Snoqualmie Valley Seed Exchange Coming March 16


​The 2024 Snoqualmie Valley Seed Exchange will be held at the Red Barn/Picnic Shelter at Tolt Macdonald Park in Carnation, WA on Saturday, March 16, 10am – 12 noon. 

This is an open-sided facility with large picnic tables inside for spreading out the seeds. It could be chilly….or glorious….on March 16 so plan to wear some layers to stay comfortable.

There is plenty of free parking available in two lots within short walking distance of the Shelter. There are also handicapped spots for those who need them.

a table of seeds at the Exchange

About the Seed Exchange

The Seed Exchange is a volunteer-led project. We are grateful that Sno-Valley Tilth will have us as one of its projects! This means your contributions are fully tax deductible as a charitable contribution to a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

Other local entities involved in our seed exchange: Strategies for Provident Living and the Cedarcrest High School Future Farmers of America.

What do we do with seeds remaining at the end of the seed exchange? We share seeds with several local giving gardens, including Hopelink’s Carnation garden, the garden at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Bellevue, the Stillwater School garden, the Granite Falls Boys and Girls Club, the Crossroads School Garden, the Fall City Learning Garden, a community garden that grows produce for the benefit of the Fall City Community Food Pantry.

We also share seeds with the Cedarcrest High School horticulture students, who grow salad greens for the high school cafeteria lunches.

What Will You Grow? Find New Treasures at the Seed Swap!

It’s always exciting to try new edible crops in the garden. Not only do you keep things fresh, which is a great goal for life as well as the kitchen, but a bit of a challenge can turn into a delightful achievement.

So why not try a new variety at the Great Seattle Seed Swap?

Browse the tables under signs for crop categories like Salad Greens, Tomatoes or Brassicas (and find out what Brassicas are-it’s OK if you don’t know). Ask another swapper what they’ve tried. Look up a variety in the stack of catalogs on a nearby table. Then just shake a few seeds into a packet, label it, and take home your treasure.

The goal of the King County Seed Lending Library is to celebrate seed. Sending you home with a new variety that may surprise you when it pops up out of the soil is the best way.

What seeds will be at the Swap?

The lending library has a supply of seeds donated by gardeners and seed companies that range from salad greens to squashes.

Some people will come to the swap with their extra seed packets or home-saved seeds (it’s not required but encouraged, just like masking!). And every year a couple of seed companies send us donations of seed to share.

This year we will enjoy selections from our friends at Adaptive Seeds in Bellingham and High Mowing Organic Seeds in Vermont. Seed from two wonderful corners of the country!

We can’t list all the types of crops and varieties that will be on the tables, but that’s part of the fun. Come and find out!

Thank you Adaptive Seeds for this cheery delivery!
Bundles of High Mowing seeds wait to be discovered.

What else happens at the Swap?

Glad you asked! Some fantastic greening organizations and community partners will join us with tables of their own. Get your gardening questions answered, learn about growing fruit in your yard, and find out how to borrow tools from a community tool library!

These great groups will be on hand:

If you want a bit of education with your seeds, we will also hold a short talk on the basics of seed saving.

The Great Seattle Seed Swap is 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.

Share, Learn, Grow at Our Seed Swaps

Sprout some new ideas for your edible garden in January! Come to the annual Seed Swaps presented by our King County Seed Lending Library branches.

Along with seeds of favorite vegetables, you will find enthusiastic fellow gardeners to share their best varieties. Many attendees at last year’s swap brought their own seeds.

Seed Swaps will be Saturday, Feb. 2 in Northwest Seattle and Snoqualmie Valley, and Saturday, Feb. 9 in Northeast Seattle and Feb. 24 in West Seattle. (See details on our Events page.)

shoppers 2017 swap

At the swap, stick around to learn about both ends of the gardening year. There will be short workshops on seed starting and seed saving. If you save your own, you can make a deposit to the library’s seed bank at next year’s swap.

Bring your edible garden seed to share. It can be commercial or home-grown seed, but please follow these guidelines:

  • 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 or heirloom.
  • If donating home-saved seed, please clean it off the stems or stalks and bring only the seed.
  • You can clean your seed at the swap. We will have screens and buckets available.
  • All shared seed should be fresh, within three years of purchase or saving.
  • Please label all donations with seed type, variety if known, and year it was grown/saved.

The Seed Swaps are free and open to all; bringing seed is not required.

The King County Seed Lending Library has five locations around the county, all operated by volunteers and supported solely by donations.

Seed donation

Give Back at Seed Homecoming Oct. 6

Are you saving seed from a crop you loved? Share it with us at our annual Seed Homecoming on Friday, October 6!

chard seed
Seed of Rainbow Chard being winnowed.

Perhaps you grew out a plant from a variety you got at our Seed Swap in January, or just have lots of leftover seed from your gardening purchases this year.

You can share seed and help others grow a garden by bringing your extra supply to our table at the Phinney Farmers Market in Northwest Seattle. The King County Seed Lending Library will be accepting seed from 4 to 7 p.m.

Our Seed Homecoming marks the end of the traditional growing season, when gardeners are getting ready to put their gardens to bed.

Seed sharing at the farmers market
KCSLL Coordinator Bill Thorness shares seeds with a farmers market attendee. Photo by Lee Harper.

Combat the Popularity Contest

Saving seed is a vital step in keeping alive our most-beloved or possibly rare varieties of edible plants.

In a marketplace ruled by popularity, where only the best-selling varieties are propogated, the future diversity of our gardens may depend on our tenacity in keeping alive a wide selection of cultivars.

What Seeds We’re Seeking

The King County Seed Lending Library, now with five branches, has the capacity to store and distribute a lot of seed, but we focus on particular types of seed.

  • Please donate only seeds of edible plants that your fellow gardeners would grow from seed, such as annual vegetables, herbs and edible flowers.seed in jars
  • If donating packaged seed, it should be organic or open-pollinated, plant types that will produce seed true to the stated variety.
  • 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 at our booth. We will have screens and buckets available.
  • All donated seed should be fresh, within three years of purchase or saving.
  • Please label all donations with seed type, variety if known, and year it was grown/saved.

Bonus: This year, thanks to a donation from our friends at the Seattle Farm Co-op, we will be giving away a small amount of mixed cover crop seed to anyone who brings seed for donation (or to anyone who stops at the booth, if we have enough to share). This is the perfect time to plant a cover crop to help enrich your soil on empty garden beds over the winter.

Clean Seeds at Saturday’s Swap

Want to try your hand at cleaning some seeds? We’ll be doing it this Saturday at the Great Seattle Seed Swap.

We have a bunch of seeds to clean, from easy beans to tiny radish seeds, both in their pods and ready for shelling. But we also have orach, mustard and arugula. You clean it, you can take it home!

Seeds to be cleaned
A variety of seeds are waiting to be cleaned at this Saturday’s swap.

Seed screens
What does a softball have to do with seed cleaning? Come and find out this Saturday at the seed swap!

You don’t have to clean seeds (or bring them) to participate in the Great Seattle Seed Swap.

We have many seeds for sharing, all neatly organized and labeled in glass jars. We have envelopes for you to package a few that look interesting. We have a resource table for you to research seeds of interest. And we’ll have people on hand to suggest how to grow those seeds to become a great part of your garden.