Posted on 04/04/2008 10:30:40 AM PDT by Gabz
Seed swapping
Q. I have a backyard vegetable/fruit/herb garden, and every year I wind up with lots of leftover seeds, more than I can possibly plant next time around, yet throwing them away seems like an awful waste. Is there any established way to share, trade, or recycle seeds? - Jacey, WY
A. Absolutely. Seed-sharing has been an officially time-honored tradition since at least 1989, when Canada and Britain founded their respective “Seedy Saturday” and “Seedy Sunday” swaps. And in the US, the last Saturday in January is “National Seed Swap Day,” so start saving your seeds up for January 31, 2009. But community seed swaps—essentially free horticultural flea markets—aren’t confined to these national seed days. Gardeners all over the place are trading "extras" year-round, in local swap groups. Oregon permaculturist Heather Coburn Flores, author of Food Not Lawns, has traded seeds with more than 2,000 people so far. “By this simple act,” she says, “I am helping to build regional food security." Coburn Flores says swapping has also been a fun way to meet neighbors, widen her culinary horizons, and save money. “Weaving together people and plants strengthens the genetic fabric in our gardens and in our bioregion," she adds.
Seed swappers like Coburn Flores are also promoting biodiversity. Our global food industries promote hyperproductive, hyperdurable varieties like your “typical tennis-ball tomato,” says National Gardening Association senior horticulturalist Charlie Nardozzi. So seed swaps are one of the best ways to preserve old heirloom varieties that would otherwise probably slip through the cracks and disappear forever.
Call up your local ecology center or garden club and find out if any seed-swaps are already scheduled. If nothing’s in place yet, get out of that garden bed and organize one yourself, using the detailed instructions in Coburn-Flores’ book as a guide. If interacting with people isn’t your thing, or if you hate all your neighbors and wouldn’t trade seeds with them if your life depended on it, just Google “seed swapping” to find dozens of websites that’ll do the trick. At GardenWeb’s Seed Exchange, for example, users post lists of seeds they have available for trade, and others respond with posts like this one:
Hi, I would be interested in your Canterbury Bells, Celosia Purple Flamingo, Joe Pye Weed Chocolate and Basil Red Rubin. I have palisandra Coleus and a heliotrope, maybe more, Please check my list and let me know. Thanks for looking! Boop
Okay, yes, we just wanted to say “Boop.”
- Anneli Rufus & Kristan Lawson
Eco-inquiries, conundrums, snafus? Write to askplenty@plentymag.com. Posted on Apr 4, 2008 at 11:20 AM
Awwww...wimp.
I is guaranteed to grow. Just chuck it at the ground, and run like heck.
LOL.
Close, but no cigar!!!!
And, it seems, the roots can be substituted for potatoes.
Now that is survival food.
**Now I am worried about “Pill Bugs**
**In their natural habitat, pill bugs generally eat decaying wood, leaves, and other vegetation. **
I happen to like rollie pollies! I have a hard time convincing people they don’t eat plants! The ants are another matter. As long as they aren’t fireants, I wouldn’t worry too much.
You can use compost as mulch, but things tend to grow in it—weeds, etc.
Keep your head down, RD! Sounds like your weather is yucky.
**a few pounds of kudzu**
I’d almost—ALMOST—trade you some Florida betony for soem kudzu! Supposedly the roots of FB are edible. I figure the only way we’re going to get rid of it is to put it one the endangered species list. BWAHAHA
FB? Never heard of it. Google time!
Granny’s site has some great stuff. It’s going to take me awhile to catch up! The greenhouse is kicking, and kicking my butt. We’re right at the crest of the wave—greenhouse is totally full, I’m already running out of some things, and I don’t ahve room to transplant anymore.
Granny and another poster were talking about growing tomatoes indoors in the winter. I asked them how they kept the whiteflies and other critters off. Even in the greenhouse, tomato plants that we overwinter get infested with whiteflies and aphids. Granny and the other poster—my apologies, too tired to think right now—had a couple of great ideas. Granny said she shakes her plants regularly and vaccuums the air around the plants to suck up the whiteflies. The other poster said she keeps her tomatoes in a mesh pup tent and throws a praying mantis in there.
Sounds good—I may have to try one or both!
Rattlesnake weed, I get it.
Florida Kudzu.
Florida betony is an invasive winter weed. It has white roots that look like rootbeer barrel candy. It is also a member of the mint family, and spreads faster than kudzu. It arrived in eastern Nc courtesy of several hurricanes and it also hitch hikes in mulch. It propagates by seed, roots, runners. If you don’t get every last particle of it out of your yard/beds it comes back like Freddy Krueger. As far as I know, there is no chemical control that will kill it without sterilizing your soil for the next 500 years.
I had read, and Swamp Sniper agreed, that the roots are edible. We have enough to feed teh world! LOL
Hadn’t heard it called Rattlesnake weed. Heard it called lots of other...not so nice names.
Been swapping seeds for about 6 years. Have acquired a few not in catalogs that I maintain and others that are rare and expensive. It’s a really excellent way to acquire rare varieties.
Also, if you cover crop that’s a good way to get rid of excess seed. The edible ones you can also sprout in the wintertime.
The GardenWeb has a seed exchange forum here:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/exseed/
Just let folks know what you have to give or trade. Someone will be grateful for your seeds and you might get something you’re looking for.
Anyone can join at no cost. Register here:
https://auth.gardenweb.com/registration/
The weather has calmed down for my area but it is not over yet.
Two of my fig trees are doing great. Small green buds in all the right places. The Brown Turkey has yet to show any type of life. The Hood pear tree I recieved as a gift already has leaves! The Pineapple and Baldwin pears that I bought locally are going like gang busters!
All my tomatoes, cukes - zukes and bell peppers are also doing well out in the garden. My hot peppers and basil are still waiting for transplant, they are growing slow but look great.
I also have a Tabasco pepper plant that my wife brought back from her trip to Louisiana (visiting her sister) that I planted in a container.
I planted my Sugar Baby water melons in a 4x4 foot area that I tilled and mixed in my compost and composted manure. One sprouted a couple of days ago. I planted five, how many water melon plants will an area like that support?
Glad your garden and your orchard are doing well!
I’ve never seen rollie pollies on plants, only under stuff. Not saying they don’t eat plants. Shrug. Usually in the greenhouse, if I notice nibbled leaves, it’s a damn cricket, occasionally a cabbage looper. Never understood how Japanese people could keep crickets as pets. Maybe the J crickets are quieter tahn ours!
Watermelon plants need about 6 square feet per plant.
**there is only one way on and off the island**
Draw bridges. Y’all got draw bridges? I hate them with a passion. All the tourists think they’re cute. They’re nothing but a pain in the ass—tourists and drawbridges. LOL
Question: Any of y’all know how to use stevia? Finally got my hands on some. I know the process to extract the sweet is long and drawn out. Any body have any experience with using the actual plant? Can you put it in hot water, like in tea or something and draw the sweetness out that way, like using mint? What about crushing and drying it? Will that work?
Are you talking root area of 6sq. feet or the surface area?
You've got that right. This bridge is just way too old and has not been maintained properly. I don't know anyone who thinks this bridge is "cute." The problem has been the ones screaming the loudest about the danged thing have been the ones screaming the loudest about not wanting to pay for a new one........the tourists from Northern Virginia. I've had more than one heated discussion with snobs from NoVA complaining about the delays getting to the Island, they don't take too kindly to my attitude that if they stayed on their side of the Chesapeake Bay we wouldn't have this problem :)
A new bridge is finally being built, but it will also be a drawbridge. They can't build one here high enogh for the fishing boats to get under.
As to your stevia question, I've never even heard of the stuff, so I have absolutely no clue.
I would venture to guess it is surface area.
I have plenty of surface area for the melons to grow and occupy but the seeds are planted in 4x4 area, maybe a little larger. I think I will let things work themselves out but would hate to crowd an area and not get a crop.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.