Dreaming of a Green Garden

Who is ready to get their garden started? The winter seems to have gone on forever.  I’m in DIRE need of fresh produce!  Although I remain grateful for a season that provides perspective (winter), I’m longing for those greens that excite the taste buds…the first harvest of melt-in-your-mouth strawberries…new herb plantings to replenish my spice cabinet.  For me, my garden gives me what gluten cannot! I catch myself pausing to gaze longingly at the small plot on the back corner of my little half acre of the world.  Never in a million years would I (a big city girl at heart) have guessed that I’d be dreaming of spending time getting that plot of dirt ready for planting.   Although my hope is to someday be a big city girl that can still garden (rooftop gardening, anyone?), for now I’m happy to be dreaming of digging into that little plot of snow-covered mud that’s out there, with its dirt to be shoveled, vegetables to be planted, and its inspirational stories (like last year’s post about The little tomato plant that could).

The Seed Library

Seed Library

Recently I was made aware of a service that is provided by our local library.  I’ve lived in this community most of my life, and I have always loved our libraries, so I was pleasantly surprised to learn about this easy way to get my garden started…for FREE! While I can’t speak to whether this is available in other communities, I definitely think this is a model for the way to do it!  If this interests you, check out your local library and see if they (or another non-profit) do anything similar.  If not, consider suggesting it to them!

Seven Steps to Starting A Free Garden

1.  Track It:  Fill out a card with name, address, and phone number.

Seed Card Box

2.  Choose It:  Pick out up to 25 seed packets per week for vegetables and flowers from the “easy” items (since I’m new at this), and items for which you’re willing to organize and save the seeds. 3.  Mark It:  Fill out the card with the seed packets chosen. 4.  Study It:  Read The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Seed Saving & Starting by Sheri Ann Richerson (I borrowed this from the library, but you can order it on Amazon here). 5.  Organize It:  Make a plan to get organized (this is a reminder for ME, so I don’t mix the library seeds with my own seeds or forget what I planted).  Tip:  FYI, twenty-five packets of seeds are a LOT of seeds! 6.  Follow It:  Come back and track progress…I’ll be sure to blog about it so you can help me keep track of myself (uhhh, and the seeds and their progress as well). 7. Forward It:  Harvest and save the seeds.  Take them back to the library at the end of the season for use in the library next year.

Seed File

Bonus:  Our library uses one of the old card files to organize the seed packets.  Kudos for use of a once-deeply-loved-resource from my younger days!  I just had to share the picture so you could also enjoy the memory. 🙂 Cheers to the upcoming gardening season!  ~GGF Gourmet