Are you ready for growing season? Have you planned out the fruits, vegetables, and flowers you want to grow? We can help you maximize your gardening potential with our seed library. Keep reading to find out more.

False Spring—that’s what we got a taste of recently when the snow melted away and the temperature rose. If you’ve lived in this part of Ohio long enough, you know that we’ll still have some cold, snow, and ice before spring really arrives, BUT, you also know that it’s coming. Sunshine, warmth, and green growing things are just around the corner. If you’re a gardener or aspiring gardener, you also know it’s time to get serious about your summer plans.

During the cold winter months, we’ve been organizing our seed library to help you on your way to a growing, thriving garden. If you’ve never “borrowed” from a seed library, we’d encourage you to make it part of your summer growing adventure.

What is the seed library?

It’s a separate part of our 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 (6a, if you didn’t know). Just like borrowing other library materials, using the seed library is absolutely free.

How does it work?

Starting March 20th, we will have seeds that you may come in and “borrow” 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.

I’ve never grown plants from seed before. It sounds hard.

If you are new to gardening and raising plants from seed, here’s a quick guide to get you started on the when and how. This year, focus on sowing and 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. Remember, you are not required to “return” seeds to use the seed library.

Growing from seed isn’t difficult, it just requires some planning and time. Of course, we have plenty of gardening books and information to help you get started. You can also attend our free event with master gardener, Jill Halligan to learn in person and get solid tips for success. Mark it now on your calendar: Monday, March 9th at 6pm.

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 come in and look through the seeds. 

I consider myself an experienced gardener, but I’ve never saved seeds. Is it difficult?

Harvesting and saving seeds isn’t difficult at all, but there are some key guidelines for each category of plants. If you’ve never saved seeds before, here’s a 6-step primer to give you the basics. When you stop in, we can help you find more information and help to get you started.