The Highland Weigh has had a little ‘itch’. Luckily nothing that requires tick and flea treatment. This particular itch was to start a sharing / exchange library. But we still have our training wheels on so it makes sense to start small. But as we know ‘from small acorns, mighty oak trees grow’.

We are starting with seeds. Its April and you can almost hear the gardeners cracking their fingers and flexing their digging muscles in anticipation of the season ahead. I’ve swept out my potting shed, irritated a few spiders and pulled out my ‘seed tin’. One of my great successes last year was a peaches and cream mix of foxgloves. If you’ve ever studied a foxglove seed they are about a quarter of the size of a sugar grain. It still completely floors me that such a tiny seed contains all the information required to produce such a tall, beautiful, insect loving plant. The packet I bought has approx. 2500 seeds in it (based on the blurb). Having grown a tray full and given plants away to anyone that expressed a vague interest. I have plenty to share!

So tonight, I will be decanting seeds into old Christmas card envelopes and labelling them up ready to start The Highland Weigh seed exchange.

Today I was listening to a Ted Talk on polar bears by biologist and conservationist Alysa McCall, she explains why polar bears are being forced on land because they are hungry. At one point she describes polar bears as ‘fat, white hairy canaries in the coal mine, warning us to act now’. For gardeners in the Highlands, I guess bees are the equivalent. Small humming canaries, depleted in numbers, searching for pollen.

Coming together to share and plant insect loving flowers is one small act. Some seeds may not grow, but it’s always worth a try, isn’t it? Lets not worry about use by dates, if they grow, they grow. My absolute favourite seeds that I ever grew is Nigella damascene (love-in-the-mist), the packet says sow by Dec 2022 … I will be merrily ignoring that, and I will share some. Send us a picture of your successes, particularly if a precious humming canary has stopped by.

And from this small acorn, what next? A tool library, toy library, fabric nappy library. Let’s talk!