Diario del proyecto MNSEED Native Plant Community Science Project

Happy August MNSEED community! We're seeing observations documenting a wide variety of plants and the organisms they support at different life stages from many of the project members. Just a quick reminders to make the most of the observations you log:
-Include as much information as possible including scientific name.
-Include Annotations when possible.
-Indicate whether this organism is captive/cultivated or wild.
-Make sure your privacy setting is set to open if you want the observation to be included in the MNSEED project and visible to the MNSEED community.
Let us know if you have any questions as we go deeper into the seed collecting season! Don’t forget to include observations of your seed heads and seeds that you are collecting too! The more observations we have the richer our shared collections is to learn from.

You may have received a notice from iNaturalist saying that the observation requirements for the MNSEED Native Plant Community Science Project have recently changed. Not much has really changed for requirements but in the effort to better reflect observations of project members, the admin is filtering out observations from the admin and managers so the project dashboard better shows more member content contribution instead of the observations of the managers and administrators. Let us know if you have any questions or concerns in this change. Keep adding your current observations of your native plantings and the wildlife visiting them!

MnSEED Fall 2021 Seed Collection Events
Join us for Seed Collecting & Swapping!
Sign-up here: https://northerngardener.org/mn-seed-project-workshops/
This event is free for residents of the Capitol Region Watershed District. When registering, enter coupon code MNSEED (all caps)

MnSEED is offering a series of seed saving drop-in events in Fall 2021 that offer opportunities to collect, process, and learn about native plants & their seeds! Join the Como Community Seed Library and the Minnesota State Horticultural Society and the St. Paul Seed Circle as we gather locally adapted seeds from native plants for purposes of sharing back to our Twin City communities through swaps, distributions and events. Learn seed saving practices to help ensure viable seeds that come true to plant type. Participants will be encouraged to teach and learn from each other and have the opportunity to gather seed for yourself.

Thursday, August 26th,
Monarch City 9:30 11:30 AM
685 W Minnehaha Ave St. Paul,
MN 55104. Self Guided Garden Tour available

Saturday, September 11th,
Gibbs Farm 11:30AM -1:30PM
2097 Larpenteur Ave W
St. Paul, MN 55113

Thursday, September 16th
Capitol Region Watershed District
5:30-7:30PM
595 Aldine St St. Paul, MN 55104
Grounds & building Best Management Practices tour available

Saturday, September 25th
Gibb’s Farm- 11AM-2PM
2097 Larpenteur Ave W St. Paul, MN 55113
event happens during Gibb's Apple Fest with seed cleaning demonstrations

Saturday, October 7th
Capitol Region Watershed District
5 -7PM
595 Aldine St St. Paul, MN 55104

Seed harvesting events will involve identifying natives, checking to be sure seeds are mature, collecting inflorescences in paper envelopes and properly documenting the collected plants. We will also cover seed storage practices and preview how seed cleaning is done.

Seed Cleaning events will involve hands-on learning of how to separate seeds from other dried plant material. A number of techniques will be shown that can be applied to a variety of types of seed. Useful tools and techniques to accomplish seed cleaning will be available and demonstrated. Seed storage practices, and seed viability testing methods will be incorporated into the event program.

We’ve been seeing a lot of seed heads and pods forming in the last week or so and it’s a great chance to get out and document this life stage of your native plants for reference next season and to add to the MnSEED project database. Let’s see those seed heads and pods! Have you looked through MnSEEDers’ recent observations? Such inspiring contributions! Keep it up!

West Minnehaha Recreation Center
685 Minnehaha Ave. W. 55104
8/26/2021 9:30am-11:30am
Gather at Monarch City, the award winning native garden at West Minnehaha Recreation Center to explore this busy 500 linear feet of pollinator oasis where endangered species have been sited. We’ll have information on how to identify ripe seed pods and heads and how to responsibly collect seed. This event is free to MnSEEDers and residents of the CRWD service area. Don’t forget to sign up at: https://mshs.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/mshs/eventRegistration.jsp?event=430
Residents of the CRWD service area and MnSEED participants use MNSEED (all caps, one word) as the coupon code.