Saturday March 4th, 2017 • 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m

Old Town Library • 201 Peterson St., Fort Collins, CO 80524

This is a FREE event! In partnership with the The Growing Project and the Poudre River Public Library District.

Join us for our 10th annual seed exchange and seed-starting event presented by The Growing Project, Home Grown Food, Fort Collins Nursery and The Old Town Library.

Come share/trade your seeds and knowledge, tables available for people to display seeds.

Don’t have seeds to trade? Just bring your desire to start a garden, we have plenty to share!

Limited free seed and seed-starting soil for all attendees. Please bring a bag for soil.

Seed Swap & Giveaway: 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Master Gardeners on hand for Q & A: 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Family friendly event with a kids craft table!

Free Gardening Classes: 12:30 pm-2:30 pm. (See below for details.)

Class Schedule: Classes have LIMITED SEATING, first come first serve.

12:30 pm-1:20 pm: Transforming Lawn into Garden by Patrick Padden, Story Time Room (30 person capacity)

Learn the various ways to convert your lawn into a productive garden and the pros and cons of each. Explore sod removal, tilling, sheet mulching, raised beds, chicken tractors, perennial guilds, and passive irrigation strategies using rainwater and greywater. ​

12:30 pm-1:20 pm: Soil Care by Rod Adams, Study Room A (8 person capacity)

The description: Learn some ecological ways to improve the biodiversity, tilth, absorbency, mineral richness, and carbon holding capacity of your garden soil.

1:30 pm-2:30 pm: Jumpstart your Garden by Starting Seeds Indoors by Alex Barnett and Ruth Widrick, Study Room A (8 person capacity)

Have a lot of fun (and save a lot of money) nurturing healthy starts of your veggies and herbs from the seeds you get at the Seed Swap! Learn about which seeds to start when and how to: choose containers, select or make your own potting mix, plant the seeds, avoid common problems like leggy plants and stem wilt (“damping off”), and prepare your vigorous young plants for transplanting into their garden home.

1:30 pm-2:30 pm: Diagnosing Garden Pests, Diseases, and Weeds by Natalie Yoder, Story Time Room (30 person capacity) ​

​Learn the common pests in the Fort Collins area, how to ID them and what to do when you just can’t figure it out.

Teachers

Alex Barnett and Ruth Widrick are founding members of Home Grown Food and have each been active organic gardeners for over 20 years; both love helping to run community gardens, Alex at the Foothills Unitarian Church. They each love starting their own seeds indoors, especially for varieties that can’t be found anywhere else, and are happy to share the secrets of success they have learned along the way. ​

Natalie Yoder has her masters degree from Colorado State University (CSU) in organic vegetable production. She was a plant diagnostician in Austin Texas and has worked on small vegetable farms in Montana, Texas and California. She’s currently the Specialty crops program assistant and a vegetable researcher at CSU.

Patrick Padden is a permaculture teacher and practitioner and has a Master’s degree in eco-social design. He is the owner of Padden Permaculture, an ecological landscape design and build company that serves Fort Collins and surrounding areas. He is passionate about composting and is on a mission to transform the paradigm of conventional landscaping.

Rod Adams has owned and operated Sunspot Urban Farm in Fort Collins for the past nine years, with his wife Amy Yackel. They grow for 25 families, using agro-ecological principles, to regenerate soil and neighborhood communities.

Check out our Zone 5 seed starting & planting calendar.