Seeds of Abundance - Gratitude for Nature

sagescrub (64)in #gardening • 5 years ago (edited)

We curate and propagate a seed collection that provides genuine beauty, natural medicine, and wild nutrition.

Our gardens are designed as polycultures mixing perennials, annuals, cultivated, wild, and native plants. We design our garden with diversity in mind and nature informs us of what works for our particular region and climate.

We learn from nature and she has taught us to live and think in terms of “abundance” instead of “scarcity”. Diversity - in all forms, from genetic to creative expression - is the heart of resilience. We enjoy experimenting with myriads of flavors, colors, and textures and the world opens to us in infinite possibilities. As a result, we are nourished in body, mind, and spirit.

Seeds of Abundance was born of our joyful curiosity and celebration of nature’s diverse gifts. Following nature’s model of open dispersal and dissemination, we share these seeds with you and invite you to play in the garden of abundance.

What was the inspiration for our seed catalog?

We don't consider ourselves in the business of selling seeds. To sell a seed commoditizes it and reduces a seed to a thing that we have ownership over. How can we own a life form?

We prefer to say that we are sharing seeds. Why?

We are two people doing literally that - sharing seeds - that we have collected, cleaned and saved with our own four hands. In some cased our friends have helped. We are not an enterprise and we are not trying to get rich from seeds (otherwise we'd be tractor farming or hiring others to do the work for us). This is a labor of love and meaning.

Any compensation we ask for or receive is for our effort and service to curate, grow, collect, clean and make available seeds - NOT to sell ownership of a life form.

Each seed is not only life but a medium for culture and knowledge. Each seed is an opportunity to share with you what we know, what we are learning and our passion for getting to know a plant. We hope this comes across in our seed catalog plant descriptions.

We are not experts; we are amateur gardeners passionate about working with plants and seeds. We are learning more every day. We are honored to share seeds and knowledge with you.

Why do we save and share "weed" seeds?

All cultivated plants are derivatives of some feral weed. Some of our cultivated foods are very close or relatively identical genetically to the feral plants, such as chicory for example. Getting to know weeds helps us have a closer relationship with nature and the plants that grow around us.

Eating the weeds and enjoying their beauty - working with the plants for food, medicine, natural dyes, wreaths and more - allows us to be a little bit more connected with the natural world. These actions help us to have more appreciation for plants.

We believe the weeds have every right to be on this planet and we want to co-mingle and co-evolve with them in the same eco-system. We honor the weeds in our lives and they in return provide us with beauty, nutrition and resilience.

Does that mean we never pull a plant out of our garden beds? Not at all! But we choose plants consciously rather than trying to eradicate all life. Sometimes we allow weeds to grow right where their seed sprouted so that our cultivated veggies and flowers can have some wild companions ;)

How did we choose what seeds we would share?

We use our name "Seeds of Abundance" as a litmus test every time we consider a seed for our catalog. Does it provide abundant beauty, abundant food, abundant medicine or abundant utility? Does it provide abundant seed so that once established in a garden it has a good chance of reproducing in a cultivated setting naturally? Would it qualify as a permaculture plant?

In general we are sharing seeds of plants that we are already growing and wildcrafting as well as plants that we have discovered and want to incorporate into our lives and get to know better.

Where will you go from here?

Ultimately we would like to start a perennial flower, food and medicine forest and share seeds from the plants, shrubs and trees that will provide for us year after year. For now as we are still searching for the land we will call home we are building our own seed library as well as growing and harvesting our food and we choose to share seeds that result from those efforts.