Join Tilth Alliance for Seed Workshop May 18-19

What has infinite potential? Join fellow seed folks and seed savers to find out! In this 2-day weekend workshop offered by Tilth Alliance, we will explore seed stewardship, science, and our social-cultural connections to seeds. Participants will learn through in-depth discussions, hands-on practice, sharing seed stories, and exploring a curated set of resource materials.

This 2-day course will meet at the Rainier Beach Urban Farm & Wetlands, and will include:

  • Participatory lessons about plant life cycles from germination to pollination
  • Practical, hands-on skill development in saving seed and garden tours
  • Facilitated group conversations and reflective activities about history, culture and our relationships with seeds
  • Resources and guides for independent learning

Learning topics, activities and resources will include:

  • Seed terminology and basic biology
  • Garden planning for seed saving genetic diversity in seed breeding
  • Seed histories and cultural seed stories
  • Harvesting, processing and saving seeds
  • Understanding seed distribution and access
  • Creating personal action plans & next steps

Seed to Seed is an invitation to deepen your relationship with food, place and yourself, alongside a community of fellow gardeners and farmers. Participants can expect to build their functional understanding of how to save seed, while also developing their own personal connections to food systems and creating actionable plans in their lives.

This course is appropriate for intermediate gardeners and farmers, who have some experience with growing vegetables. Please note that this course will not be covering information about general gardening practices – if you are interested in learning more about how to grow food in the Pacific Northwest, we recommend Tilth Alliance’s Comprehensive Organic Gardening course. Read more FAQs here.

Sessions will take place from 10am-3pm on Saturday, May 18th and Sunday, May 19th at Rainier Beach Urban Farm & Wetlands. Classes will be both indoors and outdoors – please be prepared for outdoor activities and dress for the weather. Accessibility notes: the Rainier Beach Urban Farm & Wetlands has a gravel parking lot, mostly flat terrain, and a mix of paths that are paved, crushed gravel and wood chips.

Class fee includes a copy of The Seed Garden – The Art & Practice of Seed Saving by Seed Savers Exchange, and comprehensive class materials.

Seed To Seed Workshop — More information and Registration

PBS: Svalbard Seed Vault More Vital, Imperiled by Climate Change

Inside the Arctic Circle, set into the permafrost, the Global Seed Vault protects the future of the planet’s food crops. This initiative in Svalbard, Norway has been collecting the world’s seeds since 1984 and is the world’s most essential seed bank.

But today, even as the practice of saving our diminishing plant diversity is more important than ever, it is also more imperiled. Climate change is, of course, the cause.

The bay beyond the seed vault portal is now ice-free in the winter due to climate change. Photo: Crop Trust under Creative Commons license

The PBS Newshour took a look at the vault and its challenges and it is fascinating, sobering viewing. Watch the segment.

Get Growing with the ‘Great Seattle Seed Swap’

Looking for a new taste from your edible garden? From greens to roots to legumes, the Great Seattle Seed Swap has a vegetable variety for everyone. In fact, seeking old or unusual varieties that you might not find in the seed racks is one reason people come to the King County Seed Lending Library seed swap.

The seed swap will be Saturday, April 1, 2-4 p.m., at the Phinney Neighborhood Center, 6532 Phinney Ave. N., in the Community Hall of the Brick Building. See our Facebook event.

The seed swap includes seed sharing and education. This year, a short class will be held on seed-saving basics.

How to participate:

  • Share only seeds of edible plants that your fellow gardeners would grow from seed, such as annual vegetables, herbs and edible flowers.
  • If donating packaged seed, it should be organic or open-pollinated, plant types that will produce seed true to the stated variety. Heirlooms are by definition open-pollinated.
  • If donating home-saved seed, please winnow and clean it off the stems or stalks as much as possible and bring only the seed.
  • If you can’t clean it in advance, plan to spend some time cleaning it the swap. We will have screens and buckets available.
  • All shared seed should be fresh, within three years of purchase or saving.
  • Label all seed donations with seed type, variety if known, and year it was grown/saved.
  • Bring envelopes and a pen to store and label your new seeds.

Attendees are urged to bring seeds to share, but it is not required. The swap is free and open to all.

The King County Seed Lending Library operates a network of locations taking seed donations and offering small quantities of seeds year-round to local gardeners.

Learn, Connect at Our Seed Swap

Want to learn how to start seeds, build a worm bin or protect your apples from pests? That information and much more will be available from the Seed Lending Library and our community partners at the Great Seattle Seed Swap on Saturday, April 16, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Joining us at the Swap will be:

  • Seattle Tree Fruit Society will be on hand with bags of nylon “footies” for sale. These protect apples from codling moth and apple maggot, two of the worst pests in our orchards. They also will have a limited supply of bare-root strawberry plants for sale.
  • Sustainable Ballard will be at the swap with information about their tool library and their annual Edible Garden Tour, a truly inspiring event.
  • Tilth Alliance is sending a Master Composter to talk to attendees about composting techniques and tips. They show you how to build and care for a worm bin, so you can turn your kitchen scraps into fertilizer. He may even bring a worm bin for show-and-tell.
  • PNA Tool Lending Library will be in attendance too, showing an array of garden tools and talking about how to use the tool library.

Also, a leader of the King County Seed Lending Library will hold a short workshop on seed starting techniques.

Sign up on our Facebook event page and we will see you at the Swap!