We wanted to bring these upcoming events to your attention as you think about your spring garden:

1. Join John Walker and a number of seed saving folks for this no cost seed swap. You don’t have to bring anything to share; feel free to come and learn. John is more than equipped to answer your questions about saving seeds and getting things started. He’ll be offering this at two different times and locations:

• Thursday Feb 18 6:30 at London Ferrell Comm Garden/Sexton’s Cottage (3rd street)

• Saturday Feb 27 10 am at ‘The Croft’, Beaumont Presb. Ch. Lane Allen (near Lexington School)

• You are welcome even if you don’t have seeds to share. If there is sufficient interest we could also put group seed orders together.

• Look for notices about seed starting at these venues in March.

2. A Seed Sale: Our friend Bob McKinley of In-Feed is putting on a seed sale. Here are the details:

• Saturday, March 13th, 8am-12:30
• Bob will have selections from Seed Savers Exchange, Seeds of Change, and Johnny’s
• This will be a fundraiser for In-Feed.

Seedleaf has just renewed our membership with LFL. We have found this group to be a wonderful organization dedicated to cultivating a local economy. Do visit their website for a list of participating businesses. Here’s how they describe themselves:

Local First Lexington is a new non-profit organization that aims to help keep Lexington a unique place with a healthy, stable economy. Our membership is made up of large and small independent businesses from throughout Lexington that are interested in spreading the word about the significant economic and cultural contributions that local businesses make to our community.

Next Monday many of us will have an opportunity to work for the good of our communities in honor of the life and sacrifice of Dr. King. Below are two garden-oriented chances to help:

• Transylvania Community Garden – making tomato cages and bean trellises for local community gardens. Help us make tomato cages and bean trellises for local community gardens! 1-4 pm on Monday, January 18 Limit of 6 youth, ages 10 and older. Youth can assist, provided there is one or more adult leader per 6 youth. Youth need to have parents or leader actively assisting with the project. Youth leader or parent assumes liability and responsibility for youth.
  Please bring a screw driver to assist with this project. Contact: Danny Woolums, (859) 233-8182

• Herbie Conversion – Volunteers will convert ‘Herbies’ into compost bins for local community gardens. Volunteers should feel comfortable using a power drill. Since we are providing a limited number of drills, it would be helpful for volunteers to bring one from home if able. Volunteers must be at least 18 years old. Hosted at Transylvania University’s William T. Young Campus Center, 300 North Broadway.  Contact: Lauren Bennett (859) 266-1572

Also know that Transylvania is looking for donations of seeds for this event, so do contact them if you have seeds to share. For more general information about all that is going on at Transylvania next Monday, contact Karen Anderson at 859-233-8182, or kanderson@transy.edu.

We are excited to pass on this announcement about a photography exhibit opening next week, a series of images that will give the viewer an impression of our place (with which we are so taken).
Thanks much to Angela for your art and for bringing this to our attention.

When: January 15 to February 12, 2010;  Artists’ Reception: Friday, January 15, 5-7 p.m.
Where: Morlan Gallery at Transylvania (http://www.transy.edu/morlan/)

MY/KY: Life through the Lens

Don Ament/ Angela Baldridge/ Frank Döring/
Mary Tortorici/ and Carla Winn/

Kentucky, it seems, has always been an enigma, simultaneously admired and derided. Daniel Boone wrote, “I returned home to my family, with a determination to bring them as soon as possible to live in Kentucky, which I esteemed a second paradise, at the risk of my life and fortune.” Mark Twain, on the other hand, said, “When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Kentucky, because everything there happens twenty years after it happens anywhere else.”

Regardless of such widely variant response, the mystique of the Bluegrass State swings broad and wide–from the loftiest spire to the deepest, most verdant hollow.  MY KY: Life through the Lens is a small group invitational exhibition that attempts to capture not only the attractive but also the elusive Commonwealth.  In artistic tradition, five Kentucky photographers have given us a new way of seeing the Kentucky, its people, its industry, and its land.

Don Ament reframes Kentucky’s energy concerns; Angela Baldridge examines tobacco’s tradition and industry; Frank Döring gives an insider’s view of the equine world; Mary Tortorici’s depopulated landscapes offer a fuller view of the folks who do live in them; and Carla Winn offers studies of the faces of Kentucky’s contemporary “Daniel Boones.”

Looking to “place” for inspiration, these five artists address what “My Kentucky” means to them.  And they invite you to consider Your KY.

It must be pure grace that these seed catalogs arrived just ahead of this bit of snow. Looking at all the beans and squash, all the possibilities–its enough to almost thaw my feet out!

I wanted to draw your attention to a few sources we’ll be using for 2010. And don’t let this post frighten you: you are not behind the growing season yet. Unless you are growing onions from seed, you still have plenty of time to plan your spring garden.

• Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (www.southernexposure.com)–This catalog out of Mineral, Virginia, features seeds that have done well in the Southeastern United States. It contains a great selection of heirloom and open-pollinated seeds, those which can be saved from year to year. (Seedleaf plans to offer more seed-saving classes this summer and fall–keep an eye on our calendar of events.) Also, the gnomes on the cover of this one put it in strong contention for cutest catalog.
• Territorial Seed Company (www.territorialseed.com)–This one is based out of Cottage Grove, Oregon. The owners of this company are giving a free package of carrot seeds with each order, enough seeds to sow a 25′ row, in hopes of ensuring that more gardeners plant a row for the hungry this year.
• Johnny’s Selected Seeds (www.Johnnyseeds.com)–A little slicker, a little thicker, this catalog from Winslow, Maine, offers both hybrid varieties and heirloom fruits and vegetables, a great selection of flowers, plus a lot of tools, organic fertilizers and pesticides, all kinds of sassy things. We have found them to be very easy to work with, and they’ll replace most broken tools.

So good luck as you dream up and lay out your garden. And contact us if you could use any help on that.