Sacramento Digs Gardening logo
Sacramento Digs Gardening Article
Your resource for Sacramento-area gardening news, tips and events

Articles Recipe Index Keyword Index Calendar Twitter Facebook Instagram About Us Contact Us

Celebrate National Seed Swap Day in Fair Oaks

Share seeds with other gardeners and bring home some for your own garden, too

Coin envelopes are convenient storage for extra seeds to swap or save. Label with the year collected or purchased as well as the variety of seed.

Coin envelopes are convenient storage for extra seeds to swap or save. Label with the year collected or purchased as well as the variety of seed. Kathy Morrison

Got more seeds than you know what to do with – and still need more?

Here’s an opportunity to share that wealth while also filling your own garden with varieties you haven’t yet grown.

On Saturday, Jan. 27, the Fair Oaks Branch Library will host “Sacramento Seed Swap and Share,” a local celebration of National Seed Swap Day.

From 1 to 3 p.m., the public is invited to bring vegetable, flower and herb seeds to this free event to swap with other gardeners – or just to share. The seed should come from non-hybrid varieties such as heirloom tomatoes, squash or beans. It can be seed saved from the grower’s own garden or commercially produced.

“Come trade and share seeds! Save money, reduce waste, and increase biodiversity!” say the organizers. “Bring open-pollinated and/or heirloom vegetable, flower, herb and native plant seeds to share. Leave with new varieties to try. Share knowledge and experience about seed saving and starting plants from seed.”

Held on the last Saturday in January, National Seed Swap Day serves as “a reminder that spring is on the way,” say its creators. For most gardeners, late January is a perfect time to take stock of their seed supply while considering what to grow this spring, summer and fall.

Swapping seeds is as old as farming; so is saving seeds to grow or swap with others. Think of it as green recycling. Not only does seed swapping and sharing increase the diversity of the plants you grow, it saves money, too.

Bring envelopes and a pencil or pen to label your seed acquisitions. Bring your own seeds to swap or share, too.

Fair Oaks Branch Library is located at 11601 Fair Oaks Blvd. in Fair Oaks.

For more details: https://www.facebook.com/events/1789593944880108.

Comments

0 comments have been posted.

Newsletter Subscription

Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.

Taste Winter! E-cookbook

Lemon coconut pancakes

Find our winter recipes here!

Thanks to Our Sponsor!

Cleveland sage ad for Be Water Smart

Local News

Ad for California Local

Garden Checklist for week of Feb. 9

Be careful walking or working in wet soil; it compacts easily.

* Keep the irrigation turned off; the ground is plenty wet with more rain on the way.

* February serves as a wake-up call to gardeners. This month, you can transplant or direct-seed several flowers, including snapdragon, candytuft, lilies, astilbe, larkspur, Shasta and painted daisies, stocks, bleeding heart and coral bells.

* In the vegetable garden, plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers, and strawberry and rhubarb roots.

* Transplant cabbage and its close cousins – broccoli, kale and cauliflower – as well as lettuce (both loose leaf and head).

* Indoors, start peppers, tomatoes and eggplant from seed.

* Plant artichokes, asparagus and horseradish from root divisions.

* Plant potatoes from tubers and onions from sets (small bulbs). The onions will sprout quickly and can be used as green onions in March.

* From seed, plant beets, chard, lettuce, mustard, peas, radishes and turnips.

* Annuals are showing up in nurseries, but wait until the weather warms up a bit before planting. Instead, set out flowering perennials such as columbine and delphinium.

* Plant summer-flowering bulbs including cannas, calla lilies and gladiolus.

Taste Spring! E-cookbook

Strawberries

Find our spring recipes here!

Taste Summer! E-cookbook

square-tomatoes-plate.jpg

Find our summer recipes here!

Taste Fall! E-cookbook

Muffins and pumpkin

Find our fall recipes here!