Seeds at the Chicago Botanic Gardens - Herb of the Week

On Feb. 23, I went to a lecture by Ken Green of Hudson Valley Seed Library at the Chicago Botanic Garden.  They had a seed swap where I picked up three or four varieties of Nasturtiums and some other seeds.

The selection of herbs was lacking but I had a great time jockeying for seed anyway.  The lecture, however, was actually my highlight.

Chicago Botanic Garden Seed Swap Volunteers giving advice

I attended the lecture 2 years ago when they had Diane Ott Whealy of Seed Savers Exchange and enjoyed the idea of saving seed and discussions of biodiversity.  This year the lecture took a different tone as there was a focus on paying attention to where your seeds come from and recognizing that asking if the seeds are Genetically Modified (GMO) is not the key to getting to the root of where your food comes from.

Ken Green and Lisa Hilgenberg (CBG horticulturist)

Ken Green was a down to earth guy whose focus to provide a mission-based business and be a socially aware entrepreneur is evident in everything he says.  A former librarian he created the first seed library where a person could "borrow" seed and plant and grow the seed and then return that seed and more to the library for others to try in the future.  There are now hundreds of seed libraries across the nation.  His focus slowly changed from sharing seed to preserving seed and how to create the best techniques for growing seed that is true to variety and the best example of a particular plant for his growing season.  He was also interested in the biodiversity of seed grown say in California, and its ability to grow in the colder climate and shorter growing season of his native upstate New York.  This

Photo courtesy of Hudson Valley Seed Library

focus on farming to produce good seed makes his garden much different than mine.  Now as an herb gardener I do not focus on seed, heck I cut the flowers off at every opportunity, so even the images of his garden looked off to me.  They focused on luscious seed heads and very little foliage.

What I loved about his presentation is that he linked seeds to stories and art.  That the "history" of a seed is not about the day it was introduced or the historical setting it became popular in, but rather the personal story of the seed itself.  Who used it, how they used it, who hybridized it or did simple selection to craft the best seed.  In his example it was a bean for making baked beans, and how a community used those beans in every social situation in a town by making and serving the baked beans, with a recipe from someone else and seasonings from another person was a wonderful narrative of the importance of seeds in everyday life. These stories of how someone decided to choose a seed that looked like that or grew that style of plant is of importance to the history of our culture as any other historical situation.  At this point he tapped into my inner museum curator who often lays dormant these days and made my decision to grow herbs that much more interesting!

He also spoke of seeds as art.  The "Art" is not just the wonderful way that Hudson Valley Seed Library solicits original art to place on their seed packets, but seed as a catalyst for thinking about seed as an artistic expression.  For example if you saved seed from a plant or flower because you loved the way it looked or tasted, you are preserving and passing along your aesthetic -- your art.  He gave a quote by Elizabeth Murray:   "Gardening is the art that uses flowers and plants as paint, and the soil and sky as canvas."

He said something early on in his talk that I found extraordinary, many people have no idea that the foods they eat once originated from seeds.  Now I have known that in some cases there is a disconnect between say "cow" and "ground beef," but I never through there was one between seed and plant or vegetable.  Could that be because I was introduced to seed so early in my life that I knew you could grow flowers and vegetables from seed, that I grew my sweet corn, peppers and tomatoes as a child from seed I picked out myself from the bins at the feed store in town.  I never gave a moment's consideration to the fact others did not experience what I had.  This gave whole new meaning to the one seed program I knew about and promoted in Chicago.

Now back to the underlying theme of the lecture.  Know where your seed comes from.  In other words do not ask "Does my seed company sell Genetically Modified seeds?" (almost all do not.)  But rather does the purchase of these seeds from this company benefit companies that will use the "seed money" to create GMOs that will be used by those who place food in my food supply.  This is a tougher question and requires being a more informed consumer.

Ken Green with shoppers talking about his seeds

He asked those of us there from the blogging community to consider, who do we recommend for our readers to use as a seed company and have we done our homework about those companies?  Because consumers will rely on those of us who give advice to have done our homework so they can spend more time planting and less time researching.  Look for a new post on recommended seed companies from me very soon!

Among his final questions was - "Which story do you want to grow?"  This has sent me off on a wonderful journey of thought that I believe will make this gardening season a whole new adventure.  

Meeting Diane Ott Whealy - Seed Savers Exchange

On Sunday I was invited to attend a lecture at the Chicago Botanic Garden  featuring Diane Ott Whealy co-founder of Seed Savers Exchange.   Before the lecture the Botanic Garden hosted a luncheon for Gardening Bloggers like myself and fed us very well and allowed us to mingle and get to know one another.  I especially enjoyed the fact I could finally place names with faces for writers whose blogs I was familiar with but never met before.  In a few days I will detail all the bloggers I had the opportunity to meet.

Diane Ott Whealy

Today I want to share just a bit of what I learned from Diane Ott Whealy.  Seed Savers Exchange, for those who are not familiar with them, is a home-grown, amateur created heirloom seed saving not-for-profit created back in 1975, that is “dedicated to saving and sharing heirloom seeds.”  They started by collecting heirloom seeds, the kind passed down in families from year to year and then sharing them with paid members to keep the heirloom varieties circulating.  They now have a seed bank and a heritage farm where they rejuvenate seeds that have been saved to keep them viable as well as selling seed and maintaining a database of those who will share and swap heirloom seeds.

An Heirloom seed is one that existed before the commercial hybrid seed movement.  Most are open pollinated and therefore can be grown and perpetuated when you save seed from your crop.

Diane Ott Whealy came to Illinois promoting her new book Gathering which is a historical memoir of the founding and work that went into creating Seed Savers Exchange.  She spoke with me before the public program about how there is a new movement to return to non-hybrid seed and avoid genetically modified seeds which has spawned many companies now selling heirloom seed.  She was honest to say that in some cases it was slightly annoying to see SSE work repackaged by someone trying to make a profit from it, but she was also generous that she did not really see this as competition because the mission to save the genetic and cultural diversity of North American garden heritage is actually forwarded by anyone who plants an heirloom seed and passes it on because that keeps the variety available, which was the whole reason Seed Savers Exchange was created.  “We have no competition except weeds,” she said with a wide smile.

                       Seed Savers Exchange Mission : To save North America's

                      diverse, but endangered, garden heritage for future generations

                      by building a network of people committed to collecting,

                      conserving and sharing heirloom seeds and plants, while

                      educating people about the value of genetic and cultural diversity.

While we talked there were discussions about how many people think gardening can only occur with expensive equipment and absolutely no possibility for failure.  She then charged us all with the responsibility that as garden educators we have to help others understand that gardening is not too hard, but does require work however, the tool most needed is dedication not an expensive tiller.

She showed pictures of her personal garden during her lecture but told us at the luncheon much more about it.  She explained that it was planted on an old gravel cow lot.  I crafted a mental picture of a non planned, free-form garden space from her descriptions, but when I saw the pictures the garden had paths and raised beds and looked very well-kept and organized.  In these pictures you can see how neat it looks.

However, upon closer inspection you can see what she was really talking about, because as she pointed out this was a garden 20 years in the making, so it started out with organized raised beds, perhaps sporting only one variety of plant, but as it grew she added to the beds complimentary plants, not just with the idea of helpful companions, but attractive companions as well, like a red tulips interplanted with leaf lettuce.  My favorite was a squash with creeping thyme around it.  The creeping thyme was actually growing up through insect holes in the large squash leaves.  My organized, every herb in its place mentality was actually opened to an entirely new possibility.

I will discuss what else I have learned in more detail in future posts, as I am still sorting through the information I received on this great garden day.  But I wanted to share the excitement I felt in talking about gardening.  There was a seed swap after the program where I picked up a couple varieties to play with in my winter sowing activities which will start next week. I learned that Seed Savers Exchange website has mountains of information on how to save seed so you too can start saving seed for yourself.

I did get myself a copy of her book, and had it autographed. The book is a recounting of stories and philosophies about saving seed and why it is so important to maintain the diversity that once existed in our home and farm gardens.  Just speaking with her about it made me want to be better about saving the seed from my plants and sharing them with others.  On the Seed Savers Exchange website there are detailed instructions for saving seed.

I recommend to anyone interesting in preserving genetic plant diversity or those who like to be able to say, I know where my food comes from, to become a member of Seed Savers Exchange.  Membership is $40.00 and comes with a catalog and other publications.  They also have a $10.00 membership for those who wish to focus on herbs and flowers.  This exchange group gets a single publication which includes seeds available for swap or purchase from other heirloom herb and flower growers.  All the options for membership are detailed on the Seed Savers Exchange membership page.

You can also buy seeds directly from Seed Savers and many are certified organic.  If you prefer to leaf through seed packets, here are a few places where they have their seed racks in Northern Illinois.  If you want to know if a garden center near you has a rack, check out this page of the website and click the list for your state.

The Pure Gardener
502 W State St, Route 38
Geneva, IL 60134
Phone: (630)232-2766

Gethsemane Garden Center
5739 N Clark
Chicago, IL 60660
Phone: (773)878-5915

Blumen Gardens
403 Edward St
Sycamore, IL 60178
Phone: (815)895-3737

Duck Soup Coop
129 E Hillcrest Dr
Dekalb, IL 60115
Phone: (815)756-7044

Walkup Heritage Farm
5215 Walkup Rd
Crystal Lake, IL 60012
Phone: (815)459-7090

Stop back tomorrow for the Herb of the Week where we will be highlighting a plant whose best part is the seed!