Local Seed Catalog Continues to Grow

For Alaskan gardeners, it’s time to think about planting seeds. Many vegetables require being started from a seed indoors and then transported to the outdoor garden around June 1st. For the past few years, the Talkeetna Library has offered a “Seed Catalog”, in order to encourage more local residents to grow a small garden.  KTNA’s Colleen Love has more.

In 2022, Talkeetna Librarian, Geri Denkewalter, watched a group of volunteers fill vegetable seed packets for the Big Lake Library.  Denkewalter was introduced to a woman named Milena Sevigny who had recently started a nonprofit organization called Mat-Su Seed Savers. The Seed Savers were helping local libraries create seed catalogs.  According to Sevigny, the intention of a seed catalog is to distribute seeds to as many people as possible so they can participate in growing some of their own food. 

Denkewalter describes what Sevigny’s volunteers were doing that day in Big Lake.

“She had this army of women.  And they would sit there a couple hours, about three or four days a week, and fill these little packets, with seeds.  And then they had a little thing on the front that they put on that said what it was, where it came from, if they knew the history of it, and how to plant it.”

Sevigny brought up a set of long, narrow boxes to the Talkeetna Library, for them to start their own catalog. She also provided the library with their first seeds in order to start their system.

“She supplied all of the seeds for about three years. Some of them were heirlooms, that was the intention. She had the funding for it, for the seeds, and she provided a seed catalog for Big Lake, and then us, and then Willow, these are the libraries.

The Mat-Su Seed Savers had worked with Alaskan Master Gardeners in order to identify varieties of plants that are acclimated to Alaska’s cold and rainy climate.  

Denkewalter says that while the Seed Savers help to start seed catalogs, it’s up to the local organization to help it thrive over the long term. This year, the Talkeetna Library was faced with supplying its own seeds.

 “And so this year we knew we had to do it on our own. So we bought a bunch of seeds, we put out pleas on KTNA, and we have had drop offs of seeds… dropped em off of in the drop box I think.”

Traditional seed packets have far more seeds than many gardeners need. The Talkeetna Library has two volunteers whose job is to open the traditional seed packets and put about ten to twenty seeds into smaller packets. The packets are labeled and placed into the catalog.

Denkewalter says that they’re asking the public to write down which seeds they take so they can track the most popular varieties. She says lettuce and herbs have been the most popular this year.

The library staff begins stocking the seed catalog in February and continues until early June. Denkewalter says they’ve resupplied the catalog twice already this season. She is encouraged by the high participation rate and sees the popularity only increasing in the future.  For KTNA, I’m Colleen Love