From your friends at the SoCo Seed Collective
🌸 A Note from the Team
Spring has finally arrived, and with it the promise of fresh greens, blooming wildflowers, and new connections in our community garden beds. Whether you’re planting your first seed or harvesting early lettuce, thank you for being part of this mutual effort to grow food, share abundance, and care for one another.
In This Issue:
- 🧄 Spring Planting Tips
- 🌽 Heirloom Variety of the Month
- 🌿 Mutual Aid Update & Needs List
- 📚 Book Club: Braiding Sweetgrass & The Serviceberry
- 🌱 Member Plant Pre-Sale
- 🧑🌾 Upcoming Events & Workdays
- 📬 How to Get Involved
🌸 A Note from the Team
Spring has finally arrived, and with it the promise of fresh greens, blooming wildflowers, and new connections in our community garden beds. Whether you’re planting your first seed or harvesting early lettuce, thank you for being part of this mutual effort to grow food, share abundance, and care for one another.
🧄 Spring Planting Tips
April is the perfect time to get those warm-season crops in the ground. Tomatoes, peppers, squash, and beans all do well after the last frost date. Don’t forget to keep seedlings moist and mulch around new plantings to retain moisture. Need compost or seedlings? Reach out—we’re organizing supplies!
🌽 Heirloom Variety of the Month: Cherokee Purple Tomato
This delicious, dusky-hued tomato dates back to at least the 1800s and is beloved for its rich, sweet, almost smoky flavor. It thrives in warm soil, needs support as it grows, and rewards patient gardeners with big, beautiful slicers perfect for sandwiches or canning.
🌿 Mutual Aid Corner: What’s Needed This Month
We’re currently collecting:
- Plastic planting containers and trays
- Extra plants to pass on to others
- Volunteers for Chesapeake Garden Club Plant Sale (May 10)
- Volunteers to build Little Free Seed Libraries
If you have any of these or can lend a hand, let us know.
📚 Book Club: April Reads
This month, we’re reading two deeply connected works: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Both explore themes of reciprocity, ecological wisdom, and relationship to land and community.
Join us for thoughtful conversation and community on Thursday, May 1st at 6 PM at the Twin Beaches Library (3819 Harbor Rd, North Beach, MD 20714). All are welcome—bring a snack and your reflections!
🌱 Member Plant Pre-Sale
We’re raising funds to install mini free seed libraries at local Little Free Library locations around our area. Every plant purchase helps us grow this initiative and share seeds more widely with our neighbors.
We have a limited quantity of starter plants available for sale exclusively to Collective members:
- 15 Cherokee Purple Tomatoes
- 10 Amish Paste Tomatoes
- 9 Black Cherry Tomatoes
- 15 Better Boy Tomatoes
We will have more plants available once they are fully acclimated to the outdoors including Fish and Pippin’s Golden Honey Peppers.
Each plant is $4. Reserve yours here before they’re gone! Pick up will be in Franklin Manor or at a SoCo Seed Collective event.
🧑🌾 Upcoming Events
- Every Tuesday: Weekly Playgroup @ 10–12 pm – Plummer House – 5702 Plummer Ln, Lothian, MD 20711
- May 1 (Thurs): Book Club Meeting @ 6pm – Braiding Sweetgrass & The Serviceberry – Twin Beaches Library – 3819 Harbor Rd, North Beach, MD 20714
- May 10 (Sat): Chesapeake Garden Club Plant Sale @ 9:30-2:00 pm – Fairview Library – 8120 Southern Maryland Blvd, Owings, MD 20736
- May 17 (Sat): Garden Troubleshooting @ 10-12 pm – Plummer House – 5702 Plummer Ln, Lothian, MD 20711
📬 Stay Connected
We’re online at socoseedcollective.org and always available by email at heather@socoseedcollective.org. Share your garden updates, ask for help, or tell us what you’d like to see next month! If you’d like to receive our newsletter directly, email Heather to be added to the list.
Together we grow,
—The SoCo Seed Collective 🌻
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