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Health & Fitness

Seed Stomp and Garden Party

Summer garden work leads to thoughts about workparties, community building events, permaculture, and seed-saving.

I am ever so grateful I have a garden outside my back door. For many years I've kept gardens, but their locations were diverse. Sometimes I'd have a plot at the community garden down the street, sometimes at friend's houses, sometimes just secret little spots I'd find around town. Even though I've not yet owned land, I've never let that break my gardening habit. I had a friend and elder tell me once “Just practice wherever you are. Don't wait for that someday when you have land, otherwise when you get there you won't know what to do with it.”

Today I'm especially grateful. It's sunny and warm, and my eyes are strained from working on the computer, and there are seeds and berries and vegetables and herbs and nuts throwing themselves at me as soon as I walk outdoors. The bees are like tiny winged affirmations to me with every new plant they land on. Before I created this garden, it was just a lawn. The bees seem to say to me “thank you for this flower” and “thank you for this one” and “thank you for this one” and on and on.

The task for the moment is to do some seed stomping. I've had tarps laid out in what's-left-of-the-lawn for weeks, filled to the brim with plants I've let flower and set seed (kale, arugula, spinach, beets, sorrell). They've been dry for awhile and I've been too busy to process them into handfuls of seeds for my storage jars inside.

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Seed-saving can be much more of an exact science than I treat it, (did my kale cross with my turnips? perhaps) but my philosophy is akin to many new sustainability techniques I try: Just do it in a way that's reasonable at the time, learn from interesting mistakes, and refine it next time.

But here's the hitch: I start seed-stomping and my mind turns to this past weekend. I recently spent three days in downtown Olympia digging holes and setting pavers and dancing with new friends at the event called the Village Buiding Convergence. It's a woo-woo thing with very practical applications: the 'glue' of community is formed when people work side by side, on enjoyable tasks they care about, and help and learn from each other.

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The practical applications such as barn-raisings, turn to wonderfullly diverse projects, like painting intersections, building community ovens, setting up (and of course testing out) children's play equipment. Here in Sumner, we recently did the same thing with the by Berryland Cafe. Building benches, painting murals, and planting hops take side-stage to the conversations that happen and help us understand each other.

Additionally, what draws me to team projects is also the ability to learn something new or to be inspired by someone else's techniques and knowledge. This is where permaculture comes in with big shiny gold stars. Permaculture is the design of sustainable human habitat. I found out about it in high school (Rogers '97!) when I kept asking the question “But how are humans supposed to live on the earth??” Eventually someone handed me a textbook written by a charismatic Australian, and now I've had endless hours working, talking, sharing, learning, teaching, and deeply emotionally inspired by this vibrant community of learners.

It leads people to many crazy homestead crafts, whether its the sheet mulch in my front yard, which is decomposing lawn nicely, to my backyard teaming with vegetables and fruit produced without irrigation, to the garden cart I should tinker with to get the car radio again blaring music powered from the solar panel.

So, what kind of community projects does this look like? In Permaculture courses, we download the international curriculum while giving people a whirlwind tour of hands-on projects related to natural building, edible forest gardening, wiring solar panels, inoculating mushrooms, plant propagating, wildcrafting, preparing herbs, building fires (no matches!), composting, harvesting water, setting up graywater systems, and of course, saving seed.

Which leads me back onto the tarp where I'm currently seed stomping. “This is ridiculous!” I think “Why am I doing this alone when I live in a town full of people who want seeds and to learn about seed-saving??”

So anyway, you're invited to my place next Friday for a good old fashioned Seed Stomp and Garden Party. I'll just be here all afternoon offering victuals and garden tours. The workparty at Mother Earth Farm happens each Friday, but is over by noon, so I'll offer lunch and music and plenty of tarps to stomp seeds on. Please bring any random colanders or screens, and little containers to take seeds home in.

Upcoming events:

Friday morning workparties at Mother Earth Farm (same link as above)

Almost daily morning workparties at Sumner Community Garden- The Farm location near the cemetery on Valley Ave. Just stop by. Right now there's major green bean and fava bean harvest and they need help!

Thursday, August 18th. What is a Permaculture Course? Free info event through Sustainable Tacoma-Pierce. First Congregational Church, 918 Division. 7-9pm. There'll be garden produce swaps and plant give-aways as well. Bring your extra to share.

Friday, August 19. Sustainable Puyallup potluck! 6pm!

Friday August 26 . Seed Stomp and Garden Party at my place. Give me a call and I'll tell you my address (if you haven't already slowed down to check out the sheet mulch!).

If you want to learn much more about seed-saving, there's a Seedsaving Retreat Weekend, August 27-28. Tell Marisha I sent you and get $50 off!

September-February. Permaculture course through Sustainable Tacoma-Pierce

;)

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