PERMACULTURE SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS SEED SAVERS

A very active group with many different activities.

Meetings: Debbie takes along our box of seeds to the field days once every month or two that the Permaculture group runs. We have a seed saving field day in Autumn usually at Debbie's house where the seed bank is kept.

Activities: We have demonstrations of seed saving and rarer varieties from Seed Savers and elsewhere that have acclimatised to our climate. We process the seeds with a set of sieves that we bought which has made our seed saving a lot easier.

We put seasonal planting tips, descriptions of varieties that do well and pleas to adopt a vegie in the Permaculture Southern Highlands quarterly newsletter, of 10 - 12 pages with a calendar of events, local planting guide, topics of interest, seasonal tasks.

Adopt a vegie seems to work well - people contract out either to adopt a variety that they are already growing, or a new variety and give back some seeds each year. The group specialises in beans and tomatoes.

At our annual Permacuture Design Course the participants are given a vegie variety to foster, such as potatoes.

On Biodiversity Day 8/9/01 we had a display of our seeds, produce and preserves at Bowral that attracted a lot of attention and positive comment.

March 2002 and our local seed bank is picking up a bit of momentum. If something is getting too old in the seed bank, then one of us grows them out. Feedback on varieties is hard to get, except if we ask people directly. Members of the public and our PC association now have heard of us and bring along on old variety for us.

Vegetative reproduced varieties: Jill has 17 varieties that need growing out in clean ground each year. An informal swapping does happen at our meeting and at our monthly field days, and as part of the course we visit the tutor's places.

The Permaculture Design Course is a good way of disseminating the ideas and the planting material. This is a great way for the course participants to be involved in a real way with seeds, plants, cooking and excess produce.

Current Seedlist: 09 September 2001

Specialising in tomatoes, potatoes and beans