Project 11- Seed workshop for King Street Cooperative Community Garden

Location: Whitby Public Library, 405 Dundas St W, Whitby, ON L1N 6A1 Friday, Dec. 13, 2025

I met Despina, one of the founders of the King Street Cooperative Community Garden when I spoke at a talk about growing native plants to increase harvest yields in community gardens. I then had a chance to visit the King street cooperative community garden, located at 390 King Street, Whitby, ON, Canada, during their open house in July. If you live in the area and want to get involved with a great grass-roots group, this is the one you should join!

When Despina first approached me about holding a workshop on behalf of KSCCG, I knew it would have to be one that integrated seed collecting and cleaning with winter-sowing, but I had never held one like that before. I spent the summer collecting diverse seed heads that offered a variety of ways people could interact with the seeds to ensure that workshop participants benefited from a great learning opportunity. I also created cards that highlighted the benefits of the plants, wildlife relationships and growing conditions.

Here are samples of the cards that were created for the workshop. Each had actual seeds glued inside the square on the lower right hand of the card. Seed cleaning instructions suggesting techniques to clean the seeds were glued to the back of the cards and the entire card was laminated with adhesive lamination sheets purchased from my local Dollarama. I quickly noticed how workshop participants were eager to share additional suggestions on their own techniques, truly making the workshop collaborative and great learning experience for all.

Here are some of the tools I regularly use for cleaning seeds: (clockwise from tray): Tray, paper bag, mortar and pestle, 6 inch tweezer, metal and plastic picks, strainers with different mesh size. I’ve graded mine and marked them from coarse to fine for ease of use.

Over the summer I collected diverse seed heads that would show the diversity in seeds and after drying them, I stored them in take-out food containers away from heat and light. Coin envelopes and printed labels were placed at each station with seeds and tools. For smaller seeds, you can easily make a small envelope by folding a post-it note with slots.

We started with an overview of the importance in native plants, how we can grow and share them, as well as some best practices for increasing wildlife habitat. I was happy to learn that many in the group were already practicing “messy gardening” techniques by not removing plant material and ensuring that wildlife had places to shelter, eat and drink.

There were 24 stations with different seeds and tools and participants would go to different stations and try their hand at cleaning seeds. They packed some seeds to take home but also to donate to the library’s seed bank.

This was a truly enjoyable workshop for all and reinforced my personal commitment to experiential learning opportunities.

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