In the future (very distant, I hope) someone will be going through the basement of my last known residence and they’ll come across box upon box, filled to overflowing with packets of seeds. Pleased to make your acquaintance, I’m a hoarder.

It all starts innocently enough: I’ll see a pretty, colorful picture adorning a seed pack online or at the local garden store that I just can’t resist. …Or perhaps I’ll succumb to a two-for-one sale.

I always have every intention of planting the seeds that season, but when all is said and done I realize that my eyes most often are bigger than my balcony. Inevitably, those seeds wind up in a bag  marked “next year.”

Of course, when “next year” rolls around, the process repeats itself — all over again. True to form, I’ve once again bought more seeds than I can possibly hope to plant in my 5 x 12 container garden.

Add to that all the partially used packets from prior seasons, plus the seeds gathered and collected from last summer’s garden, and the depth of my obsession sinks in.

As hoarding goes, though, I suppose it could be worse. Seeds are fairly inexpensive, don’t take up much space, and eventually, I will use them. Cross my heart.

This year I’m trying to build just about the entire garden from seeds, rather than purchasing a lot of more costly nursery plants. (I’ve only bought a few small plants — grape hyacinth, blue lobelia and a cheery little lavender bush that wooed me at the grocery store.)

Of course, there’s always that percentage of seeds that — for whatever reason — never sprout or don’t survive, so I may wind up supplementing the seeds more in the end, but for now I’ve still got high hopes.

I’ve planted approximately 38 seed varieties fitting my planned color scheme — blue, orange and black. I’ve also planted five seeds outside that palette for a few surprise accents, 10 varieties of produce and 10 different herbs. And, yes, the cat will have his playpen again — only with a slight twist.

Oh, and thanks to all for suggestions of black (or near-black) seeds; I incorporated as many as I was able to get my hands on into the mix. (I’ll talk more about them in a future post.) Here’s hoping they turn out well, because black isn’t standard at my local nurseries…

Have you ever planted seeds that never sprouted? If yes, do you have a theory as to why they didn’t? Please share!

[Photos: Lemon cucumber sprouts (top) and grape hyacinth.]