Heirloom Seed Library Opens March 1; Endowment Challenge Nears $10,000 Goal
Here’s a sure sign of spring: The Heirloom Seed Library reopens on Thursday at the Library Station and Midtown Carnegie Branch. And in this third year, it includes more than 50 varieties of vegetables from beans to zucchini, herbs and flowers.
With a library card, all ages can check out up to four packets for a home or community garden. You don’t have to return the seeds or what you grow, but we are trying to build a cadre of heirloom seed savers who will harvest the seeds post-season and return them to the seed library. If you can’t do that, the seeds are still there for you to enjoy while you learn some tips from the library’s’ bounty of gardening materials.
Three of our volunteer seed savers, Jeff Miller, Janet Trimmel and John Greenler, have provided Rattlesnake Pole Bean, Mammoth Sunflower and Purple Top White Globe Turnip seeds. And for the first time, we have Native Flower seeds.
“Other fun varieties are the Birdhouse and Luffa Gourd seeds; patrons seem to get a kick out of growing and using them around the home and garden,” says Gina Marie Walden, who helps organize the seed project.
The seed library is possible this year through a generous grant from Farmers Gastropub, a Springfield restaurant that specializes in fresh foods from local and regional farmers and producers.
You can learn more about the importance of heirloom seeds, this year’s selection and planting tips by visiting thelibrary.org/seedlibrary, or ask a librarian.
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Drum roll, please: $2,492.88. That’s all the Library Foundation needs to raise by the end of Wednesday to reach the $10,000 February fundraising challenge. If we make it, Community Foundation of the Ozarks will give another $5,000 to our Laton Endowment, which creates a new funding source for the library.
If you’re waiting to take us over the top by Wednesday, contact Melissa at 417-616-0586, or send your gift to The Library Foundation, 4653 S. Campbell Ave., Springfield, MO, 65810.
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