Seed Library

A magazine I was reading recently told of a community that started a "seed library". You loan seeds to a fellow gardener who grows the plants out and then returns some seeds back to the "library" at the end of the season. It is a great way to keep heirlooms alive, share local varieties, spread the seeds about, and learn more about saving your own seeds...something that humans have been doing for time before remembering...until very very recently in our history. I could start a list of available seeds. People can just donate seeds to the library in the beginning to help get it going too. (Written seed saving methods will help novices.) The year the seed was collected is important. Many non-gardeners don't realize that seeds can't just be stored in a vault forever: Many lose ability to germinate with age. Life must be propagated and nurtured generation after generation to keep it from extinction. I don't think we need to concentrate on just heirlooms though. Any interesting true-to-seed vegetable or flower that you have good seed for and think someone else might like, would be fine. Of course, we need people who want to take seeds too. Mailing a few seeds should help include some folks who want that convenience to participate. I know that we could readily have available our giant bachelor's buttons, chaste tree, honesty (pink flowered), and some vegetable seeds.