Garden audit

In which I take to myself and my seed box with a large reality stick.

The highlight of every July since I moved back to New Zealand is the arrival of the Kings Seeds catalogue. This year is no different but today I am making myself face the existing seed box instead of ordering up more.

I have been planning the summer garden, wanting to squeeze in even more than before. I am also working on matching up our family priorities with our spending and our home-work. What needs money on it, what needs time on it, what needs to disappear?

So um, like other people have wool or fabric stashes, here is my existing seed list after I binned seeds past their best before date:

coriander
marjoram
anise hyssop
chervil curled
borage
thyme english winter
feverfew
garlic chives
parsley gigante italian
basil gourmet blend
astragalus milk vetch
sunflower giant russian
sunflower dwarf sensation
sunflower moon walker
sorrel
calendula dwarf colours mixed
marigold inca
pohutukawa
chamomile german
epilobium willowherb
echinacea purple coneflower

arugula italian wild rustic
beetroot cylindra
broccoli purple sprouting early
beetroot chioggia red/white
broccoli de cicco
bean borloto fire tongue
bean slenderette
corn salad verte de cambrai
celery for cutting
carrot white belgian
carrot touchon
chicory red verona
florence fennel romanesco
kale lacinato
kale red russian
kale squire
cabbage palm tree di toscana
lettuce webbs wonderful
leek carentan giant
mesclun lettuce mix
mizuna
onion red brunswick
onion white welsh
squash burgess buttercup
pumpkin musquee de provence
radish gourmet blend
tomato rainbow blend mixture
tomato sub arctic plenty
zucchini costata romanesco

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. With over 50 packets of seed, could I grow a successful garden without recourse to buying more seeds? Could I forgo buying $15 worth of heirloom seed potatoes which I cannot find room for without giving up any of the other things I really really want (and mostly already have seed for)? Could I forgo my chase for jerusalem artichokes? I have used up all my sungold cherry tomato seed and that is the most successful tomato here in wetville. There are neither peas nor silverbeet in my stash.

But and but and but, Sandra there are millions of plants waiting in your seed drawer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well thousands anyway.

I already have garlic in the ground for this coming summer (and roses). I've got a reasonable collection of kitchen herbs already in the garden. I am going to use my thyme seed to raise plants to make a herb border all round the old chook run bed.

The celery, kale and silverbeet currently in the garden will all be eaten up by the time the ground is warm enough for spring plantings.

I have blackcurrants, blueberries, one globe artichoke, a chilean guava, a lemon and three rhubarb plants in pots or in the garden. I have prepared a spot for planting an as yet unpurchased plum tree.

I think I am up for the challenge. [Took me ages to write that.] By my next post, I want to have replanned my summer garden to use existing seeds without buying more. I don't think I am prepared to forgo sungold tomatoes and I would like some more peas. But there is room to develop my medicinal herb garden (where?) with my existing seed stash and certainly scope to grow plenty of food (a sunflower and kale forest by the look of my seed collection!)