The Olympia Seedling Network
The Olympia Seedling Network was created to:

-Encourage the creation of new gardens.
-Provide free vegetable seedlings for late starters.
-Allow more experienced gardeners to diversify their gardens
-Rally all gardeners to maximize their vegetable yield in order to have extra vegetables to donate to the needy.
-Bring plant loving people together to benefit our community and ourselves.

The basic idea is a very simple three part process.

First, plant more seedlings than you can use yourself. This can be cheap or even free.

Second, bring your extra starts to one of several seedling exchange events in the Olympia area in Late April and early May (Our first solid date is Saturday, April 25th. We will have more days befroe and after that!).

Third, later in the year when your gardens yield more than you can eat or save donate your extra vegetables to the needy (probabaly via the Thurston County Food Bank - but I am open to suggestions!).  I will make a "veggie run" once per week and pick up your extra vegetables and deliver them to the food bank. Also, you can drop them off at my place or at the food bank. 

This is a simple thing we can all do with little effort and little or no cost that will benefit everyone involved. Please consider becoming involved. I am open to ideas and comments and working with others to develop OSN.

I am easy to contact:

Phone: Chris Hyde 360-250-1573.
e-mail: goodthingsmatter@gmail.com
Twitter account: worldknives
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How the idea was "born":

This past year I really went crazy planting starts. I sewed them inside for a few weeks then brought them to my greenhouse for “hardening” in a series of seedling rotations. I got a little obsessed and when May rolled around I had over 1000 eager seedlings ready for planting. But my garden is about 10” X 20 and too small for all those seedlings.

I got on the phone and rang up some of my friends who are generally as bad procrastinators as I am and offered them some free plants for their garden. The response was enthusiastic!  Not only did I give away all my extra starts, but in return people brought me their plants and planting pots and conversation and even a couple of pies!  It was also a lesson in community building and a very heartening experience.

This past Winter I thought about that experience a lot and the possibility of starting a plant exchange network.  Then as the economy declined I decided it was something that would not only be fun and community building, but will provide vegetable food during difficult times.

On March 15, 2009 I offically launched The Olympia Seedling Network. This will be a great way in which the community can come together and with very little effort encourage new gardeners, maximize the yield of more experienced gardeners, learn from other gardners and help feed those who are in need. 
















Community
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                     New Friends
                               Free Food
                         What's not to like?

The Olympia Seedling Network
"All we are saying is give peas a chance."
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