Saving, sorting, and organizing seeds.

I started gardening in 2009 and have acquired a lot of seeds since then. 

I decided that it was time to organize them.  I started by dumping everything onto the table.  I threw out all of the packets that had 2009 dates on them.  I kept all of the 2012-2014 stuff.  I don't think I had anything from 2010-2011.  

Then I put things into like piles.  All of the carrot packets went into one pile and all of the peppers went into another, etc.  I used paper clips to hold the groups of packets together.  That should make finding what I need easier next time. 

Since I was already sorting seeds it made sense to save some seeds from the current crop.  I had plenty of pepper seeds already.  I just focused on beans and peas.

It's pretty easy to save seeds from beans and peas.  Just let them stay on the vine until the pods dry out.  Then pick and shell them. 

I put them in a bag and labeled them with the year. 

I haven't had much luck saving cucumber or tomato seeds, so I just buy them when I need them.  I saved a lot of pepper seeds in previous years.  Germination rates will probably start dropping off soon, but I have so much seed that I can just start more and not worry too much about it.  (Seriously, you get a lot of seeds from a single pepper.)  I tried saving seed from carrots once, and it just wasn't worth it.  It takes two years and the seeds are very tiny and a nuisance to get.  I had plans to save kale seed this year, but that didn't work out real well.  The kale plants ended up covered in seeds pods.  So I waited patiently for them to dry out.  That's when I found out that once kale seed pods dry out, they open and release all of their seed.  Whoops!  At some point I'm going to have kale showing up all over the place in that raised bed.  Oh well, that's just how it goes sometimes.