There's a box like that in our house, holding all the packets of seed I've bought, usually in the sales, but never got around to planting. Though the north-west corner of the front bedroom isn't quite as cold as a vault under the tundra, it's not a bad spot to keep seeds in hypersleep. The box, unlike the rest of the room, is beautifully organised; divided into sections for each month and for vegetables and flowers, and now it's been properly catalogued so I know exactly what it contains - and their supposed expiry dates.
There are almost seventy packets, of which six are still officially 'in date'.
I blame the narrowboat, of course - we've been away on the boat when we should have been gardening in the last couple of years, so 'bargains' snapped up in 2011 or 2012 and specified for sowing the following year sat in the box all of that year - and the next.as well. Having stayed sealed and at a cool, steady temperature, there is a fighting chance they'll be viable, in most cases. Where there is more than one pack of the same plant - and I have a particularly plentiful supply of broccoli and opium poppies, for reasons that now escape me - the plan is to sow the older pack first, early in the recommended period and, if nothing emerges, try again with the second. Or third. Or fourth...
Actually, I can't blame the boat for all of the long-term deposits in the seed bank. Like the broad beans that were popped into loo-roll middle planters yesterday dated 'sow by 2010' - though they looked to be in better condition than the 'sow by 2013' batch that were also started yesterday, so it will be interesting to see which batch (if either) germinates most successfully. Old carrot seed is supposedly a guaranteed fail, but all carrot seed is such in my hands - I plan to scatter some about when it warms up a bit alongside the 'sow by 2010' spring onions and see whether anything appears at all.
If something of everything does come through, we will do well for veg and flowers this year and I actually don't have to buy anything extra, unless there are crucial failures. About the only thing that would count as a crucial failure would be no spuds - officially an 'ELE' (Emigration Level Event). We don't take chances with is potatoes, and this year's seed spuds are ready for setting out for chitting. Short of space for experiments this year, as the allotment is getting a rest from taters to try and starve out the millipede problem, I'm sticking to the holy trinity of Foremost for first early, Kestrel for Second and Sarpo Mira for maincrop. Okay, I bought a small bag of Pink Fir Apple, as a little treat because they're so tasty and of course the funny, rude shapes are endless source material for this blog as well. What's not to like?
