Upcycled Challenge: Straw to Seed Storage #freefromtrash

I have to admit that I don't have a lot of straws hanging around. The kids are only 10 months and haven't mastered the sippy cup, let alone the straw.  I did manage to collect a few this 4th of July (the neat ones with the spoon on the end) which we used to each some delish italian ice, but somehow they disappeared before I could come up with a craft for them.  Luckily a friend that came over today left her plain old clear straw here and as I was looking around the garage I noticed my random packs of heirloom seeds just hanging wide open.  Those paper packs you get seeds in aren't great for re-storage especially if you don't use all the seeds and even more so if they happen to get wet. That is exactly what happened to my Chioggia Beet seed pack and I resorted to storing the seeds in another paper envelope.

Well, how about using the straw as waterproof, resealable seed storage.  This is really easy and I am SURE someone has done this already somewhere on the internet but I swear I didn't even google it.

Materials:
Glue gun (i found it!)
Straw
marker  (fine tipped)

Clean and dry straw.  Cap one side with a blob of hot glue.  Allow to solidify.  Fill with seeds.  Cap open end with blob of hot glue.  Allow to solidify before turning straw on side.  Label straw with seed name. DONE.

So of course this method of storage depends on your seed size.  Beans and Peas won't fit in this kind of straw.  And depending on the size of number of your seeds you may need more than one straw to store all your seeds.  I was also thinking how easy it would be next season to cut off one end, dispense the number of seeds I need and the reseal with a blob of hot glue.  Maybe I'll even get my beet-planting method in good shape for next year.  I only managed to get like 2 beets this year.  So sad.

This post is part of the Upcycled Crafting Challenge (#freefromtrash) hosted by Calley, The Eco Chic, and is part of a one month challenge to create from trash.  This challenge will hopefully open your eyes to the number of items that we still end up trashing every day that could be used by ourselves or our kids to create fun and useful items.  To find out more about the challenge and to see other projects click on over to Calley’s announcement post.