The Cottage Smallholder

Photo: seed packets tin

The pleasure that I get from special garden tools and gardenalia is immeasurable.

I love my two traditional Sussex garden trugs (giant and baby sized), the set of three cedar seed trays, my paper potter and my new mouseproof Burgon and Ball Seed Packets Tin.

Seraphina has given me most of these luxury items. As with friends who have given me plants, I always think of the donor when I use them. Good solid old fashioned quality. The things seem timeless.

The seed packets tin was given to me when I gave Seraphina a hand with her elegant Cambridge garden earlier this week.

Until now I have kept my seeds in old tins and bulging carrier bags. Often these packets fed the legions of mice that overwinter in the greenhouse. As the small inner packs containing the seeds often proved to be too tough for teeny teeth, it was mainly the planting instructions that were guzzled. I was left with a small pile of mysteriously coded white inner seed packs which could contain anything from lupins to mustard seed.

In fact my seed husbandry was in a total mess. Which meant that often I’d buy seeds that I already had or lose seeds that had been optimistically bought a bit too early in the season.

I proudly carried the seed packets tin in from Jalopy. Danny lifted the lid and examined it carefully, delighted with the compartments and the tiny old fashioned seed packets and pencil.  I flew down to the greenhouse and barn to collect my extraneous packets of seeds.

Within half an hour the packs of seeds were sorted into flowers, vegetables, old packs (still in date) and herbs. There is also a long section in the tin that is the perfect length for storing larger packs of seeds. There are dividers to sort the packs into months but as most of our seeds are planted in spring of autumn there would be lots of gaps in between.

Needless to say I discovered a lot of duplicate packs of seeds and quite a few that I’d forgotten all about. Now I can see clearly what I have to plant. The compartments are the winning element. It’s easy to examine the packets whilst they are still in the tin. Bliss.

So every evening this week the tin has been importantly carried down to the greenhouse and seed setting has begun in earnest. For the first time in years I feel organised.

Thank you Seraphina. It’s the perfect gardening present for me.