NEW Garden Necklaces

I've been enjoying creating this week.  I started making necklaces back in 2016 to help fund a few of our School Garden projects. Sometimes it seems like there aren't enough hours in the day between the seed biz, the farm and helping out at the skate shop.  That might be why I have been a bit slow to add new necklaces.

Well, this week has been LOTS of fun making a few new necklaces.  I've decided to offer FREE SHIPPING within the US on every unique item in my Garden Necklace collection!

You are my Sunshine

20 inch chain necklace

"You are my Sunshine" Sunflower pendant with Happy Sun, "Love" heart and flower charms

*We can customize upon request*

BEE

20 inch chain necklace

Bee and honeycomb pendant with charms

*We can customize upon request*

Flying Steampunk Pig

24 inch chain necklace

Flying Steampunk Pig pendant with Leaf & Flower jewel charms

*We can customize upon request*

Stag Moon

20 inch chain necklace 

Stag Moon pendant with Heart and Jewel charms.  Also available with feather charm.

*We can customize upon request*

Blue Butterflies

20 inch chain necklace

Blue Butterflies pendant with Butterfly and Flower Jewel charms

*We can customize upon request*

There are quite a few more available.  CLICK HERE

I'll be updating our Garden Necklace collection as they become available.  Because these are assembled by me, availability is limited for now.

Making Seed Balls with School Kids

Last week I had another amazing opportunity to volunteer at one of my favorite schools.  The Sage School Garden invited Mary's Heirloom Seeds back for Earth Day Celebration and my station was making Seed Balls.  However, we didn't "just" make seed balls.  Before each class, I gave a short explanation of the importance of planting for pollinators.

Fact: 1 in every 3 bites you eat required pollination from a honey bee.
Honeybees aren't the only pollinators.  Just as important but not really discussed are birds, bumblebees, ladybugs, hummingbirds and even the wind (to name a few)

Planting for pollinators can increase crop yields in your garden so we recommend adding a few extra seeds to your garden or around your garden.

I enjoy volunteering and teaching.  This was AWESOME! So awesome that I plan on doing this again with my sister and her kids for our garden.  These will be great for our Pollinator Protection Patch.

"An Ancient Method of No-Till Agriculture"
The rediscovery and popularization of seedballs (or “Clay Dumplings” as he called them) in modern times is typically ascribed to Japanese natural farmer and philosopher Masanobu Fukuoka.

As with many natural farmers, Fukuoka believed that tillage over large areas is laborious, destructive to soil health, and ultimately not needed and thus a waste of time and energy. Thus, seedballs have become an important aspect of many natural farming and conservation enterprises around the world.


Learning how to make seed balls is a fun activity for kids. It’s easy to do and can be easily adapted to your region. The seed ball recipe can be altered simply by changing the ratio of ingredients and/or seeds.

Ingredients:
potting soil
clay powder
water
seeds
large tray to mix ingredients
box to store seed balls

Directions:
I've seen different ratios of soil and clay so feel free to adjust depending on your ingredients

Start with 2 cups of potting soil, 1/2 cup clay powder, seeds and 1 cup of water.  Add more water if your mix doesn't stick together.

We used the Butterfly garden Mix seed pack for this first batch

 ALL of the kids in my 6 classes had a chance to get their hands dirty making seed balls to take home!

To make it easy for them to transport, we stapled the instructions to small bags for them to take home.  A cardboard box would be better to store them in but that wasn't possible this time around.  Funny thing happened to my seed balls.  I forgot to take my "sample" seed balls out of my go-bag from the event.  About 5 days later I opened it up to prep for my next school volunteer day and the seeds had SPROUTED!!

When you're ready to plant your seed balls, don't bury them.  You can place them carefully over the area to be planted or you can gently toss them one at a time.  From there, Mother Nature will take over!

I hope you have enjoyed another educational article.  If you have additional questions, please leave a comment below or send an email to mary@marysheirloomseeds.com

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Harvest Day at the SAGE Garden!

Last week I had the most amazing day volunteering at a local school.  This was the third year of the Sage school garden.

My station was the Greenhouse where we planted SEEDS!!!  I had the opportunity to peak to 7 different classes with 25-35 students in each class.  Everyone planted seeds and learned a bit about seeds, planting and pollinators.

Mary's Heirloom Seeds donated the seeds for the students to plant!

Here are some of the pictures from the day!

SEEDS ready to go!

PLANTING STATION all set up for our first class

SAGE GARDEN beds.  Some are planted in from the summer and a few await seedlings

GREENHOUSE with pots.  These were planted by the kids in my classes

MORE CONTAINERS planted by the students

I have to admit, I had a great time exploring on my break.  The school harvest day had about 18 different stations.  One was a fake cow to show the kids how to milk a cow.

And they even brought a real cow!  I won't post too many pics for privacy reasons but a GREAT time was had by all!  Volunteering is such a rewarding opportunity.  If you ever have the option, Do It!

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