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Seed Trades
Feb. 10th, 2022 09:21 pmI'm in some seed swap groups, and one of them had a "make-a-wish" thread yesterday where folks just asked for what they want and other folks send it, no swapping necessary. It feels really nice to fill up eight envelopes with my favourite seeds and send them out into the world ("colourful veggies" "surprising tomatoes" "your favourite tomato" "dwarf tomatoes" "things that grow in pots" and such) and to put some extra bits in there for further distribution.
Honestly after paying for postage and little seed envelopes and actual mailing envelopes I'm down some $, and in theory the seeds are actually worth a fair bit, say 5 packets per envelope for 8 envelopes is 40 packets, and I don't think I paid less than $4 per packet for any of them. But I can't think of seeds that way.
The plants just make seeds. The ones that make the most fruit, that are super generous, make the most seeds (except Taiga and Old Italian Pink, which are basically seedless tomatoes even though they're so so good). The tomatoes I want to share are the generous ones that shrugged off my alternating too-cold and too-hot weather and gave me beautiful food. The people I want to share seeds with are, well, everyone. I don't want to exclude someone who has a little guerilla side-of-apartment or fire-escape garden, I don't want to exclude someone who has an overgrown backyard and no time, I don't want to exclude someone with weird soil or just slight shade or maybe a broiling south-facing patio. I don't want to exclude someone who prioritizes eating today over some seeds that might grow them food in awhile.
And the reason I did my variety trial, the reason I grew SO MANY tomatoes, is that there will be some tomatoes that fit every situation (short cool summers in clay soil with intermittent heat dome and no more than once-per-week watering, for example) and I wanted to find the ones that fit mine. That's the same reason that folks who garden anywhere but especially in difficult situations should have access to, not just seeds, but to lots of different kinds of seeds. $4 a packet doesn't sound like a lot, but if you need a tomato that fights the weeds because you have no time, or one that grows in that 8" of soil between foundation and sidewalk, you might need to go through ten or twenty or thirty different packets to find the right one, depending on the advice you can find about your kind of spot.
So I want all these different seeds to be out there, and spread all around -- from the maritimes through Quebec to right here in BC -- so they continue to exist and multiply fill the niches that need filling. That way more people can find success in gardening over the long term, because they'll have this diversity to grow from.
So yeah, sending out these seeds feels really good. Eight more people growing my favourite tomato? It's that much more likely to live on. I'm that much more likely to share the experience of biting into that particular one with someone in a hundred or two hundred years.
It would be great if I could make money from this -- goodness knows growing this all costs me something, and the farm can always use money -- but it's even more great to share these seeds with so many people, I think.
Honestly after paying for postage and little seed envelopes and actual mailing envelopes I'm down some $, and in theory the seeds are actually worth a fair bit, say 5 packets per envelope for 8 envelopes is 40 packets, and I don't think I paid less than $4 per packet for any of them. But I can't think of seeds that way.
The plants just make seeds. The ones that make the most fruit, that are super generous, make the most seeds (except Taiga and Old Italian Pink, which are basically seedless tomatoes even though they're so so good). The tomatoes I want to share are the generous ones that shrugged off my alternating too-cold and too-hot weather and gave me beautiful food. The people I want to share seeds with are, well, everyone. I don't want to exclude someone who has a little guerilla side-of-apartment or fire-escape garden, I don't want to exclude someone who has an overgrown backyard and no time, I don't want to exclude someone with weird soil or just slight shade or maybe a broiling south-facing patio. I don't want to exclude someone who prioritizes eating today over some seeds that might grow them food in awhile.
And the reason I did my variety trial, the reason I grew SO MANY tomatoes, is that there will be some tomatoes that fit every situation (short cool summers in clay soil with intermittent heat dome and no more than once-per-week watering, for example) and I wanted to find the ones that fit mine. That's the same reason that folks who garden anywhere but especially in difficult situations should have access to, not just seeds, but to lots of different kinds of seeds. $4 a packet doesn't sound like a lot, but if you need a tomato that fights the weeds because you have no time, or one that grows in that 8" of soil between foundation and sidewalk, you might need to go through ten or twenty or thirty different packets to find the right one, depending on the advice you can find about your kind of spot.
So I want all these different seeds to be out there, and spread all around -- from the maritimes through Quebec to right here in BC -- so they continue to exist and multiply fill the niches that need filling. That way more people can find success in gardening over the long term, because they'll have this diversity to grow from.
So yeah, sending out these seeds feels really good. Eight more people growing my favourite tomato? It's that much more likely to live on. I'm that much more likely to share the experience of biting into that particular one with someone in a hundred or two hundred years.
It would be great if I could make money from this -- goodness knows growing this all costs me something, and the farm can always use money -- but it's even more great to share these seeds with so many people, I think.
