Sharing Seed – The Story of Seed Sharing Day

Imagine moving into a new home, and a neighbor stops by with a grocery bag full of prairie seed.

Welcome to Alden Township in 1993. You’ve just met George Johnson!

One neighbor at a time, George built a tight-knit community of people who helped each other restore their properties. They shared seed from native plants, taught each other how to identify and remove non-native plants like buckthorn, and helped each other burn their land.

A 2006 Chicago Wilderness magazine article dubbed them “The Seed Sharers.” The group was managing over 400 acres of natural land – all of it privately owned.

About that time, the Seed Sharers decided they wanted to spread the wealth, and offered to open their properties to others who needed seed for their own restorations.

George enlisted TLC to help. TLC invited members and other residents out to Alden Township for a one-day event called Seed Sharing Day.

Here’s how it works:

• Participants gather at a central location (someone’s home) where they drop off any seed they have to share and also food for the potluck lunch that happens when everyone returns from their seed hunt.
• Each attendee is assigned to a private property and is given directions to get there. Once at their site, a guide helps them identify the native plants whose seed they will collect for their own restoration project. Most people collect for an hour and a half or two hours. There are usually 3-5 collectors at each site.
• Folks are encouraged to return to the starting place to have lunch and browse the many bags of native seed that attendees have brought along with them to share. Guides are there to help with species selection to help make sure the plants chosen are right for their site.
• Once everyone returns, there is usually a short presentation on a topic of general interest, like: how to prepare your seed for sowing, best ways to prepare your site for the native seed, or information about new invasive plants to look out for.

Over the years, hundreds of people have collected seed in Alden Township that they used to help restore their own properties. There are new people every year, and some folks who return year after year as their own restoration project expands.

Thirty-two years after George started sharing native seeds with his neighbors, Seed-Sharing Day is an institution, held the third Saturday of October. (And George is still going strong at 100!)

There’s still plenty of seed to share. Come see what it’s all about!

Seed collecting tips:

• Bring garden clippers and wear gloves.
• Bring sturdy paper bags for the seed. Birdseed bags work great too, and they don’t tear. If you want to keep different species separate, paper lunch bags are useful.
• Proper etiquette is to take no more than about 1/3 of the seed from any species of plant. That helps ensure that there is still plenty of seed for wildlife and also for natural reseeding.
• Make sure to stop back at the gathering place when you are done collecting so you can browse the extensive amount of seed that other people brought to share from their own yards and that you can use in your own.

Seed Sharing Day

Open to TLC members and their guests, Seed Sharing Day is an annual event organized by TLC and hosted by a number of landowners. This is an opportunity for people to collect and share native seed for their prairie, savannas and wet habitats. Beginners are encouraged to join landowners to collect native plant seed at an assigned site. An area of pre-collected, labeled seed will also be available with people there to help you choose the right species for your needs. If you have it, bring your own labeled seed to share. If not, that’s ok too! Stay for the delicious potluck lunch and informal discussion about how to use your seed.
Date/time: Saturday, Oct. 18, 9:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Location: Alden/Harvard Area. Registered participants will be emailed a location before the event.
Fee: Free, please register here