2019 Seed Summit

The 2019 Seed Summit was a roaring success. What, you never heard about it?

Well, that’s because it’s an annual event I hold with my best gardening buddies each January, so it wasn’t exactly in the news. But we gave it a name a few years ago and like to joke that the flags were raised and the delegates were in attendance! (except we were missing 3 delegates this year)

So what’s it all about anyway? Since I’m a garden writer and member of the GWA (formerly the Association for Garden Communicators but newly-renamed GardenComm), I seem to get way more seed catalogs than the average person. (hey, it’s a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it, right?)

Each year after a day of Nordic skiing together, my friends and I come to the table to pore over the catalogs as well as to discuss the vegetable varieties that did particularly well for each of us last year. It’s an exchange of ideas — well, and of chocolate, too — for the purpose of learning from each other and making good seed selections for the coming growing season.

One of our members is Steve Cole, owner of Cole’s Organic Orchard up in Green Bluff (north of Spokane). As an organic orchardist and market gardener, he receives catalogs that even I don’t get to see. In the photo near the top, the folks at the table are (L-R) my husband Bill, dear friend Jane, Ralph, myself and Steve. We were missing Jane’s husband, Mark, Steve’s wife Marie, and Tim, so had a lower attendance than usual. But it was still a productive meeting.

This post is not intended to make you feel left out. Not in the least! But it IS an idea for you to consider staging your very own Seed Summit with like-minded gardeners and friends. All it requires is a nice selection of seed catalogs, notepads, pens… and in our case, a lovely selection of chocolates to help fuel our enthusiasm! 

Give this a try. It just might become an annual tradition for you, too.