Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Seed Exchange

I joined a seed exchange from Garden Web this year.  It's my first time doing anything like this, and I was pleasantly shocked by the package that arrived in the mail.  The seed package gets mailed from one person to the next, with each person taking what they want and adding back an equal number of seeds.  This package has been circulating amongst northern gardeners for a few years, and includes both purchased seed packets and saved seed from people's gardens.

This was the veggie and herb selection.
I picked out some green Salad Burnet, Rainbow Dino Kale, Persian Broadleaf Cress, Clemson Okra (Linda- if this stuff grows you're going to have to tell me what to do with it), Radicchio, Lovage, Pennyroyal, Bientina Chard, and two different types of sunflowers. 
Then there was an assortment of heritage tomato and pepper seeds.  I set up a jiffy tray and planted two seeds each in two jiffy pellets, except for the very last two Capiscum Annuum Aussie Black peppers.  I gave them each their own pellet.
There were more flower seeds than I could ever possibly want to identify.  I did take some delphiniums- chocolate and pink, because the bees love my blue ones, some poppies, marigolds, geraniums, and hollyhocks.  Most, because they're good companion plants, poppies, because you can eat the seeds, and holly hocks just because there were so many packets in there and I'd never heard of them.  Hopefully some of them will survive my "I don't give a darn about flowers" attitude, and maybe even thrive in the flower bed.

It was a fun experience, and I hope to join again next year.  Now off to the post office to send the package on it's way to the next participant.

7 comments:

  1. This is such a wonderful idea!! I am so inspired and think I should find one or initiate one!!

    Jennifer

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    1. Check out the garden web forum for your area. There's probably something already started, or it would be a good place to start one! Good luck!

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  2. i have heard of this kind of thing before but never really looked into it. Jennifer is right - it's a wonderful idea and now i am off to look into a seed exchange in nova scotia. i'll try out your link Wendy and see what i can find. thanks for bringing this up - this is a fantastic idea!

    your friend,
    kymber

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  3. Like candy in a candy shop! How did you narrow it down? I would have wanted one of everything :-)

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    Replies
    1. For my non existant garden that is. lol

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    2. Lol, I did want everything! But then I thought about what I had to put back in the package in exchange and narrowed it down from there. I picked mostly oddball stuff for veggies and herbs, that I'd have to special order. The flowers, ha, I don't know flowers. Just a stab in the dark.

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