Generosity of Gardeners

Earlier this week, a gardener from the Plant-a-Row-for-the-Hungry project in Kennesaw stopped by the Extension office with some seed potatoes leftover from that project's big potato-planting day, for us to give away to anyone who stopped by the office and might want to plant some potatoes this year. I've been pushing seed potatoes all week, as a result. 

A new gardener in the area had "scored" a lot of free seeds  - way more than she can plant - and she dropped those extra packets off at the office, for me to give away at tonight's Vegetable Garden Basics class. Last week that same gardener brought over some "Growums" seed starting kits that she'd picked up on sale, and we've been giving those to people who want to garden with children.

I'd already been giving away seed packets that had been brought over by the Keep Cobb Beautiful office, since we get more vegetable-gardener traffic than they do.

We have a lot of seed packets from the Georgia Department of Transportation, too, all full of Cosmos seeds. Cosmos are great flowers for attracting pollinators.

Can I just say, now, how great it is to be in the center of this hub of garden generosity? I tell people that I   am "all about growing good food," and it is wonderful to see that a lot of other people are the same way!

Most of the "free seeds" are packets from 2013, so the germination rates are not going to be as high as for fresher seed, but planting a few more seeds per foot or per pot than usual will give a gardener plenty of plants.The seed potatoes (Kennebec and Red Pontiac) are for this year, and they are forming good eyes. Anyone who is interested in stopping by Cobb Extension to pick up a few seed potatoes should call the office (770-528-4070) to make sure there are still some here, but as of today, March 27, there are enough to provide for several more small gardens.