Finding a Seed Swap?

flowerbug

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Do you have a seed library in your library? We have those. I can even donate seeds to any branch and they will distribute them to any other branch where needed.

yes. i don't know how much it has been used, but i have already donated beans and melon seeds to it and that is where i got the Sweet Dumpling Squash that i grew last season.

there is also a small shelf library in a cabinet near the center of town but i rarely walk in town these days so i have not checked it out. i'm not sure if there are others around or not, but a logical place for one other one to be would be the park.
 

flowerbug

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How do seed swaps work for someone that doesn't have any seed to swap?

often you can just buy some, but to tell you the truth, every seed swap i have gone to i have gone with the intention of giving away every seed i took with me. the first seed swap i was not selling them at all. i just wanted people to have them. the 2nd seed swap i was selling them for 50 cents to a dollar a container but i was also happy to give people extras so they'd get way more than their money's worth. as long as i covered the cost of the gas i was fine, and i did ok, just don't really care though as i do it for fun and the love of gardening, and beans, and peas, and squash and flowers and ... :)

the biggest plus is that it really is the most efficient way for me to get seeds distributed, mailing is too expensive and the number of people is great even to talk to about gardening. the first seed swap was about 400 people who came through the 2nd one was about 700.

really the best customers to me were those who were just starting out and i'd try to give them as much as they'd take.

i also tried to pass along things i knew i would not use myself to anyone who expressed any interest at all.

swaps, trades, yes i did a few of those, no problem at all, but most of what people had were things i didn't really need or want so i don't really want to take too much of things like that because i would only have them to pass along.

the funny thing happened at the seed swap where i met Russ and Chris for the first time because Chris wasn't planning on going so he mailed me a big box of things he wasn't going to grow any more and i took them with me to give away. and then he and his DW drove and made it after all. and the good news is that near the end of the seed swap i did find someone who took everything that was left in that box for their own efforts. i'm not sure who it was and never got a name or address to know. just one of those things. it was sweet IMO. how many grew or what happened. perhaps some day i'll hear more about it and how it went.

showing up, have a few dollars and have fun. :)
 

Zeedman

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bean lover heaven! my hardest issue is that i hardly have any time to go see what everyone else has.
That was the same problem I experienced, at the few swaps I've been able to attend. I was so busy handling people's questions about my own seeds (and watching for children with quick hands) that there was little time to explore. By the time I packed things up, many people were already gone.

And sometimes I have gone to a swap expressly to meet face-to-face with people I've known online for years; but they were busy, I was busy, and we were just ships waving at each other as we passed. :( Although I was happy for the opportunity to share seeds with others, I missed a lot of opportunities to socialize. IMO if you attend a big seed swap without bringing seeds, you will find the experience to be more enlightening, and more enjoyable.
 

flowerbug

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That was the same problem I experienced, at the few swaps I've been able to attend. I was so busy handling people's questions about my own seeds (and watching for children with quick hands) that there was little time to explore. By the time I packed things up, many people were already gone.

And sometimes I have gone to a swap expressly to meet face-to-face with people I've known online for years; but they were busy, I was busy, and we were just ships waving at each other as we passed. :( Although I was happy for the opportunity to share seeds with others, I missed a lot of opportunities to socialize. IMO if you attend a big seed swap without bringing seeds, you will find the experience to be more enlightening, and more enjoyable.

having a few people attend at least then you could split for a few moments here or there. i hoped Mom would be more sociable and interested when i took her the 2nd time instead of going alone, but she was not much into it so next time i won't waste her time. normally she's a pretty funny and an "on" person in groups but for some reason that day she was decidedly "off". so, ok, signal received, i won't do it again.

getting there early helps. the 2nd one i was there an extra half hour early and that meant i got a chance to talk to a few others and could say hello, but i still couldn't visit and look at other beans as much as i'd have liked.
 

heirloomgal

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Me too @Zeedman @flowerbug, as soon as I started doing either 'ask the gardener' tables, or doing seed sample giveaways, or selling seed at my own table I honestly lost total sense of the event happening all around me. There is just so many people, so many questions and things to share, that the day goes by in a flash and I realise that I haven't had (taken) the time to look around at anything! Happens every time. But the way I look at it, though the numbers that pass through seedy saturdays here is 500+ there is not near as much seed out there as there could be, it's more attended by purchasers than vendors really. It's a mining town that really has gotten away from the gardens it did once grow. There is a return happening it seems, but seed saving if it returns will come as a secondary phase, probably not as a part of the present surge in seed interest.
 

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