“Rabbits don’t like onions,” Stephanie Oubert told an audience of about 50 gathered Sunday afternoon at Durango Discovery Museum’s backyard garden.
She was giving a presentation about companion planting and gardening, part of Southwest Seed Library’s grand opening.
“A lot of plants have multiple functions,” Oubert said. “Attracting wildlife beneficial to your garden. There are also plants that help build soil,” she told the crowd.
The seed library is the brainchild of longtime Durango resident and permaculturalist Monea Monroe. She and Oubert began planning the concept in her living room, and a few months later, it has a home and strong reception at the museum.
“I did some research and looked into other models,” Monore said. “I just figured out how we could design it for Durango.”
She described the library as a place where people can “check out seeds,” plant and grow them and return new seeds next season – vital for several reasons.
“It’s builds community,” she said. “People are bonding over seeds and food.”
She described a nourishing cycle that begins with planting.
“Whenever you grow a seed, it genetically adapts to the soil it grows in, and when you eat that food, your completing that cycle of life,” she said. “You’re absorbing the nutrients of the land you live on.”
The system is somewhat like a card catalog. Drawers are filled with vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers – seeds in bulk – that participants choose from. They fill out a card of what they took and bring back their offspring next year. Gardeners are encouraged to provide feedback about their results.
Monroe said she saw a need in the community, and she hopes that like the seeds in the drawers, the library will grow.
“I thought there might be a lot of support for it,” she said. “The feelings of pride and self-sufficiency, and the learning the wisdom of the plants.”
She’s just shy of earning her teaching certification from the Permaculture Institute of New Mexico, a discipline of ecological design that develops sustainable agriculture. She’s also traveled the state building relationships and networking in her field.
“It’s important for the bigger picture,” she said. “Being self-reliant.”
Elisa Sands, of Turtle Lake Refuge, was on hand giving a talk about composting and said the library is a medium to bring people interested in growing foods together.
“To be empowered by our own food and take our food into our own hands,” she said. “We’re all learning together as a community.”
Bayfield’s Juanita Guttmann was checking out vegetables and herbs. She’s built a “hot house” to grow the lettuce, tomatoes and onion seeds she gathered Sunday.
“This is great,” she said. “We can learn more about what to plant and when. We’re trying all different varieties.”
Guttmann said all of the seeds were organic. “It’s hard to find organic seeds these days,” she said.
The museum’s facilities manager Joe Lounge said he was happy to support the library in-house.
“It’s more of a partnership,” he said, “and we like partnerships, especially that have anything to do with science.”
Lindsay Marshall gardens in the Animas Valley and already donated her own seeds to the library. She said people over-think the requirements of growing food and the seed library, which provides all the information needed to do it, is a great way to begin.
“I think people can learn how easy it is,” Marshall said. “To me, planting a seed – this one little thing, and seeing that you can actually make it grow, is pretty cool. And with the library, it’s free.”
bmathis@durangoherald.com
On the Net
Southwest Seed Library: www.southwestseedlibrary.wordpress.com
