Edmonton Seedy Sunday 2015

My first Edmonton Seedy Sunday was a blast!

Alberta Avenue Community Hall was filled to the brim with people interested in growing plants or ready to spread to the word.


The hall had been divided into four areas: A free swap / community room, demonstration area in the lounge, a lecture room, and vendors in the main hall.  

Announcer-Flower-Fairy-Bell-Ringer -- Maryann of Goodnote Community Farm -- made sure everyone knew the schedule and what was coming up in the other rooms.

I spent most of my time in the community room speaking to friendly and helpful representatives of Pesticide Free Edmonton, Edmonton Horticultural Society, Front Yards in Bloom and many other groups.

And don't forget the seeds!

Edmonton Seedy Sunday volunteers, behind the long table covered with donated seed packets, helped us to chose among all the different flowers, tomatoes, beans and herbs available.  The selection kept growing as people dropped off more. Those with nothing to swap could also get seeds for a monetary donation.  

Neither Erica nor I picked up any of the "Mystery Squash", but did go adventurous with a few different kinds of heirloom tomatoes.

We took a walk around the vendor hall and filled any remaining seed-gaps.  All while, we were keeping an eye out on the time: The Native Bees of Alberta talk was at 3 p.m.

The speakers, Ashton Strum and Monica Kohler, are both U of A Masters students researching bees.  Their enthusiasm for the subject certainly shone through as they introduced the audience to different families of bees, their living arrangements (social, non-social), and ways to make the our yards bee havens.  

It was certainly a informative and fun time overall.  But, in my excitement, I may have picked up more seeds than I can handle... Anyone else like some seeds to start?