Seed Lending Library

For years, gardeners have exchanged seeds through online forums, but recently, seed lending libraries have sprung up in local communities. For example, Richmond, CA's public library has drawers of seeds anyone in the community can take. The "lender" then plants the seeds, grows the plant, and collects the seeds at the end of the season. Then he or she returns some of those seeds to the library. Similar public library/seed lending programs exist in San Fransisco, Alameda (CA), Fairfield (CT), and Westcliff (CO). 



What a fantastic trend! Not only does it encourage the use of open-pollinated and heirloom varieties of plants (the only kind that can be reliably reproduced from seed), but it makes it all that much affordable for anyone to grow their own food. Of course, anytime you get seeds from a gardener, rather than someone who grows seeds for a living, the germination (sprouting) rate could be lower. And if libraries don't store seeds properly (with air tight containers and silica gel that's regularly replaced - and, ideally, cold storage), germination rates can be lowered, too. In addition, not collecting the seeds properly can lead to new varieties being passed out as old ones. But hey, the seeds are free! And most lending programs offer information on how to properly harvest seeds. I think I'll ask my local librarians about starting a seed lending library, too.

4 comments

  1. Thanks for sharing the information about seed libraries. One quick correction, our seed library in Richmond, California (not Virginia). If you are interested in having a library in your community, check out our "Create a library" page on our website, http://richmondgrows.org. Also check under "Contacts" for "Sister libraries" to see if one is near you. The idea is going fungal!

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  2. Thank you for the extra info! And for correcting my mom-fatigue-induced typo. :)

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  3. Tried http://richmondgrows.org and got godaddy landing page. Then tried http://www.richmondgrows.org and got to your page. For some reason some websites need the "www" with the URL or they won't work. So everyone make sure you use www.richmondgrows.org

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  4. Anonymous, I double checked all the links in this post, and they all work for me (using Firefox). Glad you were able to finally get to the sites, tho!

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