St. Albert gardeners will have visions of spring this Saturday as they gather swap seeds and stories about sustainable food.
About 150 people will be at Red Willow Place (7 Tache Street) this March 2 for the St. Albert Backyard Gardening Group’s annual seed swap. Now in its fourth year, this event encourages St. Albert gardeners to meet and share skills and seeds for the upcoming garden season, and is being held in partnership with the St. Albert Seed Library.
Aida Mustapic said she started this seed swap event to give gardeners a chance to gather and exchange seeds just as people have done for thousands of years.
“We are welcoming anyone,” she said, and they will be handing out seeds to new gardeners to get them started.
Mustapic said the seed swap will see scores of local gardeners offer up seeds from last year’s harvest for others to plant. Most will be heirloom or naturally pollinated plants that are guaranteed to have the same traits as their parents. Mustapic she planned to bring Blazing Star, walking Egyptian onion, and other seeds to the meet.
Why plant local
As the Gazette’s Neighbours for Climate series has noted, growing and sharing produce can help people cut costs, food waste, and carbon pollution. Seeds from local plants are often better adapted to St. Albert’s climate and more resistant to global heating.
“Home-grown vegetables just taste so much better,” Mustapic said, and can be grown in ways you know to be environmentally sustainable.
Mustapic said many gardeners are already planning their plots this week despite all the snow, which many will be shovelling onto their lawns and into rain barrels in preparation for this year’s drought. Some will be starting their seeds indoors to give them a head start on spring.
Mustapic said the seed swap will feature free talks from area gardeners on how to create sustainable gardens.
She herself will be speaking on companion planting — an organic gardening technique where you pair plants together for mutual benefit. Many gardeners will plant marigolds around a plot to use their scent to repel insects, for example. Some will use allelopathic species such as winter rye and sunflowers (which release chemicals to stop other plants from invading their turf) to suppress weeds.
Corrianne Brons (and her tortoise Wally) of Edmonton’s Butterfly Wings n’ Wishes will be at the seed swap to talk about beneficial bugs and gardens.
It’s easy for gardeners to write off all bugs as bad, as many bugs eat plants, Brons said. But gardeners also create fields full of delicious food for bugs to eat, and often stamp out the predatory birds, spiders, and wasps that keep those bugs in check.
“What we’ve done is set ourselves up for failure,” she said.
Brons encouraged gardeners to work with bugs to improve their gardens. Having a messy area or a compost heap draws worms, beetles, and other decomposers, boosting soil quality and disease protection. Leave spiders and centipedes alone, as they will protect your plants by eating pest bugs. Butterflies, mosquitoes, and flies will all pollinate your plants to ensure they produce fruits and vegetables, so plant native plants to attract local species.
The seed swap runs from 1 to 4 p.m. Visit the St. Albert Backyard Gardening Group on Facebook for details.
