Monday, February 21, 2011

My First Seed Swap

These are some of the 35+ seeds packets we
brought to the Lurie Garden seeds swap



Last week my mom and I went to a Lurie Garden seed swap. We brought melons, carrots, marsh mallow, tomato seed and beans. First, we laid all our bags of seeds on a table divided into three sections: annuals, perennials and vegetables. Then we met Mr. BrownThumb, (a locally famous gardener) and saw one of his PowerPoint presentations about sowing seeds. Next we helped ourselves to a rather large variety of seeds.



Seed heaven!


After the seed swapping was over, six hungry gardeners were getting ready to go home and eat lunch. Mr. BrownThumb thoughtfully stated that we all go to a pizza place. We all agreed. So Robb, Mary, Mr. BrownThumb, my mom and I went to lunch. Our pizza would take a while, so we chatted about seeds. I asked Mr.BrownThumb how to keep cats away from seedlings. He suggested that we grow cat greens to distract it. Then, while the grownups talked, I drew a picture of a plant. Robb, who had recently given me some Love-Lies-Bleeding seeds drew a Hosta, and Mary who gave me some Loofa seeds, showed me how she used to draw bunnies. Soon, our pizza arrived. Not long after that, we headed home to look at all our new seeds.



Loofah Seeds from a nice lady named Mary




These are the seeds we took home, note the pretty and unusual
Love-Lies-Bleeding seeds in the top row



Funny favorites!



I can't wait till the next seed swap! The Forest Park Community Garden is having a seed swap this Sunday, Feb 27th and there is also the Peterson Garden seed swap on March 6th.

By-the-way, did you know that there are over 300,000 species of plant and there are more to be discovered?!


Kara

11 comments:

Bruce said...

Very impressive Kara.

Do you have plans to grow anything this year from a seed that you saved from last year?

Anonymous said...

LOL, how adorable! I was really impressed by you, Kara. If I had kids I would hope they were as smart and knowledgeable about gardening as you are.

Thanks for attending the seed swap and I hope to see you at more of them.

Debbie said...

Mrbrownthumb, I hope to see you at more seed swaps too.

Bruce, I have saved some of the seeds from last year's harvest. I'm planning on growing the harvested Mickey Lee watermelon seeds and comparing them to some new Mickey Lee packaged seeds. This is called a seed trial. I'll report back later about my seed trial.

Thanks for your comments.

Kara

H2 said...

Kara:
They don't call you Little Green Girl for nothing!

What a terrific post. Thanks so much for it. I learned a lot.

Mary Pendergast said...

Hi Kara,

I love this post! And I so enjoyed being part of your lunch group. You are such a smart and sweet girl. And very knowledgeable about gardening.

I look forward to learning more from you here. I am especially interested in how those loofah seeds do. My niece in Arkansas who grew the plant will sure be tickled by your post and picture.

Hugs and happy gardening. Mary

Enid said...

Awesome! good for you. :)

ControlledChaos said...

Hi Kara... You look adorable..Marius inherited a growing stand. Can you please help him be a good seedlinger?

Debbie said...

Thanks for all you wonderful comments.

Cheryl D, Yes...All you basically need to start your seedlings are seeds, potting soil, lights, heat, water, pots or containers. Read the back of the seed packet for more detailed information on sowing your seeds.

You can also try winter sowing, check out wintersown.org or how Heidi winter sowed some of her seeds at http://tinyurl.com/479qvf8

Kara

Robj98168 said...

Kara I am glad you are keeping an interest in gardening. Very cool seed swap!

Anonymous said...

Debbie,

For sure I'll be at the Peterson seed swap and maybe I'll bump into you at the flower show if you go on the 5th.

lingo said...

Kara,
I was at the Forest Park Community Garden today. It was my first seed swap. You did a fantatic job presenting. I look forward to more posts.