Have you got your seed catalogue in the mail yet?
For some gardeners, January is the perfect month to dream of summer. And they might want to consider a new venue based in their own country.
SeedLiving.ca is a Canadian-based, online venue for buying, selling and swapping open pollinated seeds and live plants.
The aim is for people to use SeedLiving within their communities to broadcast events, news, gardening tips related to their growing zone, swap seeds, offer seeds up for free, as well as buy and sell.
The website is in the business of building local seed economies. It is entirely free to use and relies on the generous donations of users.
Saving seeds is brilliant, but not everyone will do it or or produce quality seeds. A venue such as SeedLiving, where experienced seed savers can sell seeds, provides another retail option for those who might just as easily buy seeds that are copywritten or genetically modified.
Yes, they want to steal the business away from the largest seed companies and put the money back into the pockets of the small family farms and dedicated growers of heirloom and rare seeds.
There are many great, small, seed companies online, but they can be hard to find. Gardeners generally can’t find an online seed seller unless they already know their name.
This is the advantage of gaining a presence on a seed marketplace such as SeedLiving. It’s a gathering place for buyers, sellers, swappers and window shoppers. Users have the capacity to post news and tips as well.
Let’s say you simply want to give seeds away for free. This is where the trading table comes in.
Much like at a Seedy Saturday, where people throw their extra seeds packets on a table, letting you take what you like, the Trading Table gives users the opportunity to get seeds for free. People who take your seeds from the Trading Table only pay shipping charges.
If you want to swap seeds, they can be listed and made available for swap. This gives two sellers the ability to swap seeds directly. If their shipping charges are the same, neither seller pays anything.
SeedLiving was created so that at some point, everyone with access to the Internet can make a living or supplement their income from open pollinated, untreated seeds and live plants, while, at the same time, promoting and enhancing biodiversity in their community.