Winter Sowing Kits are being distributed in the Midway
Be a part of diversifying Pierce Butler Meadow’s pollinator plants by assembling a Winter Sowing kit! In order to be responsive to the Covid pandemic and still be able to connect community members to Pierce Butler Meadow, HMC is launching a Winter Sowing Kit distribution! This kit is intended to make pollinator plants for you and Pierce Butler Meadow. The Meadow is a neighborhood stewarded natural area in the cloverleaf intersection of Snelling Ave & Pierce Butler Route. The seeds included were harvested by fellow community members last fall and are locally adapted to our area. Kits will be available from mid-February to early April.
Find and make a Kit:
Locations and kits updates are done weekly on Friday at this link. Once you have a kit from one of the little free cabinets throughout the neighborhood, you assemble the easy-to-make mini-greenhouses which and then immediately placed outdoors until spring. The winter sown mini-greenhouses allow plants to sprout and grow in protected environments, increasing their odds of survival while not requiring indoor seed starting facilities. Previous blogposts have lots of information about this seed starting method, as well as the above link.
Bring your plants to Pierce Butler Meadow in the spring!
After the prescribed burn at Pierce Butler Meadow (May 2021), then neighbors can bring their plants to our socially distanced planting day. Stay connected to the Hamline Midway Coalition to find out when this will happen. The planting day will culminate a self-sufficient sustainable loop of locally adapted seed that has been 1) harvested ---> 2) cleaned ---> 3) sowed----> 4) grown ----> & 5) planted; All by our own community members! Not only will our neighborhood gain increased plant species diversity of locally adapted native pollinator plants , but also a connection to the meadow for neighbors, who will have tried a low-cost seed starting technique.
Project sponsored by Hamline Midway Coalition (District 11)
and the HMC Minigrant fund.
