A Brooklyn Seed Exchange

This past weekend, the Revel Gardener hosted a seed / plant swap at her house.  It was the first seed / plant swap that I ever attended and it was so much fun!  It was a small crowd, with just 4 of us attending, but what we lacked in numbers, we definitely made up in enthusiasm!  We were all eager to talk about gardening, gardening, and more gardening.  Revel Gardener had such a great setting for our seed swap,  we milled about in her beautiful backyard.  She has a gorgeous peach and cherry tree and vegetable garden in her Brooklyn backyard.  I can't believe I didn't take one photo of the yard or the trees!  Believe me, it was stunning!  In addition to bringing seeds and plants, we also were asked to bring something for the pot luck, something we made from the garden.  I brought some homemade brushchetta using all homegrown ingredients including heirloom tomatoes, garlic and Italian Genovese basil. Genovese Basil is my new favorite basil to grow.  Wow, the smell is intoxicating, so very fragrant!

I was so impressed with the attendees of the swap.  I met a fellow Staten Islander, Ralph, who brought many plants, among them these two awesome banana plants!  I was thinking people would bring seedlings but he brought two large trees!  He propagated these two from another banana plant.  Aren't these just amazing?  I couldn't unfortunately take one of these home with me because I was taking public transportation and these were in what looked like to be 10 inch pots.  I don't think I would have been able to carry one of these plants on the subway.  Hahahaha.  I would have tried though, believe me!

Red Garden Clogs brought this box of planting goodies.  In the box, she had lots of different perennial flower seeds, a couple sage plants, metal plant markers, and lots of gardening books that she no longer needed.

She also brought some peppers she grew, these look awesome!

I came home with these two books.  One from Red Garden Clogs and the other from Revel Gardener. 

And I scored these stash of seeds!  Everyone had so many seeds to share!  I also was the recipient of the sage plants.  Everyone else was already growing sage, so these all came home with me.  I also took home some plant markers and some scallion seedlings from Ralph.

The ending to the amazing event was this homemade dessert!  Revel Gardener made us apple cobbler and her husband made homemade ice cream.  Oh wow, was this ever good!  A perfect ending to a perfectly fun time!  I can't wait until Spring for our next seed / plant exchange!

Saving Tomato Seeds - Brooklyn Seed Swap

Since I've been growing a bunch of different kinds of heirloom tomatoes, I've been saving the seeds for next year's garden.  With tomatoes like this Paul Robeson heirloom, how can I not save the sees to this beauty?

I've been using the ferment method for collecting tomato seeds.  Two great resources for reading about tomato seed saving can be found here. 
http://organicgardening.about.com/od/vegetablesherbs/ss/savetomatoseeds.htm
http://mrbrownthumb.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-save-tomato-seeds.html

I know I'll have extra seeds to share, so I've been packaging them for an upcoming seed swapping event in Brooklyn.  The seed swap is being hosted by the  Revel Gardener and details about the event can be found here.  For all your local gardeners, this should be a really fun event.  It's being held on September 17, from 3-6pm.  At the event there will also be a garden pot luck and some garden speakers.  If you are interested in coming, definitely RSVP with the Revel Gardener. 

Seeds swap package!

Usually the mail does not excite me, because there's always bills in the box. However yesterday, I saw a bubble wrap envelope in the mailbox and was thrilled to see that my seed swap with Food Garden Kitchen has arrived! Anyone interested in a seed swap should check out their blog, they have a lot of seeds!!

Since today was a perfect day, 81F, I decided to spend the afternoon in the garden planting the seeds for a fall harvest. I planted the carrots and greek basil seeds that we got from the swap. I can't wait until they start germinating. I planted snow peas the other day, and they have already germinated and little seedlings are forming. Sa-weet!