Growing vegetables from seeds is really fun and rewarding, because you can grow so many varieties which you can’t buy, like 5 kinds of broccoli, 7 kinds of cucumber, and countless types of tomatoes, melon, peppers… BUT, where to put your growing collection of seeds?

In a box. It sounds easy, but it does not always work! Like in the photo below, my pretty box became over stuffed, so I got another box and soon that became an over-stuffed mess too. Every time I look for one seed packet I had to dump out all contents in these boxes, it was not fun!

Finally, the idea came to me to make a box that is organized, efficient, and easy to use. And here it is!

Let’s look at the simple steps it takes to turn 2 shoe boxes into a seed box which you will LOVE!

First select 2 shoe boxes, or any cardboard boxes once you get the design of it. One of the shoe boxes will become the seed box, the other will be used to create dividers.

Please refer to this post on building cardboard furniture for more details on cutting and scoring cardboard!

Measure the length and width of the seed box, then make one divider that goes lengthwise, leave extra tabs at the end so we can fold it over and glue it to the center of the seed box, so it divides the box in half.

Cut 1/8″ notches at equal intervals (8 here)

for the cross tabs, which also have notches so they interlock. See photos below.

After all the tabs are fitted together, and glued at the ends to the box, we can add labels!

The box is organized by warm and cool season crops, from tomatoes and peppers- warm weather, to broccoli and kale- cool weather. to make it easier to find the seeds. Print and cut out each name, and glue them to the tabs.

Some of the names stands for several kinds of veggies. For example, “pumpkin” covers all winter squash such as acorn, butternut, etc, “roots” covers carrots, beets, radishes, and “kale” covers many leafy greens such as chards, bok choi, spinach, etc.

Now everything is so organized and easy to access, I just LOVE using this box. No more fear of opening a Pandora’s box and not being able to stuff everything back in!

In case you missed it, here is an easy and really fast method to start seeds plus some seed resources you may enjoy checking out-

And if you are wondering what other fun things can be made from cardboard, check out this tutorial on building cardboard furniture!

Have fun planning this year’s garden! See you next week!