Becky Griffin, Community & School Garden Coordinator for University of Georgia Extension
We’re grateful to welcome Becky Griffin for this guest post, as she shares tips for seed saving, seed sharing, and their value in an education setting!
Becky is the Community & School Garden Coordinator for University of Georgia Extension. She is part of a team that received a grant to promote best management practices with seed saving in Georgia and she is on the Community Seed Network Advisory Council.
Seed saving is an often overlooked aspect of school gardening. This practice can add a new skillset for young gardeners, expand the curriculum reach of the garden, and celebrate the diversity and cultural heritage of the student population. Read more from Becky below and learn more at ugaurbanag.com and Seedsavers.org.
By Becky Griffin
School gardens routinely grow food crops, create pollinator habitat, and even replicate historic gardens. They are an integral part of the school curriculum used to teach botany, math, nutrition, history, literature, and even geography. However, the one area lacking in the hundreds of school gardens that I have visited is seed saving. Seed saving can be an important horticultural part of the garden as well as an additional avenue for tying the garden to the school curriculum. In addition, saving and sharing seeds can add a richness to the garden you may not have considered, cultural and heritage diversity.
Across our country experienced gardeners are welcoming immigrants and refugees from all over to the United States in a garden setting. A garden is common ground and food can be a uniting force. There may be language barriers but we can all "talk" seed, soil, and water. Having the privilege of working with some of these community-type gardens is exciting as cultures are shared through the growing of food. Gardeners from Somalia are interested to see what the gardeners from Burma are growing. Gardeners from Kenya are poking their heads in the Syrian's garden to see what is coming up there. Our American melting pot is alive and well in the garden.
People especially seem to enjoy growing foods from their homeland and their childhood. This is true even within the United States. Many a displaced Southerner has taken the family collard green seeds when being transferred to the North. Year after year, I grow family bean seeds brought down from the hills of Kentucky to Georgia. So, it is to be expected that our collective palate would be enriched by foods brought with immigrants from other countries. Why not try this in the school garden setting? Some schools already are!
Getting Started
If you already have an active school garden group, getting started will be easy:
Gauge interest in growing plants that have culinary meaning with your student populations. In DeKalb County, Chinese long beans, tomatillos, unique pepper varieties, and Thai basil are all grown in the same gardens.
Find a seed source. The most important seed source may be the families of your students. They may be growing interesting and meaningful plants in their home garden and would be willing to share seeds. Your local library or UGA Extension office may host a seed library. Also, Seed Savers Exchange and Johnny’s Selected Seeds both have a large selection of plant varieties.
Invite parents to help in the garden. You might be surprised at how interested parents can be in sharing their expertise and being a part of this type of project. I have encountered a school garden group where English is not the first language of any of the parent helpers but they are all excited to be a part of their student’s garden club and to share their culture through the garden.
Collect seed stories. As seeds are shared through the community, have the gardeners share their stories. Why was this crop important to their family? What traditions are associated with it? These stories are as important as the plants themselves and give the students pride in their heritage.
Host a potluck meal. Inviting families to share dishes important to their heritage with food grown in the garden is a fun way to share a meal! You will be expanding the palates of all involved.
Seed Saving 101
Until modern times seed collecting was the only way a gardener had seed for the next year. Seed was shared with neighbors and passed down from generation to generation (heirloom seeds). Seeds were taken across oceans and over the American prairie and they are an important part of our agricultural history. In my area of Southern Appalachia seed saving is part of many family heritages.
Hybrid plants are not appropriate for seed saving. They are bred to amplify a certain trait such as disease resistance or larger fruit and are produced by cross-breeding two plants with different genetics. Tomatoes are a great example. Most of the tomatoes grown in backyards are hybrid tomatoes with names like Better Boy and Early Girl. Although these varieties produce delicious tomatoes, they are not appropriate for seed saving.
Hybrid plants produce seeds that are genetically unreliable or not true-to-type. These seeds are undesirable for seed saving.
Open-pollinated plants are the type of plants we want for seed collecting. They are pollinated naturally and will produce seeds that are true-to-type if they are isolated from other varieties. So, it is important for the school gardener to choose only one variety of seed-producing plants. For example, do not plant Calypso beans in the same area as Hidatsa beans. They could possibly cross-pollinate resulting in seeds, not true-to-type. A garden of only Calypso beans will produce true Calypso bean seed! Larger gardens follow the recommended isolation distance for seed saving for most beans that is 10-20 feet.
With the smaller space of a school garden, it is best to choose one variety of the seed-producing plant type for seed saving.
Planting at Oakcliff Elementary School. Courtesy of Becky Griffin.
Curriculum Ideas
Lesson ideas are numerous:
Pollination - what exactly is pollination and fertilization?
Pollinators - how is pollen spread?
History - heirloom seeds; what was on the dinner plate in America in 1800, etc.
Geography - how did crops spread around the world?
Math - how many seeds produced per plant/fruit/bean pod?
Genetics - hybrid plants and gene traits
Cultural Studies - choose plants with cultural significance such as Chinese long beans or lemongrass; research plants used in different cultures during holidays and celebrations as well as daily meals
Literature – record seed heritage stories, research how seeds came from Europe and Africa to become part of our agricultural system
Seed Savers has a website full of seed collecting information. Your local land grant University of Georgia Cooperative Extension office can assist you in choosing varieties of plants that will work well for seed saving and will grow well in your area. Depending on your cultural background they could include extra garlic, long beans, or tomatillos!