Saving Our Seeds: Saving Our Heritage

Seed Saving was once part of every farmer and gardener's life in Ireland. With the advent of seed merchants and seed catalogues, this ancient skill became something of a specialist hobby for fewer and fewer people.

This meant that many of our native plant and vegetable varieties disappeared forever with their lost seeds. We now understand the importance of keeping our heritage varieties alive and growing for their valuable genetics, adaption ability and benefits for biodiversity. Saving plant seeds is one of the most important and sustainable practices we can carry out in our gardens and is a skill that allows you to become more in tune with nature and the natural cycles of life.

This workshop will give you the skills to save seeds from your garden, store them safely and use them to create new plants each year, giving you food security and control over where your seed comes from. Seeds from your own garden will adapt to your own unique growing conditions and perform much better than most seed you can buy, much of which is imported from countries with very different growing conditions to ours. Saving your own Irish produced seed allows you to create hundreds of plants for free, boosting biodiversity in your garden and ensuring that many heritage varieties can remain viable and can be passed on to future generations.

This event is hosted by Roisin Cotter, in collaboration with Louth County Council's Biodiversity Officer and Louth Libraries. Roisin is an organic gardener, tutor in Community Education with Louth-Meath Education and Training Board and the co-founder and Chair of the Louth Gardeners and Growers Collective.

This is a free event, suitable for adults, places are limited.
To book your place email libraryhelpdesk@louthcoco.ie or call 042 935 3190.

This session is funded through the Local Biodiversity Action Plan Grant Scheme by the Heritage Council and Louth County Council. The Local Authority Biodiversity Officer Programme is delivered in partnership between Local Government Ireland and the Heritage Council, and is part of the Ceangal Local Authority Heritage Programme.