Winter Garden

Getting the gardening going in the winter this year.  We purchased two raised garden bags which have eight - one cubic foot areas each in a 2x4 grid.  The packets are laid out in the order in which we planted them.

The seeds are a bit old but something should still sprout.  We purchased these seeds back in 2013 and most of them have at least an 85% viability rating.  A few even higher.

My wife asked if that means they are all done for now since it's been 12 years.  The percent viability is at the time they expect you to be planting these seeds.  It's more like a half life though.  Every year less seeds will probably be viable and sure eventually they will probably all be useless and not sprout but even 12 years isn't so long for seeds.

There are records of seeds remaining viable for over a hundred years.  Some of the oldest seeds to germinate did so over a thousand years.  One source claims a seed was over ten-thousand years old and was still able to be grown into a flowering specimen.  Not sure how they dated that one but that's what they are claiming.  Personally I can easily believe the hundred year old seeds but past that I think it's more of a guess how long the seed has been around.