GWINN, Mich. (WMZQ) – The Gwinn Seed Bank and Seed Library have spent the last three years gathering and cataloguing seeds from all over the United States and the World.
“We started to collect seeds, last year I collected approximately 150,000 seeds, so that became the Gwinn Seed Bank. This year’s goal is 500,000 seeds,” said Steve Finely the garden manager for the Seed Bank and Seed Library. “We have melon seeds from Japan, we have them from Saskatchewan, we have them from Russia, and a selection of seeds from Montana, all the way over to New England.”
Now a selection of the seeds are growing in six different gardens around the community, which the Gwinn Lions Club helped build and maintain.
“Couple of the primary goals of the Lions Club is nutrition and [preventing] diabetes, and fresh fruits and vegetables are great for both of those,” said Todd Patterson, the president of the Gwinn Lions Club.
While all the seeds have been stored, much of the food grown from the gardens like melons, squash, and tomatoes have been donated to St. Vincent De Paul food pantry throughout the summer.
“It’s about sustainability and good nutrition,” said St. Vincent De Paul manager Chris Adams. “If you can’t receive proper nutrition you can’t think, you can’t produce you need good nutrition in order to survive and strive, and that’s really what we try to do here.”
There are more to the gardens than just the seeds. Finley has also been working on a special organic fertilizer that he cultivates himself, and he said the fertilizer improves both the flavor, and the nutrients of the produce.
“That biology going into the ground is what cooperates between nutrient availability and root system,” said Finley. “It’s like putting a grocery store into the ground.”
The organizations hope that in the future they’ll be able to spread the knowledge and means to grow more gardens to other communities.
“We’re hoping it’ll spread all over the UP and really everywhere,” said Adams.
On Saturday, the Seed Bank with the help of the Lions Club also dug and planted a new garden outside Gwinn High School.
