Gardening

Seed Library Network
This website has extensive resources on seed libraries and seed swaps.

Seed the Map
Is your seed library open? Take 5 minutes to get on the Global Seed Library Map.

Explore the Map
Search the map to find other folks in similar regions or at the same type of location.

Seed Library Networks
Check out the other seed library networks & learn about how you can create your own.

These photos of the Coles County Community Garden came from October 9, 2025. Begin the trip with Charleston Food Forest Part 1 Right Side and Charleston Food Forest Part 2 Left Side. Continue with Seeds.

( Walk with me ... )

Here's a PDF of all the Lofthouse articles on landrace gardening. \o/ Go save the world.

Almost everything in the Charleston Food Forest is something I'm growing, would like to grow, or at least recognize from edible plant studies. So I thought it would be fun to break that down, listed in approximate spatial order moving through the lists of pictures ...

( Read more... )

This continues the tour of the Charleston Food Forest. (See Part 1: Right Front. Part 2: Right Back.)

( Walk with me ... )

My partner Doug spotted this place recently, and today we explored the Charleston Food Forest and its plants. (See Part 2 Right Back, Part 3: Left Back, Part 4 Left Front, and What I'm Growing.) It's a skinny rectangle, and not all that big. If you cut it in half and lined the halves up as a square, then it would fit in a typical town yard around here. It has a LOT of plants in it, thoughtfully chosen and arranged. I wouldn't call it a food forest myself, because while it has multiple layers, it is really short. I doubt anything is more than about 10-12 feet tall. That's sensible in a garden this small. But when I think of a forest, I'm thinking one that at least has a canopy layer. Mine has emergents, the main canopy, the subcanopy, and then all the shorter stuff as shown here (understory trees, shrubs, herbs, groundcovers, roots, fungi, vines, etc.). So I'd probably call this one a permaculture garden. (See the layers of a food forest and permaculture design principles.) I didn't spot actual guilds, but everything is arranged in logical order. Someone has done an amazing job setting this up in the space available.

The really subversive thing: it's not a garden to be looked at, it's a garden to be used, for free, by everyone. A little slice of Terramagne, or Turtle-Island-That-Was, especially since it's located right next to a government building with several human service offices. So I helped myself to some seeds. Sure, I might come back later for things to eat. But what I am really interested in is gathering things from here that I can grow at home.

I could only think of two things I'd really add to make this even better:

1) A Little Free Seed / Plant Library so folks could swap things.

2) A community bulletin board, chiefly for people to post their Have / Want lists for trading, but could also be used to announce things like plant swaps or sales, garden open houses, etc. There is an Events section on the back side of the welcome sign, but it's under glass.

( Walk with me ... )

I've started browsing around for my spring plant orders. I've made a couple of posts about places to find native plants for attracting wildlife:

Prairie Moon Nursery

Attract Birds with Larval Host Plants


I also launched the community birdfeeding for all kinds of bird-related interests such as birdfeeding and birdwatching. It's already quite lively, with members scattered around the United States of America and one in Scotland. So if you enjoy birds, drop by and check it out. I've been crossposting a lot of things to my blog and to birdfeeding, like the ones above on native plants.