Annual Seed Swap & Giveaway
Iowa's largest seed swap happens every January — and it comes to you. Free seed packets are distributed through 55 libraries across the state, so you don't have to travel far to get growing. In 2026, nearly 2,000 Iowans picked up over 13,000 packets.
Heirloom vegetables, herbs, flowers — free to take, free to give.
But the swap part matters just as much as the giveaway. We encourage gardeners to bring seeds harvested from their own gardens to add to a community table — keeping local seeds hyper-local and in the hands of the people who grow them. Every seed saved and shared is a small act of food sovereignty.
Follow us on Facebook each January for the updated list of participating libraries near you.
Annual Plant Swap
This one is for the growers. Whether you joined one of our winter sowing workshops or started seeds on your own, this is your chance to trade what you grew with fellow gardeners who did the same.
The Annual Plant Swap is a community exchange,
not a public giveaway. Participants bring transplants they've started from seed or volunteers from the garden and swap them with other gardeners. It's how we keep local varieties moving through the community, build relationships between growers, and put more diversity in everyone's garden.
Attended one of our winter sowing or seed starting workshops? Bring your seedlings. This event is the payoff.
Seeding Your Fall Garden Workshop
Most gardeners pack it in after the Fourth of July. We're just getting started.
Harvest when most people think the growing season is over. Cool-season crops like kale, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, and radishes actually prefer the
shorter days and dropping temperatures of fall. You just have to know when to start them.
This free workshop walks you through exactly what to plant, when to direct sow versus transplant, how to calculate your days to first frost, and how to keep your garden producing long after your neighbors have called it a season.
We host these workshops at our Learning Garden and at libraries in Des Moines so there's likely a location near you.
Winter Sowing Workshops
Don't wait for spring. Winter sowing lets you start seeds outdoors in the coldest months using nothing but milk jugs and a little patience — no grow lights, no heat mats, no special equipment.
By the time spring rolls around, your seedlings
will already be hardened off and ready to thrive.
Come learn this favorite "lazy gardener" trick and get growing!
Join us for free hands-on workshops throughout the month of March where we walk you through the whole process from start to finish. We host workshops at our Learning Garden in Des Moines as well as at libraries across the metro, so there's likely a location near you. Supplies and curated seeds included. Kids welcome!
Check our Facebook page and calendar for workshop dates.
Plant Giveaway & Garden Festival
Every May we throw open the doors and invite the whole community in. This is our biggest public event of the spring — part giveaway, part festival, all neighborhood.
Free vegetable transplants are available to anyone who shows up,
donated by seed starters and swappers across the Des Moines metro and grown by Nine Square Feet volunteers.
Beyond the free plants, you'll find local vendors, our Garden Garage Sale, and Nine Square Feet's own selection of fundraising items for sale — things like mushroom grow blocks, bare root shrubs, berries, and other seasonal finds that change every year.
It's the kind of event where you come for the tomato starts and stay for the community.
Gardener's Celebration of Fall
Every September we gather to celebrate the harvest season in style. Live music, local vendors, food trucks, community organizations, seed saving demonstrations, and more. It's a full afternoon of everything we love about this community — the food, the people, growing things.