What do you need to do to prep seeds for saving and replanting later?
DIY Seed Saving Packages
- By : Sarah
- Category : Gardening, Kid Friendly
- Tags: seed saving, squash, tomatoes

The summer here was on the rainy side. This lead to many tomatoes rotting on the vine before I could get to them. And the bugs got to their share as well. I hate to waste all these tomatoes, but they are not edible.
So I decided that I should save all the seeds. I picked all the tomatoes that we couldn’t possibly eat, and plenty that we could and did eat, and gathered all the seeds up. I ended up with a ton of seeds and not knowing what to do with them all.
I would never use that many seeds myself, so I decided to give them away to friends and family. I’m not sure I know that many people who garden, but I will do what I can.
Now to package the seeds. I looked at custom seed packages, just for fun, then laughed at the price and moved on. They are nice, but I can’t afford all that. I considered buying envelopes, but then I would have to label each one and I wanted to be able to tell a little about each plant on the package. Way too much writing for me.
I decided that I could draw up one package for each kind of plant, photo copy them, and then have the kids help me decorate them. I only had to glue each one a little bit, so it wasn’t too bad.
I decided that dividing a standard sheet of paper and folding into thirds was the perfect size. I cut out one of the thirds and folded it up until I had an evelope. I marked how I folded it and what I wanted writen on it. Then I unfolded it and laid it flat to use as a template.
I made three different packages on each sheet of paper and then made copies.
I cut the sheets into the three envelopes…
The kids and I colored them in and then I folded them up and glued things in place.
Now they just need some seeds and I can hand them out. They are nothing fancy, but they work perfectly for handing out free seeds and saving them for yourself.
I would always love to swap seeds. If anyone has seeds they would like to swap, email me!
sarah@homesteadhouligan.com
For links on seed saving: