2nd Annual Seed Swap

In honor of National Seed Swap Day, a host of organizations (Forest Garden Urban Ecology Center, Center for Local Self Reliance, Sustainable Bellingham, Food Not Lawns, Earthcare Garden Designs and Transition Whatcom) sponsored our 2nd Annual Seed Swap. Held in downtown Bellingham at the Center for Expressive Arts, this was my first year to attend. Said to be for anyone with extra seeds to share or for those wanting seeds to grow, a presentation on why and how to save your own seeds was of particular interest to me.Hoping to learn something about seed saving and maybe pick out some varieties of beans that were well suited for drying, within minutes of entering the room, I felt welcomed by the group and knew that I would be very glad that I had attended this seed swap. I particularly enjoyed how shortly after the opening of the event, different people told a little about the history of some of the seeds they had brought to share. After listening to just the first few stories and their offers to share, I felt that this seed swap should have more appropriately been called a "seed sharing". They were amazing, heartwarming stories that left me wishing that I had ten times the garden space so that I could grow at least a few of each of their precious seeds and feed all my friends and everyone up and down my block. Here is just one of the many tables that was filled with seeds at the swap.One man shared a generous supply of Heirloom Imperial Scarlet Beans with me. Those beans, saved year after year, originated from a small supply carried in a pocket in 1912 all the way from northern Italy to Seattle. Said to have prolific yields on their 10' to 15' long runners, I can't wait to see what kind of trellis I'm going to be making this summer in order to successfully accommodate these beans. He had another bucket of special beans with him too, and said they had been originally brought to Ely, Minnesota by Slovakian immigrants in the early 1900s. Now, he simply calls them Ely Beans as even though the beans themselves have carried on year after year, over time the actual name of those beans got lost. He said they are excellent eaten as green beans, and when allowed to dry, make some of the best chili ever.

Remember, one of the reasons I had attended this seed swap was because I was interested in beans that would be good dried, but by the time I walked out of there, besides having been able to talk about growing things with the many awesome gardener friends I made there, those with seeds to share had not only loaded me up with their great stories, but loaded my bag up with seeds too.

Here's what I got:

Beans:

• Beka Brown Bush (from Krista's Bean Project* garden)
• Blue Lake Pole (from Krista's Bean Project* garden)
• Molasses Face Bush - Dry (from Krista's Bean Project* garden)
• Black Turtle (from Krista's Bean Project* garden)
• Ely Beans
• Imperial Scarlet Beans
• Painted Lady Beans
• Organic Bean Blend - Bush (a mix of Royalty Purple Pod, Golden Wax and Dragon Tongue)

Wow, looking over that list of beans, it did get a lot. Except for the Imperial Scarlet Beans that were so generously shared with me, in most cases, however, I received as few as only 6 to 8 beans in many of the other varities. Often splitting the contents of a small packet that had already been made up with another gardener so that we could both try them, it looks like some of us will have our own Bean Project* garden.

While I haven't yet sketched out where exactly in my gardens each of these wonderful varities of beans will be planted, I suspect the best way for me to plant most of them will be in hills rather than rows. It's certainly a wonderful assortment of beans, and they all seem most appropriate to be included in my participation with the Growing Challenge, EXTREME Evangelistic Edition this year.

With the goal of saving seeds from each again for next year, I feel the need to first do a little research in not only how to grow each of these varieties, but more specifically in how close, or far, from each other they need to be planted so that I don't end up with a bunch of cross-pollinated beans at the end of this season.

Spinach:

• Iron Leaf Spinach
• America Spinach

Organic Herbs:

• Cilantro
• Dill - Bouquet
• Parsley - Moss Curled

Organic Carrots:

• Atomic Red
• Gourmet Carrot Blend - Red, Purple, White, Yellow and Orange

Organic Radishes:

• Cherry Belle
• Pink Beauty
• Sparkler

Other Vegetables:

• Champion Collards
• Organic Dark Green Zucchini

Flowers:

• Jester Marigolds
• Crocosmia Lucifer - bulbs, some with tender shoots

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More pics from the 2nd Annual Seed Swap.

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Like one of the speakers at the seed swap said, "we were there to pursue the survival of the species - and have a good time." This seed swap, an absolute success. And we certainly did have a good time!

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* Krista's Bean Project garden came about because over the years the history of heirloom beans that do well here in the Pacific Northwest had gotten lost - but the bean seeds had not. So, Krista said she grew beans and grew beans and grew beans, year after year in her garden (which really sounded to me to be a bit more like a good sized farm than merely a garden) and documented her findings, coming up with a list of beans that are best suited to our cooler temperatures and somewhat shorter growing season.

The Growing Challenge

Sponsored by One Green Generation, this year's Growing Challenge, EXTREME Evangelistic Edition sounded fun and I wanted in. Here are their rules: 1. Grow 3 crops from seed, 2. Plant the seeds in 3 new people (by inspiring them to grow plants from seed) and 3. Tell the stories about my seed plantings - here. Also, because I'm participating in the "EXTREME" Evangelistic Edition of the challenge, there's one more rule: 4. Make it seed to seed.

Identifying three new crops to grow from seed this year in my garden seems easy enough. My Crop Number 1 will be those German Pink tomato seeds that my son shared. I chose them because even though I've been gardening most of my life, I have never raised German Pink tomatoes, nor have I ever grown my own tomato plants from seed before. Also, because these seeds were collected by my son from tomatoes he grew himself from seeds given to him by his neighbor gardener, and are from seeds saved from heirloom Pink German Tomatoes originally brought over from Germany years before, they seem to be a most appropriate crop.My crops Number 2 and 3, the Waltham Butternut Squash and the Round French Zucchini seeds shared with me by the gardener/blogger over at 14 Acres blogspot. Again, I selected these crops because I have never grown either of these varieties before, and because they are organic, open pollinated heirloom seeds collected by another gardener.
Meeting the challenge of inspiring three new people to grow crops from seeds this year shouldn't be too difficult either. Often told that I am a natural at providing positive inspiration, already I have a few friends in mind.

Having that extra challenge of "seed to seed" is a good opportunity for me, and I feel, could turn out to be my most rewarding. Considering myself a newbie at seed gathering, last year I rather accidentally experimented with gathering borage seeds from my garden. The borage I grew came to me as seedlings started by another gardener, but when the shallow gardening beds at the Cordata Community Gardens turned out to have been filled with a poor quality fill dirt and then got fried by extremely high summer temps, I managed to salvage two of those borage plants by transplanting them to my Happy Valley Community Garden spot. Not sure how they would do after having suffered from both the stressful growing conditions at the Cordata Gardens and a mid-season transplant, to my delight they seemed to thrive once settled in at Happy Valley. Their blooms were pretty.One day while pruning away some of their overgrowth, little black seeds simply fell into my hands, thus beginning my experience at gathering seeds. Now I'm look forward to growing my very own borage seedlings this spring - seed to seed. This EXTREME Evangelist Edition challenge will provide me the opportunity to learn more about cultivating those German Pink Tomatoes, Waltham Butternut Squash and Round French Zucchini in such a manner that I can successfully collect some of their seeds to grow again next year. What a fun challenge this will be!

Fragrant Hyacinth Blooms

The rewards of forcing bulbs is rather quickly realized once January rolls around. Last fall, I filled flower pot after flower pot with soil, stuffed in some tulip and hyacinth bulbs, set the pots aside in my Happy Valley Community Garden spot, mulched them with straw and, quite simply, ignored them until recently. I brought a few of the pots inside a few weeks ago. Now, the sweet fragrance of springtime hyacinth blooms fills our living room.

And there's a row of tulip buds forming on the window sill.

Watch how they've grown over the last few weeks.

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With more pots of bulbs buried under the mulch in my garden yet to bring in, what a cheerful boost for the middle of winter.

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Here's how I did it:

October 2009 - Forcing Bulbs: Planting Tulips and Hyacinths

January 2010 - Forcing Bulbs: Bringing in the Potted Bulbs

Le Corsaire Pas De Deux

What a treat, great seats at the Mt. Baker Theatre to see the Harlem Dance Troupe.

Here two of the dancers perform a set from Le Corsaire Pas De Deux, a mere sampling of the program I enjoyed.

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For a list of upcoming shows at the Mount Baker Theatre, go here - http://www.mountbakertheatre.com/events.

Thanks for the Seeds

Big thanks go out to the Minnesota blogger at 14 Acres for the generous sharing of garden seeds. Mine have arrived! Said to have quite the stockpile that needed reducing, this blogger offered her excess seeds to those of us that were interested. I requested Waltham Butternut Squash and Round French Summer Squash.

Butternut squash is absolutely my favorite winter squash. Roasting it, baking it and making soup with it, I can't seem to grow too many and had no seeds leftover from last year. Open pollinated and organically grown, the parent buttenut squash seeds I received from the 14 Acres blogger originally came from the Seed Savers Exchange.

I also love the summer squashes. They're great fresh in salads, as a snack, stir fried, baked, stuffed, pureed and turned into soups, grated and added to breads, sliced and made into pickles, I think once I even made cookies out of them - need I say more? I've grown the regular green and yellow zucchinis, assorted colors of pattypans and yellow crockneck, but I have never grown round zucchinis. They look so cute, round like an eight ball. They should make the perfect vessel for hollowing out and filling with tasty stuffings. The parent seeds of these Round French Summer Squash, originally certified organic seeds from Seeds of Change.

Thank you so very much, and what generous quantities you sent! What a fun garden year this is already, and I've barely gotten started.