Welcome to #OutPlantTheOutbreak 2021 + How to get your seeds
2021 is a great year to start a garden!
Does the pandemic have you feeling cooped-up? Or providing you with the desire to enhance your resiliency? Then, this may be a year to start a garden, grow something new or engage your bored kids in a little Nature Deficit Busting.
Free Seeds in St. Paul Little Free Cabinets
Little Free type cabinets in some St. Paul neighborhoods are being stocked with seed packets to share with neighbors this spring. The goal is to make seed easily accessible to our neighbors. Seeds are from both locally saved and commercial sources; Further, we repackage the seeds into smaller portions with the goal of including as many growers as possible. Experiment! Try new methods and crops!
Pick-up seeds at these St. Paul neighborhood locations:
Hamline Midway Sites
#LittleFreeFlorist cabinet at 1729 Englewood Ave between Aldine and Wheeler Streets.
Little Free Library at Griggs & Charles Aves
Little Free Library at Dunlap St. & Lafond Ave. (It’s the corner cabinet with license plates decorating it, 1/2 way to the alley on Dunlap.)
Capitol Region Watershed District’s Little Free Library at 595 Aldine Street
MN Tool Library inside the Prior Works Building at 755 Prior Ave N
Suite #009
Frogtown Sites
Frogtown Green’s little free cabinet at 843 Van Buren Ave
April’s Little Free Cabinet on Lexington Pkwy N between Englewood & Minnehaha Ave
Summit University/Rondo Site
Pilgrim Baptist Church Little Free Library at 732 Central Ave. West
Como Sites
Little Free Library at 49 Maywood Place
Little Free Library at 1241 St. Albans St N
Little Free Library at 962 Como Ave.
Little Free Library at 900 Montana Ave W.
Extra Support
As a companion, this website will be updated with how-to information as the cabinets gets stocked with different types of seeds. Gardening styles and techniques vary as much as the plants themselves. The tips and timing suggested here are for a Twin Cities Zone 4b climate, and are scaled for urban gardens. Methods shared here will specifically be those which have lower barriers to supplies and equipment and are alternatives to methods often focused on by the horticulture industry. We will share prompts for timing of activities and resources that are nearby. We hope to offer encouragement to try something new, and reminders that every gardening act is an experiment! -often said by Diane Dodge, a St Paul community gardening muse.
Partners & Collaborators
This effort is not being done in solo. A number of organizations are concerned about our community’s resiliency and are supporting this seed distribution. Particularly, the partnership with the Como Community Seed Library is essential to the effort, but kudos are also extended to the Minnesota State Horticultural Society, Capitol Region Watershed District, Hamline Midway Coalition (and their HMC minigrant program!), Frogtown Green Urban Farm and Garden Alliance, Pilgrim Baptist Church, the Saint Paul Seed Circle members, MN Tool Library and many neighbors like you!