23rd Feb 2019
Our first Seed Savers get-together for 2019 saw 49 brave souls (including six children) turn up on a cold, drizzly, windy morning. Annette and Karlene have been our Coordinators for the past five years and have now handed the mantle over to Lynne and Mark. Annette and Karlene were thanked very much.
We are very grateful for all of their hard work and for helping create our amazing seed bank. We look forward to Lynne and Mark leading us into the future. As part of this we all completed a survey on what we would like to do to help run Seed Savers. Many hands make light work.
It was interesting to see all the different things we do at Seed Savers written down: preparing, welcoming, hygiene station, potting, saving seeds, recording, morning tea and packing up. This is a very basic list. The survey had two pages of everything that happens to make Seed Savers the great place to be that it is.
Today our greenhouse was empty and we planted 74 varieties of seeds to get started for 2019. We planted: amaranth, 5 types of beetroot, 2 types of broccoli, broccolini, 5 types of cabbage, calendula, candytuft, carrot, celery, chamomile, 3 types of chard, chives, choy sum, 2 types of collard, culantro, echinacea, endive, fennel, hon tsai tai, kale, 2 types of kohl rabi, 11 types of lettuce, 2 types of marigold, mesclun, mizuna, 2 types of mustard, nigella, 2 types of onion, 2 types of parsley, parsnip, radish, rocket, salad burnett, 2 types of savory, 3 types of silverbeet, soapwort, sorrel, spinach, swede, tatsoi, 2 types of turnip, 2 types of viola and warrigal greens.
With no seedlings to transplant or sort, most of our time was spent sorting and packing seeds that had been donated back. We labelled and packed seeds of alyssum, basil, beetroot, buckwheat, calendula, carrot, echinacea, fennel, kale, lettuce, linseed, liquorice herb, pomegranate, radish, rocket, shallots, snowpeas and swede. Those present had the chance to take home seeds of beetroot, broad bean, carrot, coriander, fennel and sweet pea.
Seeds will be on sale at the next meeting on Monday 4 March. Seed Savers meets 9am-1pm on the 4th Saturday of each month at Bidjiwong Community Nursery, Baulkham Hills. All welcome, with free seedlings to take home each month from April till November. You are welcome to attend 1 meeting to see if this group suits you; if so you can become a single member for $25, or family member for $30 a year. Becoming a member is for the purpose of insurance cover and venue hire when you do any activities with us. Children from 6 years are welcome at Seed Savers.
Happy Gardening! Penny Janson
