Take a seed inventory – Free printable worksheet

Seed catalog season is here! Time to dream about this year’s garden, begin planning layouts, and figure out how to fit everything you want to grow in the available garden space. If you’re anything like us, you’ve acquired quite the stash of seeds over the years to the point you don’t remember what you have…and then you buy more seed than you can possibly plant or accidentally acquire duplicate packets of seed. Oops! This year we decided to take a seed inventory BEFORE opening the alluring seed catalogs to make sure we bought exactly what we needed. (scroll down to download your own printable seed inventory worksheet)

One of the best things about growing your own food is all the unique and tasty heirloom varieties. It’s also the vegetable gardener’s bane. Before you know it you’ve spent a small fortune on seeds. As tempting as the photos and descriptions are in the seed catalogs, we can’t realistically grow all the tomato varieties in existence in a 25×30-ft plot and still have room for other veggies we want to raise as well. 

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Seed inventory before seed catalog browsing

As we mentioned in a recent blog post, one of our new year’s resolutions is to get more organized around the farmstead. Especially focusing on our food production and preservation. With that goal in mind, we took stock (and organized) what we already had on hand before opening the seed catalogs this year so we knew what we actually needed to look for while we browsed all the tempting options. 

Going into seed catalogs with an inventory is like having a grocery list when you go to the store. We know we need a jar of peanut butter, so we buy a single jar of peanut butter. But we don’t buy 7 types of peanut butter just because they all sound good or have pretty labels on the vague notion that we sorta remember we might need another one in the pantry. In the same way we also don’t need 10 different varieties of tomato plants. Knowing what you do and don’t need will help you narrow down your decisions and save moolah!

For example, we knew we didn’t seed save cherry tomatoes this past year, but have plenty of other tomato varieties for preservation in our collection. So we knew to focus on the cherry tomato section of the catalog rather than getting caught up in all the cool colorful and tasty beefsteak varieties. On the flip side, we knew we didn’t need another variety of kale as we have a bajillion seeds already on hand.

Save money with a seed inventory

If you’re new to vegetable gardening, you may have used up most of last year’s seed supply when you planted. But rest assured after a few seasons of buying seeds (and learning how to save your own), you will start amassing quite the collection! However, seeds are only viable for a certain period of time before germination rates decrease. Taking note of older seeds when completing your seed inventory will ensure you don’t waste older seeds because you forgot about them. Using up seeds you already have is a sure way to save money on your garden this year. As the more you spend on seeds, the less cost effective it is to raise your own homegrown veggies.

Another way a seed inventory can save you money is by jumpstarting the garden plan. The winter dormant season is a great time to start planning what you want to grow the coming year and help narrow down your seed wish list to more realistic proportions. It’s far too easy to buy 20 packets of seed…but you don’t want to spend money on tons of seeds only to sadly realize that the plants all won’t fit in your garden!

How to take inventory

So we’ve convinced you to open up that box of leftover seed packets to take inventory of what you already have on hand. What else should you be taking note of while sorting packets?

Firstly, note the type of vegetable followed by the specific variety. I personally like to sort in alphabetical order by the type of vegetable to make referencing my inventory more convenient while browsing seed catalogs (i.e. beans, corn, cucumbers, lettuce, kale, squash, tomatoes and so on). But feel free to develop your own system. As you do so, you’ll probably start noticing some gaps that need filling. These are the vegetables I put on my “wish list” so I can browse all the varieties in the catalogs later. For instance, we are out of cucumber seed this year, so I made note to find a variety to purchase.

Like mentioned earlier, seeds have a shelf life so be sure to take note of the date and check a viability chart like this one to see if you can reasonably expect any of the seed to grow. If you find you have some questionable seed, you can do a test for viability to see if some of the seed may still sprout for you even if out of the ideal range.

Next you will want to note the source of your seeds. Did you get them from a neighbor? A seed company? Or save them yourself? If they are too old to germinate this year, you will want to know which catalog to find replacement seed. Maybe seed from a company based in zone 5 didn’t grow well in your zone 9 garden this past year. Now you know which seed catalogs to spend less time browsing.

Lastly, make some brief notes on each specific variety as you go. Things like: struggled in the hot summer sun, a prolific producer, or disease/bugs killed it. If you loved that variety, great! You’ll know you want to purchase the exact same one. But if that squash plant was hit by disease and then eaten alive by bugs, you now know what characteristics to look for in a new variety–pest and disease resistance.

There you have it. A seed inventory is a simple tool to help you save money and plan your best vegetable garden yet. To help you take inventory of your seed stash this winter, we’ve created this printable seed inventory worksheet to make taking stock a breeze. Happy garden planning!

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