Forest Park Community Garden Seed Swap 2022

7555 Jackson Boulevard,Forest Park IL 60130

13 March, 2022

Description

The Forest Park Seed Swap is back! Join us and the Forest Park Library for this free event where you can get some new seeds for your garden. The seed swap is a free, public event where gardeners can bring excess or unwanted seeds and swap them for something new. Don't have any seeds to swap? That's okay too. There are always plenty to go around. Please RSVP in advance and see below for info on how the swap works and how to prepare your seeds for swapping.  Special Notes For This Year: NEW LOCATION:  Please note that this year's swap will take place at the Forest Park Public Library in the Austin Room, which is on the lower level and accessible via an elevator and stairs. Regarding COVID, seed swap attendees must adhere to the Forest Park Public Library's policies. This year we will not be having a pre-swap presentation, so the swapping will start promptly at 2PM. The swap will remain open until 4pm, so come any time (although our experience is that most people come at the beginning because that's when the biggest selection of seeds is available)No more tickets or 1-to-1 trading rules. This year we are going to try a "take what you can reasonably use" method. Take the seeds you'd like, we just ask that you only take as much as you can reasonably use, so that there's plenty to go around to other attendees. Also this year, no need to buy extra seed pack credits or pay admission at the door. Everything is free. What Is a Seed Swap and How Does it Work?A seed swap is an event where people gather to swap garden seeds. Most attendees will bring seeds to donate to the swap (old--but still viable--seed packets, excess seeds they can't use, seeds they collected from their own plants and want to share, etc.) , but you don't have to bring seeds in order to attend the event and take seeds home with you. Seeds available at the swap will include seeds donated by other gardeners as well as seed packets provided by the Forest Park Community Garden. What to bring and how to swap: Just bring the seeds you want to swap. No need to divide them up into small individual packets, although its fine to do that if you prefer.  When you enter the swap, please place the packets you are donating on the seed swap tables in the appropriate location. Seed tables will be organized by genre (veggie, herb or flower) and then alphabetically by common name (bean, tomato, squash, etc.). Once you've placed your seeds on the table, you can then start perusing the tables and taking seeds. When you find a pack or container of seeds you want to take home, look at how many seeds are in the container. If it's way more seeds than you can use, please don't take all the seeds. Instead use the empty envelopes we will provide to take a portion of the seeds and leave the rest for others. Help yourself to the seeds you'd like, but please only take what you can reasonably use. Preparing Your Seed Packs Before the Swap:Many people will bring their seeds in the original seed packets they were purchased in. Other gardeners will bring seeds in envelopes or other containers. Whatever type of container your seeds are in, please make sure that they are well labeled, showing type of seed, age, source (did you buy them or gather them), and any additional info you want to include.   Older seeds: While it is true that some seeds can remain viable for decades, at our swap we ask that seeds be no more than 3 years old. If you have even older seeds that you want to get rid of, bring them along and we'll put them in an "old seeds" bucket that people are free to take from, but that they understand the seeds may not germinate as well.  We are a nonprofit community garde3n located in Forest Park, Illinois. Our mission is: To educate the community on how to build organic sustainable food systems, to provide fresh organic produce to needy families and to beautify our community through gardening.