by Wendy Devlin
Seedy Saturday returns to the Arbutus Room at the Recreation Complex, March12, 2011. Powell River’s own Community Seed Swap and Garden Fair is sponsored annually by the Powell River Farmers’ Institute to promote local food production and regional sustainability. Doors open from 10:00 a.m.until 3:00 p.m. Admission $2; children under 12 free.
This year’s event includes even more enjoyable opportunities for gardeners both experienced and new. The seed swap has expanded to include garden-related books, magazines and seed catalogs less than five years old. So gather-up your gently used materials and swap for new resources of gardening information.
New this year to Powell River’s Seedy Saturday are local vendors of garden products, with products for sale like seeds, organic fertilizers, Red Wiggler worms, mason bee houses. etc. Non-profit groups will also host display tables with information about community projects. Non-profits will also offer memberships and items related to fund-raising.
A silent auction will feature a range of useful items contributed by local businesses to this popular event.
This year’s workshops include topics like seed starting and saving, organic remedies for fruit and vegetable diseases, edible landscaping, attracting garden pollinators. The eight garden-related workshops run every hour on the half hour in the Spruce and Elm rooms.
Everyone is invited to Seedy Saturday, seeds to swap or not. People with seeds can pre-package them in closed envelopes and swap for others’ seeds. The number of seed packages brought is recorded
by Wendy Devlin
Seedy Saturday is coming, March 13, 2010 to the Powell River Recreation Complex!
Four hundred people have attended our community seed swap and sustainable-gardening fair each year for the past four years. The new venue at the Recreation Complex makes possible double the number of previous workshops and information/demonstration tables. Seedy Saturday is sponsored by the Powell River Farmers’ Institute to promote local food production and regional sustainability. Doors open 10:00 a.m.until 3:00 p.m. Admission, $2; children under 12, free.
Everyone is invited to Seedy Saturday, with or without seeds to swap. If you have seeds, package them in closed envelopes and label them clearly to swap for other people’s seeds. The number of seed packages you bring is recorded by a volunteer who puts your seed packages into the exchange and gives you a signed chit for them. You can then browse over the hundreds of alphabetically indexed seed packages and make your selections. When you return to the front table, a volunteer checks out your seed packages.
If you don’t have seeds to swap, you can purchase seed packages for fifty cents each, up to a 10-package limit.
Two community seed-packing parties have already packaged up 1500 packages of local seeds for the swap. Seedy Saturday also features a gardening, farming, and self-sufficiency book-and-magazine swap.
The plant exchange has been discontinued. Any non-profit groups planning plant exchanges or sales, however, can submit time and place information to our Seed Saving Committee for placement on a list of upcoming garden-related events. That list will be made available at Seedy Saturday.