Get Ready to Grow: Heirloom Seed Library Opens March 1
Are the seed catalogs stacking up at home? Are your fingers itching to dig? Get a jump on garden planning with a visit to the Heirloom Seed Library at the Midtown Carnegie Branch and the Library Station.
The seed library opens March 1 with over 40 types of heirloom seeds of vegetables, herbs and flowers. Library card holders can check out up to four packets of seeds. While you’re there, pick up free planting and seed harvesting guides, and check out the vast selection of garden planning and planting books.
“Each year we will highlight a vegetable and herb for the season,” says Gina Marie Walden, who oversees the Midtown Carnegie Branch seed library. “This year our highlighted vegetable is Tomato Solanum lycopersicum. The International Herb Association chose Peppers Capsicum as the herb of the year.”
Tomato fans can get extra help at a series of programs focusing on tomato growing and managing tomato pests on March 7, 12 and 14 at the Library Station. Call 865-1340 or look in the Bookends calendar of events for details.
“Our goal is to make this a sustainable collection,” Walden says. “In order to do that we consulted Greene County Extension Office Horticultural Specialist Patrick Byers for suggested types of varieties that grow well in our area.” A $2,000 Library Foundation grant allowed the staff to buy a core collection of seeds for this year’s seed library.
The idea is to plant the seeds at home, school or in your community garden, enjoy the harvest, and then save the seeds and return them to the seed library for others to plant next season. But that’s not a requirement.
This is the Heirloom Seed Library’s second year, following a successful 2015. Between March 1 and Aug. 1, 2015, the two branches checked out more than 2,000 seed packets to gardeners including some inspiring school teachers.
Visit thelibrary.org/seedcatalog to see all the varieties available in the Heirloom Seed Library. Learn details about the seed library at thelibrary.org/seedlibrary.
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