February 2021 Seed Stories Series

Feb 24

**February 2021 Seed Stories**

Meet urban backyard gardeners **Jen & Kellye** from California

Meet Jen (left) & Kellye (right) with their joyful Seed Story. For those who love to follow an uplifting journey, @qtsinthegarden is here for you. These two are always exploring and growing something new in their urban garden. We recently connected through a seed swap hosted by Kitsap Roots and they generously shared seeds collected from their urban garden. Seed & Trellis received red burgundy okra and cilantro collected from their garden and we can’t thank them enough for sharing their precious seeds with everyone. Let’s dig in.

Jen and Kellye, thank you for sharing your story today! What is the seed or plant you decided to share and the reason why?

Cosmos. We didn't choose the Cosmos seed, it chose us. The Cosmos is the first flower we have ever grown from seed.

Starting a plant from seed for the first time is a huge milestone for gardeners. I can already tell, this is a very special seed story. So where did you go to find your first seeds?

We got them from a box of seeds that were labeled "Pollinator Mix" at the Dollar Tree and scattered them around not really knowing how to plant them.

A mystery seed pack! Love it. Tell us a little about yourself and why you feel called to share your seed story with everyone today?

We are first-time urban gardeners from Zone 10B. We are sharing our story to reinforce the importance of finding joy in the little things. Gardening is a great way to do just that. Every time we plant a seed we are encouraging new joy to enter our life and at a time like this, we all need all the joy we can get.

Absolutely, beautifully said. Bring us through cultivation of this special flower that chose you and what lengths you went through to care for. What challenges did you face? Was there a special moment along the way to share with us?

The crazy thing about it is the cosmos seeds were not that hard to grow at all. We just scattered them across the ground, consistently watered, occasionally fertilized them, and watched them grow. Out of all the seeds we scattered, only two seeds germinated and grew quite tall. Living in a shared space probably helped them as well, our roommates would sing and talk to them from time to time.

We had a challenging time figuring out what kind of flower sprouted. The pollinator mix was not clearly labeled, so we posted on social media to help identify the flower. Thanks, Instagram!

Another challenge came on a windy day in the fall. Sadly, we did not stake our Cosmos down they fell over. California winter was coming soon so we ended up pulling it out of the ground. We learned a valuable lesson that day, "Always stake your tall plants"

It’s incredible how much you learned just simply planting these mystery seeds. Isn’t is amazing how nature thrives with a little bit of care and love? We too have found the gardening community to be so supportive and generous, especially over social media during these times.

We can definitely tell these were very special cosmos to you. Will you please share with us how each of you have grown as gardeners from this experience?

We learned how much we enjoy growing cosmos flowers and definitely about staking! We were not discouraged by our mistakes and are excited to grow them again. We have winter sown several cosmos in preparation for the spring.

Thank you so much for sharing your seed story today with everyone! We wish you joy and happiness in your gardening journey.

Jen & Kellye

Instagram: @qtsinthegarden

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