Community Parade

My 2nd community parade!!  It was a really nice day--not too hot!

A few of my very talented co-workers created the Very Hungry Caterpillar for parades.  Ours was the first parade of the season so we were the first to actually USE it!

It's a little complicated to put together (at least a 3-man job!)

But look how cute it was in the parade!!  The kids absolutely loved it!

We even had some "fruit" for the caterpillar to munch on

Instead of candy, the library supervisor and I passed out seed packets to promote our Seed Library.

Following the parade there is a gathering at the school with booths, food, etc.

 At our booth this year we invited kids to decorate a paper pot and then plant pumpkin seeds to take home!  It was a HUGE hit!  We talked with almost TWICE as many people as last year (over 100)!

Hopefully we will have lots come in for our summer reading program and to check out seeds!

P.S.
Here's a totally cool bike that was in the parade!

Seed Library -- Season Two

We have had enough seeds donated back to the Seed Library that we are good to go for another year!  After our successful year, two other branches in our library system have decided to start a Seed Library this spring.  I am happy our hard work has paid off!

We had a series of four gardening classes with local Master Gardeners starting in Feb/March!  We have branched out from our basic gardening classes we had last year.

Oh, Deer!

How to keep deer and other animals out of your garden

Plot Gardening

Container Gardening

Fruit Tree Pruning

Our number have not been as high as last year, but they are decent.  

We have had quite a fee seeds donated back to our Seed Library--lots of flowers.

Communications made these envelopes so donated seeds can be checked out.  It is taking a lot of time to sort, package, and label all the seeds.  Hopefully we will have another good season of seeds getting checked out!

 

Seed Library Update

This past week we have finished up our gardening workshop series in conjunction with our Seed Library kickoff.  

The classes were hugely popular...some coming from out of town to attend!  Our little meeting room was packed tight every week!  Our classes included:

• Propagation from Seeds
• Gardening in the Inland Northwest
• Soil and Composting
• Growing Tomatoes from Seed to Harvest
• Vegetable Gardening 101

We have also checked out over 600 seed packets!!

The real test of this innovative project will be if members bring back seeds.  So to keep momentum going we are working on a gardening series for the fall.  We hope to include: Saving Seeds and Putting Your Garden to Bed for the Winter.

We have had so many positive comments about this project.  I hope it continues to be successful!

Seed Library

Each "branch" in the library system was asked to develop an "Innovative" program that directly meets the need of the community where the library is located.  Before I started at my new job my future team decided to create a seed library for the Otis Orchards Library.  The area is somewhat rural with many people, even if they don't own a lot of land, will have gardens--both vegetable and flower.

I have put together a gardening program for the late winter--it consists of four programs, plus the kickoff, presented by Master Gardeners of Spokane County (I needed all this put together at least 8 weeks before the program...).

• Kickoff: Propagation from Seeds
• Inland NW Vegetable Gardening 
• Basics of Soil and Composting ”
• Growing Tomatoes from Seed to Harvest 
• Vegetable Gardening 101

Our kickoff date for the seed library is February 7, 2015.  We still have a TON to go before we're ready to launch.  We spent over two hours sorting the donated seed packets we received from seed companies across the country.  We had several volunteers--which were so valuable!!  We could not have finished up sorting without their help!!  

This is one of the four bins of "assorted seed packets" we received.

We even had two "young volunteers" who did an excellent job sorting!!

Still to do:
A 2nd, more specific sort and a count of seed packets
Making seed packets of "loose" seeds
A booklet/chart with kinds of seeds we have listed
Barcodes/way to check out the seed packets
Decide on how to store seed packets
Make a flyer about "what a seed library is", how to check out seeds, and how to "return" the seeds.