Cory McInnis | Contributed
Cleaning out the shed last week, as I felt fall approaching all too soon, I saw some unmarked envelopes and bags of seeds on a shelf tucked away at the back.
Now, as any seed saver will tell you, you first label and date your seed packs. Yikes! How old are these, three years old, two years old? And what the heck are they?
After some sleuthing, I was able to identify a few. I collected my sweet pea pods, sunflower seeds and lupins from last year. I will put them in water to see if they germinate, and with any luck, I can plant them next spring.
Mary Alice Johnson from ALM Organic Farms is the queen of seed saving. She has a whole room full of shelves packed with every seed she grows on the farm. All are labelled, dated and recorded.
Johnson has owned ALM since 1986 and started Full Circle Seeds more than 25 years ago. Grown and for sale are fruit, nuts, vegetables, herbs and flowers, and over 250 varieties of seeds. It is a gold mine, with every imaginable source documented and ready for planting.
Johnson will talk about propagating, caring for seedlings, and saving seeds at the Oct. 25 Sooke Garden Club meeting. She will share some tricks of the trade with home gardeners on how to save seeds, why they might want to, and which seed varieties are easy and essential to keep.
Members of the Sooke Garden Club are welcome to attend the meeting at 7 p.m. at the St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church. New members can show up at the meeting and sign up; it’s that simple. For more information, visit our Facebook page, website, or email us at sookegardenclub@gmail.com.
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Cory McInnis writes for the Sooke Garden Club. Email sookegardenclub@gmail.com.
