I'm back today to share a little project I've been working on! I'm quite excited about this one as it's a collaboration with Sarah Hemingway of Sarah's Kitchen Gardens. Sarah is a friend I went to university with... I don't think I've actually seen her since but we've kept in touch through facebook and I'm totally in awe of her and her creativity, both in the garden and the kitchen. (I kind of want to be her when I grow up.) :) Along with her blog, Sarah has a facebook page where she also shares what she's up to in her kitchen garden. If you follow her blog, you'll see that she has free resources for growing your own food organically, including a spreadsheet calculator where you can just enter your frost dates and it will calculate when to plant everything for you! (I SO need this)!! Sarah also hosts local workshops and sells seedlings in the spring. I hope you'll check out her blog!
Anyways, we got to talking a few weeks ago and the end result was that she was going to make some seed paper for me to play with. I thought that was pretty cool! I'd have some pretty paper to play with and we'd both have a little giveaway. It wasn't until we talked some more that I realized that you can actually GROW stuff from this paper! WHAT!?!? Sarah wrote all about it here. Isn't that incredible?!
I thought it would be fun to make some card sets for various occasions by die cutting some of Sarah's seed paper. The seed papers can all be easily removed from the cards by untying the tags or removing the seed paper from the envelopes. They can then be used to grow various plants (see descriptions/ instructions for using the seed paper below).
Here are my cards:
White: Basil and Curly Parsley
Blue: Calendula
Brown: Old Fashioned Annual Flower Mix
Pink: White, Pink, and Burgundy Cosmos
Brown, White, Pink, Blue
Here’s a list of what seeds are in the different papers:
Brown: Old Fashioned Annual Flower Mix
The brown paper mix is best grown outdoors, but it can be started indoors in April or May. You can keep it moist as is, or you can plant the paper in soil after wetting it so the roots can establish themselves in soil before being transplanted outside.
White: Basil and Curly Parsley
The white paper mix can be grown indoors for winter herb production, but you’ll need lots of light if you choose to grow indoors. You can also start this one indoors in April or May, using the methods mentioned above.
Pink: White, Pink, and Burgundy Cosmos
This is an outdoor plant – Cosmos are big and bushy annual flowers! Again, see above for instructions.
Blue: Calendula
Calendula is an edible flower that looks like an orange daisy. It grows best outdoors as well, but can also be started indoors for a head start on the season.
Grey: Broccoli, Radish, Red Clover, and Alfalfa
‘Spring Salad Mix’ was the description on the seed packet for this blend of sprouts. Definitely intended to be grown indoors, and no need for soil! You’ll be eating them about a week after planting them, so they’ll use the nutrition stored in their seed flesh to grow into a nutritious snack.
I didn't end up using the grey seed paper
because when I ran it through my die cut machine it squished the seeds
and wet the paper. Now that I think of it, using a punch with that one
would work really well. :) Also, I made sure to save all my little
scraps of seed paper so I can grow them myself. ;)
Now for the giveaway part! Sarah and I are BOTH giving away a set of the 4 cards you see here along with two 4" x 5" sheets of EACH color of seed paper (so you can play with it yourself)!!! To win my giveaway just leave a comment on this post by midnight Sunday November 24th and I'll announce a winner on Monday the 25th. To win Sarah's giveaway like her Sarah's Kitchen Garden facebook page and follow her giveaway instructions there.
Supplies used:
Thanks for stopping by!
Sarah
