My Game-Changing Seed Organization System

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I’ve kept all my seed packets in ammo cans since almost the beginning. They were surplus cans given to me by a friend in the Coast Guard, and I found them ideal for seed storage: airtight, watertight, and just the right size to hold packets, envelopes, and little bags of seeds.

Read more: How I store garden seeds for longevity

At first, I organized all my seeds by plant family, with each ammo can holding two or three families (such as brassicas and legumes). Each family was then further grouped inside (using cardboard dividers) by plant type, such as kale, cabbage, mustard, and so on in the brassica family.

Sometimes I succeeded in keeping my seed packets alphabetized or sorted with the oldest seeds in front, but more often than not, they were just dropped into their group—in any order—the more seeds I accumulated.

Over time, as my collection grew from dozens of seed packets to hundreds of packets, this system got a little messy. I couldn’t easily find what I already had without going into the garage, where the ammo cans lived, flipping through the dividers and checking the back of each packet for their packing date. And if I needed to order new seed, I had to drag all the cans upstairs to my office, where my computer was, so I wouldn’t accidentally double up on seeds.

I love using spreadsheets, but even more so, I love using Airtable, which has been indispensable in my business. It’s a free, cloud-based platform that’s like a cross of a spreadsheet with a database, and it allows me to store and organize all kinds of data in visually appealing ways.

I ended up creating a seed inventory spreadsheet (one for vegetables and herbs, and one for flowers) that lets me see at a glance what I have, how old it is, how much is left, and where it came from.

In the main view of my spreadsheet, I have the variety, type of plant, color, stock level, packing date, and seed source. I type in the variety name, but all the rest of the columns are dropdowns from which I can select the appropriate options.

In the “Type” column, there are nearly 60 different types of vegetables and herbs I can select; the “Color” field contains 13 color options; and the “Source” column contains 36 vendors.

I made a few different “views,” as Airtable calls them, which are basically different ways of grouping the data I want to see.

For example, I can click on “Types” to sort the spreadsheet by plant type, or click on “Packet Date” to sort the seeds by year. I can also sort by stock level, which gives me an instant view of what I’m running low on. This is the type of information I always need when I’m about to order more seed for the year.

My flower spreadsheet is similar, only it has 46 different types of flowers to select and an “ornamental” or “edible” status that helps me group all my cultivars with a single click.

I’m blown away by how immensely helpful this spreadsheet has been this season as I do my seed inventorying and buying! The inventorying alone used to be a very manual process that required me to spread all my packets out on the floor and check them one by one. (I won’t deny that it was oddly exciting and even therapeutic to do every winter/spring, but it was also very time-consuming.)

Now, I can just pull up my spreadsheets to view the details I need without digging through my storage containers. It’s saved me from making impulse buys at the store, since I can look up my data (by logging into my Airtable account on my phone or using the mobile app) in less than a minute.

And best of all, it’s super easy to keep an updated inventory of my 350-plus seed packets. Every time a new package arrives from a vendor, I take a few minutes to enter seed information into the spreadsheet before putting it away.

It goes fast once I get started, since all my dropdown options are already defined. I use the arrow keys and just type in the first couple letters of each option to populate each field in Airtable, all without clicking and scrolling through the dropdown menus.

The dividers were made from old plastic files that I cut to size and labeled with a marker. (In my old organization system, I cut up cardboard boxes to make dividers, so there’s no need to get fancy here.)

The third ammo can holds all my herb and flower seeds. The organization is a bit more simple here, in that I only group my packets by herbs, edible flowers, and ornamental flowers (since I don’t have that many seeds for each type of plant).

This works well for me, and I can easily add more ammo cans as my seed collection expands. Each can holds about 75 to 100-plus packets, depending on how bulky they are. Alphabetizing my seeds has actually helped me reduce the number of cans I use, since I’ll fill them to capacity before I add another can.

(Seeds do have a shelf life, and periodically clearing out older seeds can save you time and frustration. Simply click on the “Packet Date” view in Airtable, or filter your Google Sheet to sort by the “Packed For” date, and you’ll immediately know what your oldest seeds are.)

I hope you find this resource as useful as I have!