Several years ago I started thinking about what I could do with all my junk mail, bill paper, and leftover newspapers.
We bought a shredder and began adding it to the compost and rabbit cage, plus we started making our own paper fire bricks.
Then I remembered in high school we made “homemade paper” with scrap paper.
This is done by shredding your scrap paper and soaking it overnight in a 5-gallon bucket. Then transforming it into pulp using a paint stirrer attached to a cheap drill, or small batching it in a blender. As long as you end up with a slimy mess with the pulp fibers broken down at the end, you’re on the right track.
We had fancy schmancy block forms for making the paper in school. I didn’t know where to get them … so I made one!
Now who knew window screen came in fine to medium mesh? I went with a fine, but it was too slow to dry. So I remade it with a medium mesh screen. I found an old picture frame with the glass removed, and I staple gunned the screen all around the frame. Then, for an added boost, I ran a fine bead of silicon around the inside and flip side of the frame.
Then, I set the frame over the sink , with a towel in the sink to catch the bits that fall through during the initial pour (so they didn’t clog the drain). Then I poured the pulp on the screen and evened it out. I just used my hand, but you could use a credit card or spatula or something similar, with the same affect.
After the paper pulp had dried for about an hour, I pushed saved seeds INTO the paper. (Tip: chive and dill are wonderful, but I have used big seeds, like squash, too!) Once I pushed the seeds into the paper pulp, I waited another hour. Then I used a handheld hair dryer to speed up the drying for a few minutes … until the paper was dry to touch.
Then I set the frame aside and let it sit overnight. By morning, voila, the paper was ready for use in my handmade greeting cards!
What’s WONDERFUL is that your handmade seed sharing cards can be torn up and PLANTED in the Spring!
It’s a thoughtful, pretty way to share seeds with the people you love… Wishing them health, wealth, and happiness. This is especially nice to send to people spread out all over the country. And because it came from your garden and it’s handmade, it truly says “I care.”
COMMENTS(7)
What a lovely idea! Thanks, I’m going to do this.
One could also use the paper for birthday cards, “thinking of you” cards, etc., and use seeds especially for container gardening for college students or loved ones living in apartments, etc.
Thank you for an excellent idea! It says love all over it. Love to the person receiving it. Love to the earth to be replenished. Love and Honor to the plants that provided the seeds. Your love for the caring provided on all levels. Know that you are loved and appreciated!
Is there a picture available of a finished card?
Wonderful idea. Seed sharing doesn’t even need to be that fancy.
Years ago I was helping a senior friend do her spring cleanup.
There was an electric green plant pushing up through the patches of snow in her garden.
I asked Ida…”What is this?” Pointing with my muddy boot…
“Oh… That’s just my lettuce… First lettuce at the farmers market every spring” she said proudly.
“I brought the seeds over from the old country..” (Northern Poland area post WW2)
“Really? Do you have some seeds?” She shook her head.. ” No… It just comes up.”
I asked if I could have a few plants and found a fork to dig a clod of frozen earth up.
Took those baby plants home, planted them, let them go to seed and started handing them out.
A pinch of seeds in a small hobby ziplock, I nearly always have one tucked into my pocket.
It is a year round, all weather leaf lettuce, with a large romaine type leaf.
When it comes up, you pick the outside leaves and let it grow and bolt up the middle.
I save seed from different rotations through the year and mix them all in.
Some are early bolters, some are later. You rotation seed through the year.
I just give the old plants a shake over where I want lettuce next year.
Under the blueberries my husband planted strawberries. They both love acidic soil.
A few lettuce plants in them attracts any slugs and directs any bugs away from the berries.
This year was a bumper for some unknown reason…I must have had 20 plants I let go to seed.
My husband was laughing at me, every time he turned around I was winnowing into a tub.
Ida developed a fast acting cancer this fall and was gone in 6 weeks.
As we walked out the door to her funeral.. I spied a 2 quart jar full of her dried lettuce seeds.
Tucked them under my arm, added a black sharpie pen and a package of 100 ziplocks.
After the funeral at the tea, I tucked the jar under my arm and circulated.
“Would you like a few of Ida’s lettuce seeds?”
Put a couple of pinches of seed in a labeled ziplock.
My ever patient husband busily doing the label writing and zipping.
It was so wonderful that everyone there had a memory of Ida and her spectacular lettuce.
Of her arriving at church with a trunk jam packed with produce for seniors and families.
Selling eggs, walnuts, apricots and blackberries. Cabbages and coffee cakes.
Family members, old friends, neighbours, people with gardens and others who knew one.
Catering and funeral staff..extended family, Everyone got a packet of seeds.
I apologized for the unorthodox dispersal to her son and he laughed.
“Mom would have loved it. Best of all, everybody has something of hers to take away.”
Everyone appreciates a distraction and opportunity to tell their favorite story at a funeral.
I noticed her family following and enjoying the collective memories of their wonderful mother.
She wasn’t just a great great gramma that knitted dishclothes… she was an epic gifted horticulturist. Grin.
Everyone knows a horror story of family treasures tossed by their heirs or family.
Seeds are… for many of us, a treasure of wealth, health and life.
Make sure your family knows who to give yours to if they are unappreciative.
And if you can make them into a fancy gift, with the paper making recipe above? VERY Cool.
That is a lovely story Nolan. Thank you for sharing!
Nola N
Thank you for sharing the story. I use to help this older lady in her yard. Do you still have seeds you’re giving away? I’d love to try planting them.
Arline
Here’s my email address happyfeetdn@aol.com
Excellent idea for sharing extras. Now I have a creative way to pass on some heirloom tomato seeds AND get rid of some junk mail.
Thanks for this gem of an idea!