Ordering garden seeds from more than one seed catalog can be confusing. In the past, I’ve just written on a separate paper for each company before I made my order on line, but I end up shuffling back and forth trying to keep track of things. This year, I created a beautiful color coded chart, if I may say so myself! Links to pdfs of all charts can be found at the bottom of my article. Here is a screenshot of it (which I am also proud of myself for figuring out how to do!) 🙂
After saving it in this form, I went ahead and tweaked it some for my personal use. I added the list of vegetables and herbs, spaced according to my approximation of numbers of varieties I would buy. I came up with the list by browsing one of the Johnny’s Selected Seeds catalog, one of the most thorough catalogs I order from. I also typed in some details that I want to remember while ordering, such as if I am
- planning on comparing an open pollinated variety to a hybrid,
- planting early and later types,
- or I want kinds for different uses.
Here is a screen shot of the first page of that effort:
The notes column will be used for commenting to myself why I chose a certain variety. (I will publish the list of what I ordered and why in another blog article.) I will use the “saved/self-sown” column to mark if I will get something locally, like potatoes. Seems silly to order potatoes online when I live in Idaho….
For ordering flowers, whether plants or seeds, I just changed the heading of the first column. For types, I will list things about:
- vining
- plant height (which can vary so much even within specific flowers)
- shade or sun preferences
- moisture needs
- is it good for cutting
So – here are the charts themselves.
seed ordering chart with list of vegetables
I hope you will find these as useful as I do. I’d love to hear if anyone has any ideas about making them work more efficiently. Feel free to post links to your own charts in the comments. Happy seed ordering!