Have you attended a Seedy Saturday before? For many it may be the first time so lets see whats happening. Seedy Saturdays have been around for over 20 years with the first one being held at VanDusen Botanical Gardens back in 1989. The event became so popular that they have sprung up all across the country.
So what is at a Seedy Saturday? Its an event where you can come to purchase open pollinated seeds and heritage or heirloom seeds for your garden. Open pollinated seeds mean that in the fall you can let a plant or two go to seed and then you can harvest the seed and use it the following year. Think about it, saving seeds means you save money plus you are preserving seeds that may not always be available.
Heirloom seeds are seeds that have been around for hundreds of years. For example, last year I had someone bring in some Swedish brown bean seeds that her family had brought to BC in the 1800's and they had been growing the beans here on Westham Island ever since. Each year they saved the seed on this plant. Many of the seeds we buy are hybrids which means the seed has two parents, so like in a family, not every offspring will be identical. Saving hybrid seeds means you may get a plant totally different than you expected. At Seedy Saturday you can bring your seeds to trade as we will have a seed swap. Why not trade seeds that you won't use for some that you can?
We will also have seed companies to help you out in selecting the right seeds for your garden this year. West Coast Seeds, Salt Spring Seeds and Tatiana TomatoBase will be at the event selling seeds. We will also have some garden accessories for you to look at.
We have a number of plant specialists coming to the event. I am excited to see that Tropic to Tropic Plants will be coming. Ray has now started growing citrus in Tsawwassen and I can't wait to buy myself a lemon tree. Yes, you can grow citrus here in Delta.
Besides shopping for seeds, plants and garden accessories, we have three wonderful speakers as well.
Andrea Bellamy, author of Sugar Snaps and Strawberries will be talking about Guerrilla Gardening and doing a seed bomb workshop. Don Bruchet will take us through the steps to getting our seeds off to a good start. Tatiana Kouchnareva will be teaching us how to grow tomatoes and take them from the garden to plate.
So mark your calendars. The Ladner Seedy Saturday and Garden Expo is on February 9, 2013 from 10-3 at Ladner Baptist Church, 5624 Ladner Trunk Road, Delta, BC. Admission is free and the venue is wheelchair accessible. What a fun way to get the garden season started!
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