The Sundre Municipal Library continues to demonstrate it has evolved a long way from offering just books.
The facility's staff has in recent years been introducing a variety of new programs from children's activities to after-school clubs, as well as offering a meeting place for local groups, and its most recent addition is the inaugural seed library.
“We were approached by a couple of library patrons, who are really expert amateur gardeners, with the idea of creating an opportunity for people to get seeds at the library to try in their own gardens,” said Jamie Syer, library manager.
“We thought this would be a great idea because libraries are about more than loaning books.”
So the patrons who suggested the idea donated a variety of their own seeds after organizing them into little envelopes as well as collecting information on how to plant them, he said, adding library staff also collected additional donated seeds. The seeds, which include a range of about two dozen flowers and vegetables, are available to library members free of charge, as is the membership this year.
“If you have surplus seeds of your own to donate, that's great, but it's not required,” said Syer.
However, library staff are asking people who take some seeds to snap a few photographs of their garden once they've grown, he added.
As of last week, about 80 people had picked up roughly 250 packages since the seed library launched on Saturday, April 2. It runs through until the end of this month, but the library manager said efforts to gather more donated seeds for next season will continue throughout the summer.
“We're just excited that it's had such a great response,” said Syer.
“Certainly for the first year we've had a tremendous response — so good that I'm sure we'll continue it in seasons to come.”
It's not the first time something like this has happened in a library. A number of other libraries have also offered their communities seed libraries. Such an initiative simply provides “one more reason to visit the library,” he said.
Aspiring gardeners who are still working on their green thumbs are welcome to ask for pointers and tips on getting their seeds to grow, he said.
“We don't want to leave people in the lurch. If they need some help learning to grow the plants — how far apart to plant them, how deep to plant — we can help with that as well.”
Spring is well underway, but it's certainly not too late to start a garden, he said.
“A lot of people will wait until the Victoria Day weekend to plant their seeds.”
Some of the vegetable seeds include spinach, carrots, peas, squash, cucumber and tomatoes, while the flower seeds consist of species such as poppies, bachelor's buttons, honeywort, dolichos and sunflowers.
“We're hoping it'll just continue to grow,” he said about the new seed library, tongue in cheek.
