the seed library at Reed memorial
Our seed library is a separate library where you can "borrow" and return seeds—typically, these are vegetable and flower seeds, but really, they can be seeds of any kind that will grow outdoors in our plant hardiness zone. Using the seed library is absolutely free.
How does it work?
- In late winter/early spring, we will have seeds that you may come in and take to use. We hope that your garden will be successful and you will be able to harvest not only your fruits, vegetables, and flowers, but also some seeds to return to the library for the following growing season. Returning seeds is not necessary, but will help keep our seed library growing and expanding.
How do I return seeds?
- Harvesting seeds isn't difficult, but it can be different for each category of plants. If you've never saved seeds before, we have lots of guidelines to get you started. If you are completely new to gardening and raising plants from seed, focus on the success of your garden. Once you've got that experience under your belt, we hope you'll be ready to start saving and returning your seed to the library.
What kind of seeds can I borrow?
- Generally, we have most of the popular garden plants, but the seed library could have all kinds of seeds, depending on our donations. The best way to find out is to visit us and look through the seeds.
When can I start borrowing seeds?
- Seeds are available now!
Where is the seed library?
- It's located on our first floor, in front of the DVD collection.
Many seeds shared by the Seed Library were grown by community members with love and care like our ancestors have done for thousands of years. Please know they may not meet state germination or labeling standards. We do not knowingly accept or share any seeds that are chemically treated, patented (PVP), or genetically modified.
At Reed Memorial Library, we try our best to ensure the quality of our seed using best practices in inventory care and labeling. Nonetheless, seeds are alive and people using the seed library have varying degrees of skill in saving seeds. You should know that you might experience low germination rates or receive seeds that were not properly labeled. This is a volunteer-run project, and we do the best we can with the time and resources we have.
If you do have any problems with the seed you get from the seed library, please let us know so we can try to fix it for future users of the library!