So I found a local native seed swap! Of course, it was scheduled against my Sunday yoga class so I had to make the sacrifice to miss it without knowing if the seed swap would be worth it at all. But it was!
So I started by collecting some swamp mallow and snakeroot seeds from my yard and my friend’s to trade. I arrived and there was a lovely woman to take my swap donations. She gave me two little envelopes which allowed me to access the “special” seed stash but I was additionally able to add seeds from four long tables of huge bins collected by the volunteers so they are all local eco-types. SCORE! I couldn’t believe the bounty! I was planning to purchase most of these anyway so to get them for free and from a local source was a big win.
Before leaving I realized that I wasn’t sure how the seeds would be swapped from a physical perspective. I pictured myself putting a pinch of seeds in each pocket and then not remembering which is which. I thought about bringing envelopes but it seemed wasteful to use a stack of big envelopes for a pinch of seeds each. Then I remembered the Rainbow Loom rubber band organizer I got for the kids one Hanukkah. Maybe you know a kid who was into making those rubber band bracelets for a while also? I had long since divested us of the bands but was miraculously able to find the organizer and brought that and shoved a teeny tiny pack of Post-its into my pocket for labeling.
When I laid it out to start collecting my spoonfuls of seeds I felt like the belle of the ball! Everyone was impressed with the clever way of collecting my seeds. They didn’t know that it was actually mostly luck that any of that coordination occured, but it actually was the perfect thing to bring. The downside is that it had 18 sections so I felt compelled to get 18 types of seeds (not including a few that were pre-packed in tiny envelopes or the “special” seeds). So now I have 22 types of seeds to winter sow. I may direct sow some now to reduce a little effort but it seems like a sizeable task. Oof.
Next time I will include a list of the seeds and their preferred conditions so you can start thinking about which ones you might like to add to your yard this spring.