I love gardening, but up until now have been keeping my seed packets stuffed into a ratty paper lunch bag. I decided it just wouldn’t do!
So I set about creating a wooden seed box to store all my seeds. I started out with an old wine box—it looks like it was used to ship Chianti in. I’ve seen other boxes like it at the thrift store, so if you want to make one too keep your eyes open!
Here’s what I did:
The original box
I absolutely love the vineyard design on the inside.
Unfortunately the bottom of the box had a stain on it. So I pulled/scraped it off.
Here’s the new bottom. It’s a nicer wood than the old bottom anyway, which was warped and felt cheap.
So the next thing I wanted to do was create little vertical cubbies, where each packet of seeds could sit. For thin seed packets, I wanted to fit 2-3 packets in there (so for when I have 3 different types of carrot seeds, they’d all go in the same cubbyhole). For thicker seed packets, I wanted wider cubbyholes, that could just fit the single fat packet in there (like for snow pea seeds).
To do this, I cut wood dividers that fit across the width of the box, that were the same height of the box.
As I am a klutz, I had some help with the table saw
Testing out the dividers
After some fiddling about, it seemed that the best way to create dividers going the other direction would be in a Lincoln-Logs manner, with grooves to slot the opposing pieces into. These were cut using the table saw as well.
Close-up of the grooves
Next I had to glue the other-direction dividers into place.
Holding the dividers in place until the glue dried
Final testing to make sure they were stuck on straight
And that was pretty much it! I filled the whole box with dividers, thin ones at the back and then a couple wider ones at the front.
The finished product:
I hope you like it!
I have also attached a little rope handle to the side so that I can carry it around like a briefcase, but I don’t have any photos of that (yet).
ps. If you want to make your own seed packets to put in the box, check out this awesome blog post over at Abernathy Crafts.
Comments 4
at first i was skeptical of your entire project. i found it via your (i’d assume) reddit posting and your “winebox” looked more like a cigar case. i think i was just in a sour mood, at the beginning…
regardless, you did an outstanding job. the entire project was well documented, far beyond my talent level (i’m ‘male’ and have access to power tools too) and your end product is something that i would be proud to own and pass on as an heirloom. it even appeared that you were using seed (or at least packaging) from Baker Creek, which i can respect to a certain level.
i’m still in a sour mood, ultimately, and am trying to think of something negative to add…but i really can’t. i won’t go so far as to admit that this cheered me up, but i will admit that i’ve never ever commented on reddit or a blog of any sort before. since you put handles on your awesome box, i hope it gets dirty. so there.
tl;dr that’s incredible.
Thanks for your reply, and I appreciate the appreciation, even though you were in a sour mood.
I did get those seeds from Baker Creek—I’d never been there until last month, and it was out-of-this-world-amazing. They even gave me a free mystery squash with my purchase!
Thats a great idea! It could go along perfect with a post I did awhile back on how to make seed packets! I just may link to this blog posts from mine!
http://www.abernathycrafts.com/2012/09/make-your-own-seed-packets.html
What. I am SO into those seed packets! A lot of the packets I have now filled the seed box with are all ratty, since they were just crumpled up in a paper bag for so long. I’ve added your link to the bottom of the post 🙂