Seed Box

Once you start gardening, you will probably find yourself the proud owner of a bunch of seeds. Eventually you will need something to hold all those seeds. That thing is called a seed box.

Garden seeds spread out on a table (Kate Russell)

I started storing my seeds in envelopes, in a lidded plastic bin. That worked pretty well, until the lid cracked and the bin became too small. That’s when I decided to make my own seed box.

Seed box inspiration

So, how does one go about making a seed box? The first thing I did was search online for “DIY seed boxes”. I found some wonderful images and a ton of articles about video games and an Australian rock band. Hmmm. I went back to the images.

Plastic lidded bin for seed storage

The DIY seed boxes I saw online were made from shoe boxes, cigar boxes, recipe card boxes, curb-scored dresser drawers, discarded library card boxes, tackle boxes, plastic pill boxes, old 8-track cases, photo organizers, antique letterpress printer’s drawers, old filing tins, cash boxes, ziplock baggies, Mason jars, and lidded cardboard shipping boxes. One was even made from an old fashioned metal lunchbox! Clearly, there was lots of inspiration out there, but what would suit my needs?

What do seed boxes do?

All that variety got me thinking about what seed boxes are for. There’s no point in saving seeds if they get eaten or sprout too soon. Seeds need to be kept in a cool, dry, dark place to avoid germinating before you are ready for them. Plus, you need to be absolutely sure there is no moisture present if your seeds are going to be sealed in something airtight. [If you store your seeds in plastic or glass, it is a good idea to include one of those tiny silica packets you find in show boxes and other products.] I prefer exposing my seeds to as much of the local weather as possible, without getting them wet (or eaten). Also, I am working on reducing my use of plastic, so I decided that my new seed box had to be made out of something else. Since I have a bunch of scrap wood, I decided to take a look in my wood box for inspiration.

Your basic box

Using scrap wood, I built a simple box. If you have never built a box before, let me tell you that the time you spend planning it on paper is well worth the effort. You need to remind yourself about things like the thickness of the wood, and which piece will go in front and how the pieces will butt up against each other. [Glue and caulk are your friends.] It doesn’t have to be perfect. My box is far from that, but I am happy with the basic construction. I used an old gate hinge and decided it would be a good idea to add an internal string to keep the lid from flipping the whole box over backwards when I open it. Then I had to do something with the inside of my seed box.

Fit pieces of your seed box together before you start glueing and screwing (Kate Russell)

How to organize all those seeds?

There’s always alphabetical order, but I decided I needed something that I could organize by planting time. Here, in California, that means separate categories for every month. In colder regions, you might be better off organizing your seeds by plant type: tomatoes, peppers, beans, etc., or by season. I used some heavy duty paperboard to create a divider down the middle of my seed box and index-style cards for each month. Then it was a simple matter of looking at my local monthly planting times to file my seed collection. Or so I thought.

Of course, some (most) crops can be planted in more than one month. How could I flip to the current month and find all the seeds to be planted without having separate envelopes for each plant for each month? Maybe I could have a list on each tab - but how could I be sure I put the seeds back where they came from? Too messy. And then it hit me!


I have a spreadsheet of planting times. My spreadsheet is a modified conglomeration of online sources. [If you would like a copy of mine, or a blank, just email me.] I printed a copy of my spreadsheet and taped it to the inside of my new seed box. Ta da!

My seed box is almost done!

Making it special
​
One of the seed box images I really liked used an old produce crate for materials. The lid was one of the ends of the crate, complete with the old label. It looked really nice. Another seed box used old fashioned post cards to create a collage on the lid. It was beautiful, too. After building my seed box, I decided that the natural knots and wood grain were decoration enough.

I hope my seeds like their new seed box. I know I do!

​How do you store your seeds?

Finished seed box