A massive shout out to our volunteers! Seed packers, seed donors, seed collectors, seed growers, and label writers. Your help is what makes the Seed Library work, and that is a wonderful thing.
Thursday 2nd June for next working bee. I hope some of you can make it, at the library at 11am as usual.
Below is some further info from Jo Matthews, seed library volunteer and driver of the exciting native seed project we are currently undertaking. Just a short newsletter this month. I caught the dreaded covid earlier in May and haven’t managed to catch up with myself yet!
Indigenous Seed Project
Thanks to a generous Community Grant from The Mount Alexander Council, the Seed Library is excited to be undertaking a new project to collect and have available to borrow, indigenous seeds. As a complement to our current impressive seed collection the Indigenous Seed Project will add some local flavour, with all seed collected from the Mount Alexander Shire.
The seed will already be adapted to local conditions, something current and future gardeners will need to consider with the already changing weather conditions we are experiencing. As part of the project we will provide every potential grower some insight into the plants they have chosen to propagate. We have local ecologist, Cassia Read, helping us put together information about the ecological significance of each plant, local plant propagating legend, Frances Cincotta, will share her valuable knowledge about propagation and we will have a member of the Dja Dja Warrung clan to guide us and educate us around cultural knowledge of the plants.
With this combination of wisdom and knowledge we’re hoping all growers will develop a connection to the local plants they have growing around them and enjoy that chuffed feeling when you learn their botanical names!
We are really keen to have volunteers involved and will be running seed collecting trips later this year (when the seed is ready).
We would also love to hear from anyone that has remnant indigenous plants on their property that we could harvest seed from. The seeds we are keen to collect and have available are listed here, we are open to suggestion and ideas though.
Kangaroo Grass – Themeda australis Sweet Bursaria – Bursaria spinosa Golden Wattle – Accacia pycnantha Bushy Needlewood – Hakea decurrens Silver Wattle – Accacia dealbata Spiky -headed mat-rush – Lomandra longifolia Hoary Sunrays – Leucochrysum albicans Sticky Everlasting – Xerochrysum viscosum Chocolate Lily – Arthropodium strictum Murnong – Microseris walteri
Email us at castlemaineseedlibrary@gmail.com if you have any of these plants we can harvest seed from.