How does your garden grow?
You can get a jump on your horticulture efforts for spring with a drive by Pat Stewart Realtors on Saturday.
Make that, a “drive-thru.”
The real estate office at 2917 University Ave. is hosting a mobile seed-swap from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. that day.
“Well, yeah, if we can get the weather to cooperate,” said Stewart, the namesake owner of the real estate company that’s been growing in Morgantown’s business soil for nearly 50 years now.
She planted the seed of that idea in 1973, which, by gardening standards, makes her enterprise an heirloom.
If you get there early enough — everything is first-come, first-served — you can snag some of the “West Virginia ’63” heirloom offering.
That’s the official-unofficial name of the state’s venerable, indestructible tomato that comes courtesy of the state’s venerable, indestructible plant pathologist, Mannon Gallegly.
Gallegly, the emeritus professor and former director of WVU’s Division of Plant and Soil Sciences, developed and bred the hearty tomato in response to the same blighting fungus that caused the Irish potato famine in the 19th century.
The West Virginia ’63 was introduced after its first blush in 1963, on occasion of the state’s 100th birthday.
Gallegly was still going at it as recently as three years ago, when he conjured two new variants of the ’63 in university labs and greenhouses.
On Saturday, as said, you’ll have a shot at the famous tomato and more, including seeds of zinnia, marigolds and sunflowers.
Because the event doesn’t want to grow any COVID-19 cases, you’ll drive to the office lot (ideally with a labeled packet of seeds from your garden), which you’ll affix to a line.
Then, from that same line, you’ll snag a pack of seeds for your own show in spring. That’s where the drive-thru part of the promotion comes in.
“Bring one, take one,” Stewart said.
“You won’t even have to get out of your car.”
With the pandemic, the presidential election (and the seeds of angst both have sown), the seed-swap, Stewart said, is a chance to participate in something that’s not in much abundance these days.
That would be practicing the measured art of time.
It’s a chance to slow down, and look ahead to the next growing cycle, which will arrive, as it always does, she said.
“You can think about your garden,” she said.
While you’re at it, you can also think about the importance of planting trees — “So we all continue breathing,” she said.
In the meantime, AccuWeather is calling for a high of 58 on Saturday with a chance of drizzle or rain.
