|
7th Annual Seed Libraries Summit
|
Wed., September 6 from 4-6PM
National Heirloom Expo
Sonoma Fairgrounds
Santa Rosa, California
Register
Join us for the 7th Annual Seed Librarians Summit at the National Heirloom Expo. Meet other seedbrarians and hear what is working, challenges and solutions. Come share your story and inspiration! The summit is free with admission to the National Heirloom Expo
. We are working on determining the location. Registrants will receive an email of the location. You can also check in with the Seed Library of Los Angeles' (SLOLA) booth at the Expo to find the location. They love seedbrarian visitors and they also appreciate volunteers to help spread the word. Drop by their table.
If you are unable to make it this year, mark your calendar for next year. We always meet during the National Heirloom Expo on the Wednesday from 4-6 PM.
|
Seed Saving in the Community
|
A few seed savers in a community can save plenty of seeds for a seed library, but you'll have a more robust and resilient community if more folks join in the fun. Here are some tips to increase the seed saving capacity of your community.
1. Partners: Partner with Master Gardeners or a local gardening club. Encourage Master Gardeners to make seed saving as part of their community projects, such as at schools.
2. Literature: Have brochures on seed saving to get folks started with the "super easy" plants such as tomatoes, beans, peas, and lettuce. Here is the brochure we use at Richmond Grows. Feel free to take our name off and use it as is or tweak it and make it your own. We keep them stocked in the library and people that are borrowing seeds can just pick one up.
3. Labels: You can glue on little labels on the "super easy" packets to encourage folks to save the seeds.
4. Classes: Provide classes on basic seed saving. Here is the Google Slides presentation we use at Richmond Grows Seed Lending Library. After opening our seed library, we decided to become a project of our county Master Gardeners since about half our volunteers were Master Gardeners. This allowed them to have their volunteer hours count when they taught classes for us. This class was approved as a Master Gardener class and when we offer it we often have Master Gardeners attend and they receive continuing education credit and hopefully, we get some new seed savers in the exchange. :) As with all of these resources, they are open source. Feel free to take them and use them as they are (put your own info on the title page, of course) or change them to suit your needs. NOTE: I'm working on some revisions of this for a class I'm teaching on Saturday so there will be some changes on the last few slides by the end of this week.
|
Saving Seeds
by Robert Gough and Cheryl Moore-Gough
covers 322 plants including vegetables, herbs, flowers, fruits, trees, and shrubs. So if you're not into vegetables and want a quick reference this is a book to have. The book is very attractive with many color photos. The text is color coordinated - vegetables are printed in green, flowers printed in purple, etc. Plants are listed in alphabetical order by their common name. If you only know the Latin name you need to check the index. The breadth of information is impressive, but the depth of information is weak leaving much to be desired as a resource.
|
|
|
Seed School Teacher Training
October 1-6th
Denver, CO, USA
$600 for members, $750 nonmembers
Grain School in a Day
November 4th Norwood, CO, USA
Register ($40 for members, $50 for nonmembers)
Offering a day long seed saving class?
Cool Beans! and our Facebook page.
|
|
600+ Open!
Sister Seed Libraries
|
- Have you opened?
- Added branches?
- Created a website?
Check the Sister Libraries List to see if your information is accurate and to find other libraries near you. Fill in this survey to help us keep the list accurate.
|
|
Seed Libraries Association
|
- Resources on how to start & manage a seed library
- Sister Seed Libraries pages
- Inspirational projects associated with seed libraries
|
|
Seed Libraries Social Network
|
- Connect with bioregional libraries
- Share ideas with folks with similar projects
|
Hidatsa Red Shield Bean
Bean
Phaseolus vulgaris
Growner: Hall Middle School
Photo credit: Rebecca Newburn
|
Stay Connected
|
|
 |
|
