Passage
The branch library on Third Street lends the usual novels and films, but for the past two years it has also lent something stranger: seeds. Patrons check out small paper packets of beans, tomatoes, or marigolds, grow the plants at home, and, when the season ends, return seeds saved from the harvest so that others can borrow them the next spring. The seed collection has outgrown 1 it’s single shelf, and a row of tall sunflower packets now 2 line the top of the case.
Here is how the program works. A borrower signs out a packet, plants it, and tends the crop through the summer. The first time I took part, the head librarian handed my neighbor and 3 I a packet of bean seeds. Each borrower is asked, in turn, to return seeds from the healthiest plants, so the collection improves a little each year.
The founder, a retired botany teacher4 started the program after clearing out her own garden shed. Sorting the donated seeds into envelopes, 5 the shelves slowly filled with labeled packets. The volunteer 6 which started the program still runs it today. 7 Many patrons were unfamiliar 8 to the idea of borrowing seeds, and at first the shelves sat mostly untouched.
The idea puzzled some patrons. 9 Therefore, a few regulars asked why a library would stock something that could not be read. But once the first tomatoes ripened, word 10 spreads quickly, and by the second spring the response from the neighborhood had been 11 good.
The library now teaches patrons how to save seeds, how to label them, and 12 storing them for the winter. The program costs the library almost nothing13, it runs entirely on donated seeds and a few hours of volunteer time each week.
The library hopes to widen the collection in the coming years, adding herbs and, eventually, cuttings from fruit trees. 14 With herbs already planned and fruit-tree cuttings on the horizon, the little seed library seems likely to keep growing for years to come. 15
