| Hello SoCo Seed Collective friends! Welcome to our first email newsletter, we have a lot to share with you! Updates February Winter Sowing During February we held our first hands-on winter sowing workshop! It was a great event, we filled around 30 jugs that went home with participants. If you’re now the owner of winter sowing jugs, be sure to check them periodically, especially as the weather warms. If you didn’t participate, there’s still time for you. In fact, now would be a good time to start jugs with those more tender annual plants such as zinnias and many herbs. |
| All the Paperwork We’ve done quite a bit of administrative work this month as well. We’ve officially started the process to incorporate the group, the first step in a long process to become a 501c3. We are also exploring fiscal sponsors who would allow us to function as a nonprofit under their supervision while we complete that process. We hope to apply for grants to bring more resources to South County. We are exploring several opportunities to fundraise for the group, including participation in a plant sale this May. We will welcome (and very much need) volunteers to help as we prepare, and on the day of the sale, May 10. More details on that as they are finalized, but thank you to Debbie Nisson and The Chesapeake Garden Club for inviting us! Our seed and plant swap events are and will continue to be free for anyone who wants to attend, whether you’re just starting out with nothing to share (yet) or you’re an experienced gardener with lots to share. Seed Library Inventory Tai Willyard undertook the huge job of organizing and cataloging our seed library. We now have an online list of everything in the seed library, you can plan ahead for the meetings now! Take a look. If you don’t see something that you want, please let us know! People often bring their personal collections to trade at meetings, so it’s possible we have what you’re looking for somewhere within the group. New Donations We received two donations from seed companies this month – Eden Brothers offered us a $100 gift card to pick anything we wanted (we wanted flowers and medicinal herbs), and Sow True Seeds has sent us a mystery seed donation. More on that to come! Where Are We? Finding locations for our growing group has been quite the challenge. We are hoping to get into a regular schedule – Swap meetings held every Third Saturday at 10 am, and Bookclub meetings held the First Thursday at 6pm, so it’s easy to keep track of and find us! Plus we want to add craft nights, educational workshops and more. There are simply not enough resources in south county for groups such as ours, something we hope to help solve, along with other groups in the area who are already working on it. That said, we have booked -at a small fee- the Plummer House at Glendening Preserve, a part of Jug Bay for our next several swap meetings. |
| Upcoming Bookclub Our first bookclub starts soon, featuring an impactful book exploring the history of Black farmers in the US. There’s still time to start (and maybe finish!) before the meeting. We Are Each Other’s Harvest by Natalie Baszile is available through both AA and Calvert’s library system. The meeting will be held at the Deale Library on March 6 at 6pm, as well as through Zoom for those who can’t make it in person. Check the FB group for that link closer to the event. April’s Pick is The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates, meeting on April 3rd at 6 pm at the Deale Library. March 15 Swap Our next swap meeting on March 15 at 10 am will be discussing all things seed starting, with some in-person demonstrations featuring Tai and yours truly. Tai also recently made bio-char, so if you’re a soil nerd, you’ll want to come hear about that. Please bring extra garden supplies (pots, trays, etc) to this meeting, in addition to any seeds and plants you may have to share. We have a new location for March’s meeting, we will be at Jug Bay – Glendening Preserve, the Plummer entrance. We’ll have access to the house if needed, but if weather permits, we will be outside. Carpool if you can to cut down on all the cars and driving! For the kiddos, we will have supplies for toilet paper roll black eyed susans. We need a volunteer or two to help supervise the kids during the demonstrations. Nature Playgroup AT LAST! We are launching the nature playgroup this month! We’ve been delayed because of sickness and weather, but we are starting this week! We’ll meet Tuesday mornings in Lothian, starting at 9:30, at the same Jug Bay location, Glendening Preserve, as our upcoming meetings. As with all our events, this is a progressive, inclusive group. All are welcome, no human is illegal, and politics affects every part of our lives. Help Us Finally, we will have a number of opportunities over the next several months for increased involvement in our group. We ask that – as you are able – you find ways to give back to the group. Whether that’s planting some extra seeds to share seedlings this spring, planting extra plants for extra produce, or collecting seeds at the end of the season, each of these steps are essential to maintaining the seed library. We’re looking for experts to speak at future meetings or lead field trips. We’re looking for artists to help with some future functional art projects. We’re looking for ideas on things you’d like to learn. Basically, if you have a skill or an interest that you want to share, we want to hear about it. If you’ve made it to the end of this, you’re a true friend, and we appreciate you! Hope to see you soon at an event! |
| Together, we’ll get through these crazy times. With appreciation, Heather Trimm |
| PS. The Blue Crab Community Fridge at Franklin United Methodist Church needs to be replaced. If you can help donate towards the $800+ cost, please do so below. |
| Blue Crab Fridge |
| PPS. If you’re seeing this online and you want to get these emails in the future, please sign up here. |
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