The Marion Community Seed Exchange at the Marion Public Library
A free program that encourages residents to plant, share and save seeds
Just as traditional libraries enrich a community by providing a way to share books, seed libraries enrich the gardening community by allowing gardeners to share seeds. The benefits of a seed lending library are many: it is a way to have fun, build community with fellow gardeners, and support people who are new to the world of gardening. It also preserves rare, open-pollinated or heirloom seeds and encourages gardeners to save quality seeds that are suitable for your local growing area.
A seed library is a circulating collection of seeds that people can borrow, plant, harvest, save, and—if all goes according to plan—return to the library for others to borrow.
We accept all kinds of seed donations, of both commercially packaged and saved seed. If the donation is saved seed, we ask donors to provide information such as variety, harvest year, and growing notes.
Seeds should already be portioned in bags or envelopes, and should be labeled clearly and with as much information as possible. Each envelope should contain enough seed for three to five plants. Given that not all seeds germinate, that means there are generally between nine and fifteen seeds in each packet. Some seeds are incredibly tiny, and for those we will disregard the rule and just ask for a pinch in each envelope. Some seeds are quite large, and consequently those envelopes may contain fewer seeds.
