(Free Seeds for Schools)
Growing, saving and sharing seeds is at the heart of Farm Lab. Without seeds (plants!), humans wouldn’t get very far. Through the Farm Lab we buy seeds in bulk, and save seeds and circulate them through our community seed libraries including the Lakehead Seed Library (currently at Simcoe Hall) and Orillia Seed Library. Community members are encouraged to borrow, grow, save and return seeds to the library and participate in related events and programs. We also supply free seeds to school partners, including germination test activity kits, start your own seed library kits, and much more. Together we can create a vibrant local food system rooted in a biodiverse and resilient seed system.
Stay tuned for more information or contact our Farm Lab coordinator Jacob at kearey-morelandj@lakeheadu.ca if you are interested in any of our Seedy activities!
Seed Germination Test Activity!
As a community of gardeners we are continuously gifted rare heirloom seeds, old or forgotten seeds, surpluses from years past, and of course seeds we have grown, saved and collected from our gardens, forests and fields etc…. These seeds live in an ever expanding collection. Best practice indicates that seeds of a certain age should be routinely checked for their viability before circulation in the community. We want to ensure that our seed libraries are sharing quality and viable seeds that are likely to grow – especially for those first time or beginner gardeners to ensure their success and continued interest in gardening. In order to ascertain the viability of seeds a relatively simple germination test can suffice at our scale. For example, taking a selection of 10-20 seeds and seeing if they will sprout on a moist paper towel, can give us invaluable information. This activity accomplished two main tasks. Firstly, it helps to maintain and improve the community seed collection. Secondly, it is an easy, low risk, winter time (pre-season) opportunity to start thinking and learning about seeds, plants and how they grow. Our germination test activity comes with free seeds to test along with instructions for conducting the experiment and supplementary lesson plans and activities – such as plant profiling. In effect, this is an example of community / citizen science. Together we are building a library not only of local seeds, but local knowledge. Once the viability has been determined, viable seeds will then be packed and distributed. We also have much rarer seeds that we conduct special germination tests on – often when their numbers are limited and where we seek to grow them out in order to save more seed to replenish the collection. You can request a germination test kit for your class or students (or group). We request that results are inputted directly into our results form for easy management.
Below is a list and description for some seeds available to borrow & grow through the Farm Lab Seed Library program.
The below spreadsheet (click here for a more accessible viewable catalogue) represents a student engaged community science initiative involving germination test experiments with the library’s seed collection including their profiles. Thank you to Lindsay Sargent’s 1st year Science education class from the B.Ed. program for conducting the first round of germination tests in fall 2023 which has kickstarted this ongrowing project!