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Month: June 2021

Photo of a hummingbird with text that says Pollinator Week June 21through 27, 2021 Pollinator.org

Pollinator Week Kicks Off Today! Discover How You Can Help Support These Amazing-and Necessary-Creatures

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Birds, bees, butterflies, beetles, bats and other small mammals that pollinate plants are responsible for bringing us one out of every three bites of food. They also sustain our ecosystems and produce our natural resources by helping plants reproduce.

Pollinator Week is an annual event celebrated internationally in support of pollinator health. It’s a time to celebrate pollinators and spread the word about what we can do to protect them.

Pollinator populations are changing. Many pollinator populations are in decline and this decline is attributed most severely to a loss in feeding and nesting habitats.

Learn about pollinators and how you can help at https://www.pollinator.org/pollinators#help.

One way to support pollinators is to grow wildflower gardens in which pollinators can feed and nest. Tuesday, June 22nd at 5 pm PST, the monthly live Seed Chat webinar will spotlight wildflowers to further understanding of how to grow them and harvest them in the wild.

Discussion will also focus on how wildflowers benefit us in so many ways, exponentially increasing pollinator activity. Live Q&A allows for participants to ask their own questions, so invite your newly-gardening friends too. Information about the webinar is found at GreatAmericanSeedUp.org under the Events tab.  Produced by Urban Farm U, details on the webinars can also be accessed at https://www.UrbanFarm.org/events/.

National Pollinator Week June 21 through 28, 2021

The Great American Seed Up Kicks Off National Pollinator Week with a Spotlight on Wildflowers

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The Great American Seed Up (GASU) celebrates National Pollinator Week, starting on Monday, June 21st.  In honor of this important week, GASU will offer several resources to enhance appreciation and understanding of the role pollinators play in our garden.  Known for regionally adapted, affordable seeds, GASU will include a bonus Wildflower PDF Companion Handbook for every seed bundle purchased through June 27, 2021. This Handbook covers the how, where and why of wildflower cultivation.

Additionally, on Tuesday, June 22nd at 5 pm PST, the monthly live Seed Chat webinar will spotlight wildflowers to further understanding of how to grow them and harvest them in the wild. Discussion will also focus on how wildflowers benefit us in so many ways, exponentially increasing pollinator activity. Live Q&A allows for participants to ask their own questions, so invite your newly-gardening friends too. Information about the webinar is found at GreatAmericanSeedUp.org under the Events tab.  Produced by Urban Farm U, details on the webinars can also be accessed at https://www.UrbanFarm.org/events/.

Let’s face it. We need pollinators and they need us. Despite this reality, people often do not have a good relationship with pollinators. Bees are swatted. Wasps are sprayed with all kinds of toxic concoctions. Bats are seen as a nuisance. Many don’t know the difference between a good bug and a bad bug so insects are all exterminated together.  Common herbicides and pesticides are known to kill bees and butterflies. Glyphosate herbicides and neonicotinoid pesticides are especially dangerous.

National Pollinator Week, started by Pollinator.org, attempts to bring understanding to the importance of our ecological brethren no matter who they are.  The idea is to view insects, bees, hummingbirds and even mosquitos through a different lens.  They can be allies in pollinating vegetables, fruit trees, and keeping all the “bad” bugs at bay.

One of the best ways to attract and support pollinators is by planting a variety of wildflowers, flowers, grains, and grasses as well as having water sources around for thirsty beings. Ideally the goal is to balance yards and gardens with enough food, water and healthy productive soil as well as other elements that contribute to a rich, diverse environment.

The Great American Seed Up supports gardeners in their efforts to attract pollinators by offering edible and cut flower mixes guaranteed to usher in pollen dispersers. Zinnia, nasturtiums, Black-eyed Susans, poppies and marigolds not only look gorgeous in your backyard but also function as ambassadors to spur your crops toward robust vegetable and fruit production.

With every purchase of a garden seed bundle between now and Sunday, June 27th, customers will receive the Wildflower PDF Companion Handbook as a thank you for doing their part to support gardens and the pollinators who love them. Planting a variety of flower and vegetable crops and creating gardens that include seed production further attracts an assortment of pollinators. And the gardener will end up with more seed than they can use in a lifetime.

In addition to the Wildflower Companion Handbook, our standard seed bundles include a copy of Basic Seed Saving by Bill McDorman.  The book is an invaluable tool to help gardeners save and grow their own seeds, creating a bio-diverse and regionally adapted garden that attracts and supports local pollinators.

Join our live Seed Chat about “Wildflowers!” on Tuesday, June 22nd, 2021.  And save the date for an afternoon of free seed education on Saturday, August 21st when the Great American Seed Up presents the next Seed Up Saturday. Listeners will laugh, they will cry (happy tears) and they will wonder why they haven’t been growing flowers and saving seeds all along. Information about both events is located at GreatAmericanSeedUp.org.

Graphic promoting National Garden Week June 6-12, 2021 with tomatoes on a teal blue background

National Garden Clubs Dedicate June 6-12, 2021 as “National Garden Week” – a Great Time to Remember Why We LOVE Gardening

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Millions of people were inspired to tap into the uplifting power of plants during the difficulties of the pandemic. Many turned to gardening and green spaces for mental and physical wellbeing, and to gain a sense of security in a time of stress and uncertainty.

Now that lockdowns are starting to ease, grocery shelves are once again stocked and social activities are beginning to resume, horticulture is no less important. During National Garden Week, National Garden Clubs, Inc. (NGC) wants to inspire us to keep on gardening and connecting with nature.

This is a week to raise awareness of gardening and horticulture, and to encourage more people to take part in the healthy and productive outdoor activity of gardening. Interestingly gardening starts with using healthy, regionally adapted seed. The process of saving seeds from your own garden may be easier than you think.

 

During National Garden Week, the Great American Seed Up reminds us about the reasons we started gardening in the first place and also underscores the need to cultivate our own seed stock.  Whether during the pandemic or any other time, here are a few reasons to garden and save seeds:

  • Self-sufficiency and security in a dependent world,
  • A place of peace, tranquility and retreat in a constantly connected world,
  • Exercise, natural sunlight for Vitamin D, immune boosting elements and mental health benefits,
  • Creating beauty and doing something worthwhile,
  • Supporting pollinators,
  • Connecting with nature on a regular basis, not just on vacation,
  • Embracing simplicity and a connection with the past which includes ancient seed saving traditions,
  • Doing something meaningful as a family or with others in your community,
  • Eating better tasting, more nutritious foods and escaping from a system where food is fast and cheap,
  • Eliminating toxins from your family’s diet,
  • Having homegrown and home-produced foods and seeds available, right at your fingertips,
  • Eating locally produced foods with locally produced seed (what’s more local than your own back yard?)

 

All of these reasons are still relevant now. Your motivations may align or they may differ from ours. 

Whatever your reasons, take a moment to write them down.  This will make them more concrete and harder to discard when life gets back to ‘normal.’

If needed, tape the list to the refrigerator door or bathroom mirror to remind yourself why you are going to all of the effort to produce your own food and seed and improve your living space.  And if you have a partner or children who will be part of the effort, prepare your list of motivations together.

Learn more about National Garden Week at https://gardenclub.org/national-garden-week.

 

And if you’re interested in learning more about gardening, the Great American Seed Up has some wonderful resources.

Seed Up in a Box for heirloom, open-pollinated seed stock

City Farming: A How To Guide to Growing Crops and Raising Livestock in Urban Spaces – written by Kari Spencer

Basic Seed Saving: a handy and easy to understand reference book on the Why’s and How’s of saving seeds -written by Bill McDorman