the table to take inventory of what I already have.  Yep, my seed collection takes up an entire crisper drawer of the refrigerator.  I wanted to do this that way when the fever strikes, I can refer to this list and remind myself that 1) as gorgeous as they look I really do hate beets and 2) there is NO ROOM for another variety of winter squash....  seriously. OK, maybe just one more.

Usually, this is done on a scrap of paper, but then I lose it (on purpose?) and then buy too much.

This is for my own record keeping so I'm sorry if the following doesn't make much sense.

This is a huge pile.  What a mess. Please keep in mind that some of these were free, some of them I paid as little as 3 cents a packet.

I Marie Kondo-ed my way through the seed pile, sorting through things that I didn't need, didn't like, had expired and so on. Here's the finished product:

All of the unwanted/expired seeds went into a container to be used to seed the poultry pasture next year.  This was a big hit this year and I'd like to do it from now on.  The birds loved it, it was pretty much free feed, it provided shade for young birds and it looked great.  In 2017 the birds will be getting a great mix of buckwheat, clover, millet, wildflowers, turnips, peas, beans, greens and various root crops.  

So when those catalogs are in the mailbox and I'm all hot and bothered I'll remember that I already have the following.  Anything in green I am free buy because I have little or none of. 

• Root veg - parsnips, mix of carrots, turnips, radishes, Lisbon onions, buy onion sets, buy potato including Rose Finn Apple
• Greens - mix of heirloom lettuces, spinach, kale, flamingo Swiss chard, Yugoslavian Red Butterhead, Forellenschluss, orach
• Corn - Early Golden Bantam, Country Gentleman & the purple kernels I saved from Smoke Signals
• Peas/beans - snow peas, sugar snap peas, Hutterite soup bean, bush bean mix (I mix all kinds together so as to get a varied harvest), cow peas, Dixie Speckled Lima Bean, Masterpiece Fava Bean
• Melon - Heirloom cantaloupe, watermelon
• Thai Lavender Frog Egg Eggplant
• Carentan Leek
• Apline strawberries
• Cucumber
• Brassica - Brussel sprouts
• Tomato - beefsteak, black krim, pineapple, monarch, brandy wine, Hillbilly potato leaf, indigo apple, violet jasper, plum lemon, pink bumblebee
• Summer squash - patty pan, zucchini
• Peppers - buy transplants including pimento and jalapeno
• Winter squash, obviously my weakness - sugar pie, Australian Butter, blue hubbard, Potimarron, Marina Di Chioggia, Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato, turban, three kinds of acorn, Butternut, Spaghetti  good Lord, why not get just go ahead and get some more?
• Herbs - parsley, thyme, oregano, basil, cilantro, rosemary
• Flowers - sunflowers, bachelor buttons (edible!), nasturtiums (also edible!), paper moon scabiosa, zinnias, morning glories, dahlias & cannas.  These are the only flowers that spark joy.
• Pawpaw and quince

Yeah, that's a dose of reality right there.  Looks like I'm going to have a full garden again next year.