Our neighborhood seed swap got crazy, but I spent way less on food

In my experience, our area has seen a big jump in people trading seeds for their gardens. It was meant to be a cheap way to grow veggies, but things got silly when I ended up with a heap of zucchini seeds. I planted them all, not really planning, and my backyard was soon packed with zucchinis. I had so many that I passed them to neighbors, froze some, and made loaf after loaf of zucchini bread. It was a funny mess, but for a couple months, I didn't buy any greens from the market. Your mileage may vary, but this whole chaos let me keep more money for other stuff. Take this with a grain of salt, but sometimes the weirdest habits help with cash flow. Now I think twice before taking too many seeds from the swap!

2 comments

2 Comments

ericbrown3d ago

That pickling twenty jars thing... I know exactly how that goes. Our community swap gave me a huge pile of tomato seeds last spring and I planted every single one without thinking. My garden turned into a tomato jungle and I was making sauce every weekend... had to give them away by the bag. It cut my produce bill to almost nothing for weeks, which was a nice bonus. Sometimes the seed swap madness really does pay off.

martin.tyler3d ago

My local seed swap in Springfield gave me WAY too many cucumber seeds last year. I planted them all without a real plan and ended up with cucumbers taking over my garden. I pickled like twenty jars, handed them out on my street, and got creative with recipes I found online. For a solid eight weeks, I cut my grocery bill in half because I didn't need to buy any produce. That whole situation was a huge help for my tight budget, even if it was messy. Now I'm picky at swaps, but sometimes too many seeds turns out to be a good problem.