Author: awkwardbotany

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Seed Swaps

I am a huge proponent of sharing and the free exchange of ideas and items, which is why when I learned that there was a seed swap happening in my current hometown, I was happy to participate.

Seed swaps are events where people can bring seeds that they have either saved themselves (i.e. collected from plants they grew in their garden or found growing elsewhere) or have purchased and trade them for seeds brought in by other participants. Bringing seeds isn’t always a requirement though – in some cases, if you have no seeds to offer, you can take what seeds you need and then plan to bring some to the following year’s swap.

Seed swaps are great ways to be introduced to plant varieties that you may not be familiar with and to get ideas for what to grow in your garden. They are also a huge benefit to people who would really like to have a garden but have limited money to purchase seeds. Another benefit, of course, is that it gives you an opportunity to unload all of your old seeds – seeds that you may no longer be interested in but someone else might.

There are also social and educational benefits to seed swaps. Mingling with other gardeners gives you a chance to meet new friends and learn from their gardening experiences. Depending on the seed swap, there may also be classes and workshops to attend where one can learn more about seed saving and general gardening.

The seed swap that I attended was called Seedy Saturday, and it was hosted by the Treasure Valley Food Coalition. I highly recommend finding a seed swap in your area and giving it a try. If there is no seed swap where you are, start one!

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Starting Seeds Indoors: The Planning Stage

It’s February – time to start thinking seriously about this year’s garden. By now you’ve probably received multiple seed catalogs in the mail and you are already starting to think about what you want to grow this year. Now it’s time to think about starting some seeds indoors so that you’ll have some plants ready to go into the garden as soon as it warms up outside. I haven’t had the best luck with starting seeds indoors, probably mostly due to lighting and temperature issues, but hopefully this year will be different.

Something that may be helpful in the planning process is a seed starting chart, which will help you decide when to start each of your seeds. After all, you don’t want to start all your seeds at once because some plants will be ready to transplant faster than others and some plants can be placed outside earlier than others. There are several resources that offer seed starting charts. Two that come to mind are Organic Gardening and You Grow Girl. In order to successfully use these charts, you will need to know the Spring Frost-Free Date for your region. A good place to figure that out is Dave’s Garden.

Once you know what you want to plant and when to plant it, and you have your pots, growing media, lighting, and temperature issues in order, you’ll be ready to go. With dedication, determination, and a little luck, you should have a healthy batch of plants to fill your garden come spring. Happy planting!

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Consider yourself introduced…

Winter is in full-force (at least for us northern hemisphere dwellers), so it may seem like an odd time to start blogging about the plant world. Everything has gone dormant. All color is gone. From now until the first signs of spring, we mostly just have gray days and frozen ground to look forward to – little in the way of life. But a blog has got to start somewhere and at some point, right? Especially when it’s been brewing in the back of my skull for so long. So why not now? And why not with this measly post announcing its arrival?

Plants have been my passion for years now. They have also become my career. This general obsession I have with them has led me to start this narrowly (yet in some ways quite broadly, as you will see) focused blog. My intention is to write about plants…but what about them exactly? A quick brainstorming session yields this list of topic ideas for posts: the science of plants, rare and endangered plants, the wonders of plants, my favorite plants, tips on growing and caring for plants, places to go to see plants, the benefits of plants, plants in the news, etc. It turns out there is a lot to say about plants – they are an extremely fundamental part of our existence on earth after all. Without plants, we certainly would not be here.

Whether the things about plants that you enjoy most include the science, the cultivation, the recreation, or simply just the aesthetics, there really is something that anyone can relate to when it comes to the world of plants. This blog will attempt to explore all of those things from the perspective of an educated yet still amateur and awkward botanist. I will endeavor to be approachable, interesting, and entertaining. Please feel free to post any comments and suggestions that you may have along the way, and let’s all have a friendly conversation and enlightening experience as we explore the endlessly fascinating and wildly rich world that is plant life.

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