Seeds

Organized Seed Donations

 

We have been very busy at organizing our materials for the 2013 Growing Season!

Thanks to Baker Creek, Park Seeds, Harris Seeds, Seeds of Change and Sow True, we have received over $2400 of donated seeds. We have been organizing them by season and growing requirements. Our first workshop will focus on Gardening 101 and on seed starting, so we want to make sure the participants have the resources to start plants with the seeds we have had donated.

Workbooks

Workbooks for Participants

Of course, organizing the seeds and the method of distribution got us thinking about organizing all of the resources and forms. So, we created a workbook with forms and information for each month of 2013. Luckily, we have a ton of publishing materials from the days that ASPI published books and manuals. We considered making a calendar, but since ASPI’s big annual fundraiser is the Simple Living Calendar, it could get confusing. The goal is to have an efficient and easy way to collect information from the participants. We have a returnable harvest record for each month, some information relevant to the monthly workshop, and worksheets so we can collect information monthly.

Once we organized all the materials, we started brainstorming about maximizing the impact of the program. Some of the donated seeds were rare and interesting and we have a demonstration garden at the office in Mt Vernon. Our greenhouse is small for seed starting, but there is a trough that collects rain water that we may use for floating trays. If you have ANY experience with this, we’d love to know! We have been kicking around just building a high tunnel for this purpose or several cold frames made out of salvaged materials. Obviously, we’ll need to decide soon. We want to ensure it’s something participants can try at home and is inexpensive. There are a ton of great resources out there for starting seeds!

Look ahead to after the soil tests in March, we are planning to talk about soil amendments and composting in the March workshop, so we’re researching and calling around to see how we demonstrate building composters. We cannot wait to start building and planting and learning!