Planting native seeds with a new generation
Master Gardener May Lee stands about a head taller than the third-graders at Farnsworth Elementary she is teaching to plant native seeds this March morning in east St. Paul. Clearly, she is in her element.
![May Lee with Farnsworth Elementary students.](https://www.mwmo.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/MayLee-seedstarting-IMG_1741-500x333.jpg)
Equal parts agronomist and grandmother, she demonstrates how to plant the native seeds for the species butterfly milkweed:
- add water to the planting soil so that it will make a small ball in your fist;
- spread out the soil evenly in a flat;
- sprinkle native seeds that have been “stratified” (refrigerated for the past two months in vermiculite to simulate winter) on top of the soil;
- add a bit more soil and vermiculite;
- spritz the seeds with water, as well as the inside of a dome top for the flat; and
- place the covered flat under the grow lights.
Lee has spent the last four years helping teach others — both elementary students and young farmers — what she grew up doing in Laos: growing vegetables organically.
Read the full story at cleanwatermn.org.
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