Photo by SimplyMary
The seed of gardening joy was planted in Fillmore County Master Gardener, Magali Disdier by her grandparents who were farmers. “One of my grandfather’s hobbies was to graft all his fruit trees in his orchard,” commented Magali. This love of flourishing flora, as well as the desire to encourage others to explore the concept of gardening, inspired Magali to start a local seed library. Magali moved this idea forward with insights and practical assistance from Sandy Sullivan who had recently helped start the seed library in Chatfield.
Having been a Master Gardener for over five years, Magali’s main focus involves education. She shares the best conditions to grow plants, emphasizing native plants – herbs, annuals, perennials, including trees. She recognizes problems a plant may have and how to treat the disease as well as organizing educational events and setting up booths at farmers markets, and county fairs.
After an anonymous donor gave the Crow County Master Gardeners vegetable seeds; Magali felt it was time for Spring Valley folks to have their own seed library. After visiting with the library director, Melissa Vander Plas, three groups: the Garden Club, the Friends of the Library and the Master Gardeners, came together to organize this new community resource.
The local garden club is a small group of garden enthusiasts who meet monthly from March through November, have a spring plant sale, plant and maintain several flower beds around town, and host a yearly plant show during the Ag Days Celebration (springvalleygardenclub.weebly.com/).
“The Friends of the Spring Valley Public Library is a non-profit organization whose goals are to promote excellence in the library by supporting their services and programs through advocacy, volunteering, and fundraising,” states their webpage springvalley.lib.mn.us/friends-of-the-library/.
The Master Gardeners are a group of volunteers existing in the University of Minnesota Extension Service since 1977 focused on sharing knowledge and practices involving horticulture. Learn more at extension.umn.edu/master-gardener/about-master-gardener.
The launch at the Spring Valley Seed Library, offering seeds free of charge, was on Saturday, March 14 and the presentations entitled Starting Seeds, Straw Bale Gardens, and Companion Plants offered basic gardening information, useful ideas, and answered many questions. Magali asked Master Gardener Virginia Nash to assist with answering questions and several SV Garden Club members chimed in to share tips.
Timing seems to be of utmost importance to those who wish to garden. Plants have unique germination and harvesting schedules, making it necessary to work backwards in order to decide when to start the seeds. Packages of seeds usually contain all vital information, so reading the back of the seed packages is important. Since the seed library uses preprinted envelopes all necessary information, plant name, spacing, depth, and location of planting, as well as germination time is included.
An interesting word, “scarification” caught the interest of many gathered to learn about planting seeds. Magali explained how sometimes it is necessary to break through the outer seed shell so moisture could allow germination to begin. Sandpaper or a file are commonly used when scaring the following seeds: Butterfly Pea, Four O’Clock, Hyacinth Bean, Lupine, Morning Glory, Nasturtium. Properly stored seeds can last from three to 12 years, Magali explained; the oldest known seed grown into a viable plant was a Judean Date Palm seed found in Israel and believed to be over 2,000 years old.
The seed library will be available through the summer and people are encouraged to start planting so when the ground warms up seedlings can be transplanted. Seed donations will also be given to the summer children’s program.
Magali concluded, “I want to entice people who do garden to try new things and people who do NOT garden, to start. Gardening is such a healthy hobby all around: mentally, because you grow something, and physically because you eat better food.”
Seed libraries can be found throughout Minnesota, offering free seeds for novice and experienced gardeners alike. To obtain free seeds check and see if a library exists in your area,visit thriftyminnesota.com/free-seed-libraries-in-minnesota/.
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