Bloomington man wants to share his love of heirloom seeds

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) - As lawns start to green and flowers start to bloom, many people turn their attention to what veggies and fruits to plant in their gardens.

One Bloomington man is not only planning and planting, he’s sharing seeds with members of two Bloomington community gardens.

“I love seeds and the history that goes with it,” said Roger Hartwell, who has two garden plots in the Willie Streeter Community Garden in the Winslow Woods Park on Highland Avenue.

In an effort to help others learn more about heirloom plants and how they can keep seeds of plants they like best to grow in future years, Hartwell persuaded officials at Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co. to donate seeds to share with others. He received 350 seed packs that soon will be distributed to member gardeners of Willie Streeter and Butler Park gardens.

Hartwell, who works in sales, told the seed company officials that he wanted seeds to help get more people saving seeds and trying new varieties. The packs he received contain tomato, eggplant, pea, bean and okra seeds.

Robin Hobson, community gardening program manager for Bloomington, echoed the thoughts of Hartwell, saying that sharing and saving seeds was part of survival for earlier generations and is something that should not be forgotten.

Hartwell’s family in southern Indiana has saved seeds for generations. Some of those seeds are planted each year in his garden. Often they have been tweaked so they grow better in the Bloomington soil. Hartwell explained that what many gardeners don’t realize is that certain plants’ produce will taste different or will be more or less prolific depending on where they are planted.

One example is the Cherokee purple tomato. Hartwell said they grow well in Indiana but don’t have the slightly smoky flavor they have when planted in more southern states.

Keeping seeds that grow well in an area has other benefits, too. “Eventually you’ll have a seed that can handle the bugs in your area,” Hartwell said. And plants can be fine-tuned to better handle drought conditions or certain soil types.

One of Hartwell’s set of seeds, of edible pod peas, doesn’t have a name because he created them using open pollination varieties of peas. He may still tinker a little with the peas, but eventually will give them a name, he said.

Hartwell is just one of many gardeners in a movement to breed plants for the local conditions. It allows gardeners to breed traits they want and exclude ones they don’t. After the plants’ seeds have been harvested they often are different colors and slightly different sizes. If a gardener likes the traits of one plant over another, they can save the seeds from only that plant to continue working on the specific traits the next year, Hartwell said.

“That’s originally how gardening got started,” he said.

Besides using seeds he harvests, Hartwell trades seeds with people across the country and purchases some seeds from catalogs. Sharing information and learning the history of the seeds and plants that grow is a favorite topic for Hartwell. He can tell stories about many of the plants growing in his garden plots, where you’ll find garlic, grapevine, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and onions. One of the onions that is already green and growing in his garden plot is the Egyptian walking onion, which survives during the winter months and then spreads throughout the summer. It’s a variety his uncle grew in southern Indiana and that Hartwell enjoys because all parts of the plant are edible.

If anyone is interested in learning more about heirloom plants and seeds, Hartwell suggests they read Heirloom magazine, produced by Baker Creek Seed Co. The magazine tells about the history of plants and covers general gardening topics as well. The Garden Web forum is a good source for people to ask questions, because people share what worked and what didn’t, Hartwell said. And local gardening centers will help point you in the right direction, he said.

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Source: The Herald-Times, https://bit.ly/1J8gF9d

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Information from: The Herald Times, https://www.heraldtimesonline.com