Community gardener starts seed-sharing bank, encourages urban gardeners to start their own
With gardeners unable to access their usual seed exchanges at local libraries and community centres closed by the COVID-19 pandemic, one community gardener wants her idea to start seed swaps at a grassroots level to grow.
Marie-Pierre Bilodeau has placed a box full of sorted and labelled seeds in the traffic circle she cultivates as a garden outside her apartment building in the Grandview area of east Vancouver.
“On the box it says, ‘Free Seeds. Grow a Garden,’” said Bilodeau.
“I want everybody to start gardening, even those who haven’t gardened before,” she said of the idea of “borrowing ” seeds and replacing them at harvest time with others.
She said there has been much talk about food security and people choosing to plant their own vegetables during the economic shutdown caused by the coronavirus outbreak. “People should start being self-reliant during the pandemic,” she said. “There is so much on social media right now on how to grow your garden. It’s another thing to actually give them the seeds to do it. I am encouraging people to grow their own food.”
She said she was “definitely inspired” by the pandemic to start the seed exchange.
“Living in our affluent countries, you think, ‘I’m going to buy more seeds when I need them,’” said Bilodeau.
“We can’t just go out and buy what we want anymore.”
She said she’s heard of waits of up to over a month for online deliveries from seed companies.
“I wanted to do something helpful, to make an impact, at least in my neighbourhood,” she said.
Using opened, half-used seed packets that she said every gardener will have because there are too many seeds in each packet for most home gardeners, she put small quantities in labelled baggies.
There’s kale, arugula, beans, lettuce, Swiss chard, cabbage,
broccoli, beets, fava beans, herbs, including dill, parsley, fennel and lavender, and some flowers that encourage pollinating insects.
Some people who have helped themselves to the seeds have left behind others, including bok choy, lettuce and kale, she said.
Bilodeau said the seed exchange can be visited safely during orders to refrain from non-essential activities and keeping your distance from others to stem the spread of COVID -19.
“It’s physically distant but not socially distant,” said Bilodeau. “You can still trade seeds with neighbours by setting up a box in front of your house.”
Growing your own food is environmentally friendly, allows people to get in touch with nature and contributes to food security.
“It’s like the Victory Gardens during wartime,” she said referring to the Second World War.
And people not working or working less during the slowdown gives them more time to plant, weed and water, said Bilodeau, who works with a group that supports agriculture in eastern Africa.