Thank you to everyone who attended our Art of the Heirloom exhibition at the Friends of Historic Kingston Museum! At least 300 people came to see the original artworks that were commissioned for the covers of this year’s Art Packs. It was also the first chance to see (and buy!) the new packs.

We mount this show, in part, to support our artists. Each of the 23 new pack artists (who were chosen from an applicant pool of over 140)  worked closely with the Seed Library over a period of months creating their work. Although we pay our artists, it’s not nearly what they are worth. The show is one of our ways of giving back what we can. The artists receive important exposure, introducing new people to their work and creating connections between galleries, art buyers, media, and the artists.

Over the four years we’ve been creating our Art Packs, many of you have asked if you can purchase the original pieces. The originals become part of the Seed Library archives, but we’re now offering limited edition, museum-quality signed prints of a selection of 12 of the pieces. For the first time, they are now available online in our Holiday Catalog.

The show is now traveling to different venues around the Hudson Valley and beyond including Kingston, Troy, Ellenville, Rosendale, New York City, New Jersey, and Connecticut. We are able to share the show because of the support of local sponsors including the well-established Catskill Native Nursery, the brand new Crossroads Hydroponics and Organics, and the second annual CRAFTED event. The support of these businesses has made it possible to frame the works, which protects them, as well as offer the show to different groups for no cost. We’re still in need of a few more sponsors to keep the show on the road. Let us know if you can pitch in!

You can see the current schedule of upcoming Art of the Heirloom shows on our events page. We’ve also updated the events page so you can see where the Seed Library will be in the coming months. Come say hello and get your seeds in person! We love meeting current, new, and potential Seed library gardeners.

November is an uneasy weather month. Precipitation and temperatures can be variable, but as the days move along one thing is clear: winter is nearly here. The shortening days shrink to insubstantial things, and the air is cuttingly cold at times. Still, few hard freezes have arrived, which makes November the perfect time to put your garden to bed.

The usual way we put our gardens to bed is to clean old plant matter that has been killed by frost and to mulch open soil to protect it from winter’s cold. Cleaning your garden in the fall makes a lot of sense: in the spring, the timely gardener is spending the earliest days of spring sowing peas and spinach–not cleaning up the tangled messes of tomato vines and climbing beans left behind after fall’s firsts frosts. If your November is too busy to clean–worry not. Clean when you can in the spring–or even during a January thaw. But if you have the time to spare, clean now; you’ll be thanking yourself in March.

Mulch is a like a big thick comforter for your garden–and is highly recommended for bringing plants through the winter that come sometime succumb to the cold. Herbs such as rosemary, thyme, and lavender benefit from a mulching (a light, dry one, if possible), as they can be felled by January freezes. Mulching also extends the harvest season for cold-hardy roots such as carrots, turnips, radishes, and potatoes, allowing you to harvest these crops without a root cellar well into December or January (though you shouldn’t plan on them making it into deep winter with only mulch as a cover–unless your mulch is extremely thick).

November is not just a great time to put your garden to bed–it’s the perfect time to put beds into your garden! All the annual weeds are gone now, as are most of your own annual flowers and vegetables, meaning that the soil is empty of active, tenacious growth and that what does remain is in a more timid, dormant state. Beds that are cleared and prepared now will be just as clean and ready-to-go in the spring, as very little will germinate in the winter months. In addition, soil amendments that are added now–whether it be compost or nitrogen-rich soybean meal or lime–will react very little with the decomposing agents in the soil, which means that their fertile contributions will be preserved until the spring planting season is upon us.

Of course, it’s best to prepare beds now for the crops that are planted earliest in spring–peas, spinach, arugula, radishes, and the like–as the beds will be ready to go just as soon as the frost is out of the soil. Beds for tomatoes and other heat-loving crops can be prepared now, certainly, but will require preventative tending throughout April and May to keep germinating weeds from reclaiming the garden bed. A thick layer of mulch applied now will help in this effort–but do consider pulling the mulch aside early in spring to help thaw out your pea and spinach soil.

Here’s the poster for our 4th annual Art of the Heirloom Exhibition. There is a sneak peek of all 23 works in this image. Hope to see you there for the unveiling of the new art and newest Art Packs! If you are on Facebook, please RSVP.

Come be seedy with us, be the first to buy packs and prints for the holidays, and eat some amazing cake.

2012 Pack Artists: Ayumi Horie, Melissa Cowper-Smith, Natalie Wargin, Kat Cappilino, Melissa Mandel, Patricia Dominguez, Jacinta Bunnell, Ryan Cronin, Lynne Bittner, Laura Moriarty, Cal Patch, Edward Coppola, Jane Bloodgood-Abrams, Susan Siegel, Ustya Tarnawsky, Cindy Hoose, Karen Combs, Tona Wilson, April Warren, Florence Gidez, Molly Rausch,  Polly M. Law, Will Sweeney

The Hudson Valley Seed Library

presents the

Art of the Heirloom Exhibition

Join us on November 5^th from 4-8pm for the unveiling of the Hudson Valley Seed Library’s new art packs for the 2012 season! Art of the Heirloom will celebrate the artists who created works for our unique seed packs. Stop in for an artist’s reception, seed swap, and holiday sale.

“The artwork reflects the genetic and cultural diversity of the stories inherent in seeds,” says Ken Greene, co-founder of the Seed Library.

The event is hosted by the Friends of Historic Kingston and a percentage of sales will benefit their organization as well as the South Pine Street City Farm.

About the Event

This one night event will be part of the First Saturday gallery tour in Kingston and is the launch of the Seed Library’s travelling exhibit of their collection of contemporary heirloom art. Every year, we commission new artists, from all over the Hudson Valley, to create artwork for the covers of our unique seed packs.

We are grateful to The Friends of Historic Kingston for hosting our opening in their museum on the corner of Wall Street and Main. Just as the Seed Library works to preserve New York’s garden heritage and seed stories, FOHK works to preserve the buildings, sites and neighborhoods that tell Kingston’s story. “Seeds are living histories,” says Greene. “Growing our seeds gives you a taste of history.”

To make more of a connection between Kingston’s history and present day, the Seed Library’s event will also benefit Kingston’s urban farm. The South Pine Street City Farm is a program of The Queens Galley in partnership with Kingston Land Trust and Binnewater Ice Company. The thriving market garden, which uses seeds from the Seed Library, serves as a model of urban agriculture while providing the city with food, education, and inspiration to create more urban farms and gardens.

Gallery Show

See the original artworks! Over 130 artists applied to create work for the Seed Library this year. The twenty-three newly commissioned artworks will be on display along with the 2012 Art Pack collection.

Artist Reception

Meet the artists! The artists are all invited to the reception and many will be on hand to sign prints and packs.

Guided Tour

Hear seed stories! Ken Greene, co-founder of the Seed Library, will give a guided tour of the artwork and talk about the relationship between the heirlooms and art and the Seed Library’s artisanal seed farm in Accord, NY.

Seed Swap and Return

Get seedy! Bring your leftover seeds to swap with other gardeners. Everyone who brings seeds to swap will be entered in a drawing to win a free 2012 Seed Library membership. Seed Library members can bring their saved seeds to the event and log their 2012 seed credits.

Holiday Sale

Get green gifts! This will be the first time the new Art Packs are available for sale. The Seed Library will also be offering fine art prints of the artworks, gift memberships, gift baskets, and archival reprints of historic images. Come see the artwork and do some holiday gift shopping as well. A portion of the proceeds from this sale will support The Friends of Historic Kingston and the South Pine Street City Farm.

You can RSVP and share the event with your friends from our Facebook page.

The show will move to The Store Front Gallery at 93 Broadway for the month of December and then move to other locations around the Hudson Valley, New York City, and the Northeast. To see a list of upcoming events, visit seedlibrary.org.