GreeningRozzie Seed Swap

by Eric Lewandowski

GreeningRozzie put on its first annual seed swap and seed starting workshop last Saturday. Kids and adults who attended took home seed trays containing carefully planted seeds that will sprout into a colorful variety of herbs, flowers and heirloom and hybrid vegetables. When the seedlings emerge in a few weeks, they’ll be ready to plant in gardens outside.

The free, hands-on workshop was led by GreeningRozzie members Amy Galblum, Aviva Furman, Eric Lewandowski and Karen Kirchoff. The workshop was designed to show how easy it is to start many types of seeds. GreeningRozzie provided a broad range of supplies including seeds, soil and trays for the community event. Participants included kids and adults from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Amy, Aviva, Eric and Karen walked everyone who attended through the process of identifying which types of seed are appropriate to start indoors in trays, choosing seats to plant, and planting them. Attendees prepared the seed trays with the right soil mix, placed the correct number of seeds in each compartment to maximize germination, and labeled the trays to keep track of which vegetable, herb, or flower might have been planted.

Kids at the event ranged from 4 to 7 years old. They enthusiastically chose their vegetables and flowers. And they took great care in preparing the soil, sprinkling seeds and gently spraying the finished trays to dampen the soil for proper germination.

Some participants brought seeds from home to swap. This allowed the gardeners to diversify their home gardens and perhaps plant varieties they hadn’t used before. The seed swap table was covered in a colorful mix of heirloom vegetable, hybrid vegetable and herb seed envelopes that included chocolate colored peppers, okra, sunflowers, swiss chard, cilantro, watermelon, snap peas, zinnia’s, and corn as well as favorite seed catalogs used by the group.

Conversations about gardening techniques, the correct temperature to transplant items outdoors and how to best manage the seedlings once sprouted were common during the workshop. One attendee came to the event with her own book on square foot gardening, three large seeds trays and ten different vegetables to plant and was eager to get advice on the right way to get started.

A particularly warm week for March -- temperatures reached 80 degrees and many records were broken throughout New England -- inspired folks to start planning what to plant in their home gardens. While the act of picking a warm, sun-ripened tomato from the backyard is still more than a few months away, the familiar taste is something that we all yearn for during the other nine months of the year.