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:

Choosing seeds

Squash

Nasturtiums

Corn

Peas

Sunflowers

Testing seed viability