saturday's short attention span theatre- the 2 minute oil lamp

seeds of sustainability-seed trades

A couple of my seed trades came today. YIPPY!  My different trades so far for the year are about double the number of seed I purchased. The last couple years this is how I have expanded our heirloom seed collection rather than purchasing. the majority of our seed. I find it a much more economical and fun way to  obtain seed. Sometimes we trade for specific things and other times we just send others what we think they would enjoy growing. I enjoy trading  seeds with other folks from different areas of the world  as I enjoying experimenting with the different plants. Some do great, others so so and some don't grow at all.

Today's loot included some rose moss, yucca, marshmallow , black cohosh, several types of tomatoes( even a few funky hybrids),some beans, squash  scallion, strawberries and a few others.  I can't wait to try them and see how they all do here.

Anyone that would like to do a swap send me an email or go back through my last seeds  of sustainability post. I still have everything on the list.

I am so cheap- seed envelopes

This morning I needed to  bundle up a seed trade package and didn't have any plastic bags that I normally use for them. Looking on my messy desk I saw some old envelopes  just laying there, I believe they were from Christmas cards that were sent to us. I have been meaning to copy the addresses  into  my address book since we received them but there they sat in a muddled heap with phone numbers, notes, lists and thoughts scribbled on them in  many colors of ink, marker and colored pencil.

I at this moment decided that I had my seed envelopes. All I needed to do was get to chopping and with a tiny bit of tape I could have several envelopes. I could also get my addresses, phone numbers, thoughts, comments and lists all put in the proper locations and my desk  would get cleaner too. Instead of kill two birds with one stone I was going to kill me four.

Unfortunately, my excitement of  making my own  seed envelopes over took my common sense and I just started chopping away,  turning things inside out and taping.  Satisfied with my  new,  upcycled seed packets  I then  placed all the seeds for the various packages I was preparing in  the envelopes, sealed them all up, labeled them  and put them in their various envelopes.   What I failed to  do was  write anything down  that was written on any of the envelopes so if any of you  get my daughters phone number  or  one of my to do lists  on the inside of your seed packet, please email  me the information.

Kidding, really. That was all a lie,  but I did make my own seed packets from junk mail envelopes this morning. One envelope with a small  see through window will make 7 small seed packets. I chopped them to the size I wanted then  just used some cheap scotch style tape for the  seams.  They sure ain't pretty but they worked great. Heck I bet if you had a glue stick  you could make them even cheaper than by using the tape and if you had a child around they would love to decorate them for you.