It's all about the seeds!

The theme has been seeds this week. The second and last of the big orders has gone out and now I can breathe a sigh of relief and start focusing on where things will get planted. I still have a few more things I plan to buy if they remain available for another few weeks, and I've also received some very special seeds, mostly medicinal herbs, from a friend. These seeds were from her deceased mother-in-law who was a sign carrying peace activist in the ‘60’s, and started an organic gardening store in Hillsboro some years ago where she sold seeds among other things. I am very proud to find new homes for her babies.

So with the medicinals and what I still plan to order, the 75-100 varieties I had envisioned planting this year will likely end up closer to 150. It’s all about the diversity for me, and finding and trying some new things to see what does well in our region. I'm also investing cash in seeds as I believe they will soon become a more valuable currency than what we are now using, at least for me.

Last year orders doubled at many of the big seed companies, and this year I think seeds will become in short supply even earlier in the season. If you have any intention of buying seeds this year I would really consider doing so in the next couple of weeks if you’re ordering online. There will be the very small sampler packets available at local nurseries and such a bit longer, but your choices will decrease quickly.

In the next few weeks I’ll be getting some seeds started in cold frames, which were built Friday, and starting to prepare beds for planting.

I’ve gotten a lot of emails asking what type of volunteer opportunities there will be, and so here is the start of a list:

Gardening:
Removing lawns, brush, blackberries, etc., preparing beds with rototillers and shovels, planting seeds and transplants, building trellises, and seed starting. And of course in a month or two there will start to be things to harvest, distribute and get to market. As the summer season winds down and shifts to autumn there will also be the putting to bed of some of the beds, and preparing and planting fall and winter crops.

Have I mentioned that many things can and should be grown here in the fall, winter, and early spring? We are blessed with a unique climate here in the Maritime Northwest, and while it takes some work to grow heat-loving species like peppers and eggplant, we can grow the most amazing, delicious greens and root crops here in the winter that taste like nothing you can buy that is grown out of our area.

Soil Health – This will be about composting, making and applying compost teas, and setting up worm bins. This is a great way to learn about soil biology and beneficial critters in the soil.

Transportation – Bike transportation for hauling materials to and from the gardens, biking a regular route a couple of times a week to pick up organic waste from restaurants and coffee shops, and the occasional truck transport to/from outside the city for things like manure.

Farmer’s Market – I’m planning on selling at one of the farmer’s markets here, probably on a Sunday in SE, so if you like chatting with people about veggies and love the atmosphere of a market, this could be for you.

I’m also looking for one or two people interested in learning how to keep chickens for laying eggs. If you’re interested in learning how to develop your own local egg business or CSA, let’s talk.

Tool & Equipment Person- If you like tools and have a knack for organizing things you might be interested in learning to be a tool librarian. It would involve keeping track of where tools go and when they come back, and learning basic tool maintenance.

Volunteers are a very important part of urban farming and running a CSA. There will be an equal amount of produce available to all the volunteers as there will be for CSA subscribers. So you can essentially earn a CSA share by regular volunteering. The difference is the CSA subscribers have a more formal arrangement as they purchase (or barter) for their share in advance of the growing season. For volunteers it’s on a week-by-week basis throughout the season. If you’re looking to do some regular volunteering let me know and we can figure out what you’d like to do. This is also a fantastic learning opportunity as whatever area of the gardening/CSA you are interested in, you can see the whole cycle from seed to seed, and season to season.

That’s it for now. I will start updating the blog on at least a weekly basis, and if you’d like to be on the list, as it were, hit the feed button up at the top right here and you will be notified when I update the blog. As the weeks progress I will try to provide at least one or two gardening get-togethers for each of the season’s activities. In the next few weeks there will be some opportunities to see how a new garden is developed, and also some seed planting. I also think a social event will soon be planned so we can all meet each other. Stay tuned!

Peace and peas,
Calliope