Swapping seeds...sort of.

Saturday, January 23rd was the 2nd Annual Community Seed Swap, held in Alameda Park in Santa Barbara. Folks were welcome to bring seeds, cuttings, and/or skills to share with others. Even if you had no seeds to share (like me!) you were welcome to come and sample the offerings.

I actually walked to the park from my house, about 1.7 miles, because it was the first sunny day after a week of rain. Beautiful day with no clouds to be found!

There were about 25-30 people there when I arrived and there were several tables set up with info and most importantly, seeds!

Boxes of conventional seed packets like you would buy in the store were accompanied by little baggies and packets of home grown and saved seeds. Some folks had even brought a bunch of sealed envelopes (mostly the kind that come with bills for you to send back your payment in) that had been cut in half. You found the packets or bags of seeds you wanted a few out of, put some in a half envelope and wrote on it what it contained. In the ultimate act of brilliance, someone brought glue sticks so you could seal your new packet so the seeds didn't get out!

I picked up the following: Shasta daisies, arugula, black beauty eggplant, gold rush hybrid squash, and coriander (the seed for cilantro). Yay free stuff!

I used old 6 packs from the last plants I planted. I used basic Gardner and Bloome potting soil. I planted the arugula, squash and eggplant to start with. I'm lucky that the garden has a small greenhouse I can keep my seed flats in, since space is at a premium in my apartment (recall the amount of house plants I have).

Here are my flats:

And here's a look at what other folks are growing:

Here's an exterior shot of the greenhouse (more of a clearhouse, really). Note that there's a brick thing we have to keep in front of the door so critters don't get in!

Stay tuned, hopefully things will sprout forth from those flats...