Permapeople

01/06/2022

Garden helper spotted. I’ve been hesitant to mow the lawn this year, as there as so many neat flowers and pioneer species popping up in the nutrient-deficient areas where our well was put in a few years ago. Lots of wildflowers and legumes ready to regenerate. Then there’s this little one. It was probably scared, but I got down to its level to watch it look around. I want to mow even less now.

09/03/2022

Germinating tree seeds. Expanding on my walnut germination experiments from last year (soil + leaves+ seeds in repurposed salad clamshell), I’m working with some different species this year. In this picture you can see shagbark hickory (from Permapeople marketplace!), honey locust (collected locally), and plum (harvested locally).
These seeds have all been stratifying in the cold room since November. I’ve planted them into a mixture of wood chips and organic compost and left the container by the pepper piping of our water heater. They’ll get enough heat there to wake them up within the next few weeks. We’ll see how long it takes them all to wake up, and hopefully we will have some trees come spring.

04/03/2022

The DIY germination station is working.
Unfortunately the mulberry cuttings didn’t take. Not sure why, but the plums are still alive.
More wild pawpaw seeds have germinated, and a handful of Turkish hazelnuts too! Prioritizing space is the biggest issue.
What are you growing now??

21/02/2022

It’s germination time!
These pawpaw seeds are from wild stock, and are over 2 years old. So far 4/6 seeds have germinated! Come on pawpaws!

10/02/2022

We just made it way easier to find the seeds your looking for.

💚 Make a "want list"
🌱 Add some plants
🤝 If any of your listings match someone's "have list", we'll make the connection and let you know.

09/02/2022

Plum cutting are breaking buds in my homemade germination chamber!
Took some plum cuttings in December from a tree an abandoned property. This tree survived a wildfire and 20 years of drought, and still produced delicious golden plums every year.
After letting the cuttings cold stratify for another 45 days, I shaved the bark near the base, dipped in rooting hormone, and stuck into moist coconut coir. I know it’s not the best rooting medium, but it’s working so far. After just two weeks in the chamber with a bit of bottom heat, the beds swelled, and a week later they’re breaking.

07/02/2022

I have more than enough seeds in my library, but when I saw the artwork on these locally grown seeds I had to do it.
Pretty stoked to try out some locally adapted ground cherry and cantaloupe!

How do you choose which seed companies to buy from? How much does “locally adapted” play into your decision? Do you save seeds?

21/01/2022

We volunteered as a seed hub for Cooperative Gardens Commission last spring/summer and distributed several hundred packets of seeds through community food security programs in British Columbia.

Sign up to establish yourself as a seed hub in your region!

Apply to receive seeds in 2022 through the Cooperative Gardens Commission (CGC), and to establish yourself as a seed hub in your region. We are now requesting hubs to commit to sending $15 to cover the cost of shipping, if possible.

Our aim is to connect those with food-growing resources — including seeds, soil, tools, equipment, land, labor, and knowledge — with those who lack such resources. We hope to increase local food production during this time of uncertainty and insecurity.

This effort is intended for groups/organizations or individuals willing to serve as local or regional seed distribution hubs. Please note that filling out this form is not a guarantee of receiving seeds. CGC will make its best effort to accommodate all requests.

If you have been a seed hub before, you know we struggled in 2021 to retain volunteer numbers and did our level best to ship seeds out to everyone as quickly as possible. After a dedicated fundraising effort, we were only able to raise close-to-shipping costs for sending seeds. This presents us all with two challenges:

We’re off to a late start and we don’t have quite enough funds to cover costs.

We need a dedicated effort from this point on (January 8, 2022) to allocate and ship seeds in a timely way.


We remain committed to providing seeds to communities most impacted by the pandemic and historic injustice.

We will continue to ship seeds to areas where the growing season starts sooner.

We are now requesting hubs to commit to sending $15 to cover the cost of shipping, if possible.

We ask that people with the ability to do so, consider sending $30 to cover an additional hub’s shipping costs.

Whatever can be contributed to this will help everyone get seeds faster.

The ability to make a contribution for shipping, or not, will not be a determining factor in your application review.

Visit CoopGardens.org to apply today!

13/01/2022

The before and after shot of my balcony winter cleanup. I didn’t do anything beside a last harvest (see last post) and a simple chop and drop. I’ll add some compost, some manure pellets, some horn meal and whatever else organic matter I can find in the next weeks and this is how it will stay until I plant in the coming season. The soil in these boxes is so much better than what we currently have in the garden and they this growing space gave us tomatoes for the whole family from July to September.

11/01/2022

Prepped my balcony for winter a bit too late and after some frosts. Still I got a little harvest: onions I grew from seed, birds eye chilies which survived the frost surprisingly and tons of basil seeds from a plant I grew from cuttings. I’ve put the basil seeds on the marketplace.

10/01/2022

We're looking for a marketing-focused co-founder. If you're not familiar, we're a non-commercial organization focused on open-data in the growing/farming/gardening space.

This is an unpaid role — we're all unpaid — but you can expect to reap the benefit of free seeds, and full access to a network of regenerative gardening nerds.

Check out the post and let us know if you're interested!

About the role We’re looking for a marketing and growth co-founder. This is an unpaid role as 1/3 of the co-founding team of Permapeople.

08/01/2022

Currently checking all the seeds and other things I still have. Have a lot of garlic gloves left over from last year. They are too small too eat but perfect for planting. Gonna put them soon up on the marketplace for free.