|by Rosemary Beck at contentinacottage.blogspot.com/|
Local gardeners donate seeds from their most successful plants to the local library, and they sit lined up in little envelopes marked with the name of the plant and the grower. Borrowers check them out--along with their books and CDs--with the plan to return seeds from the plants they will grow.
Not only are the seeds checked out free of charge, they are specific to that particular biome, and are likely to grow better than store-sold seeds brought in from another part of the country. An added benefit? Libraries facing competition from ebooks in a digital age have a new draw. After all, shouldn't seeds be available to everyone, just like books?
NPR quotes Barbara Miller, library director of Basalt, Colorado, as saying, "You have to be fleet of foot if you're going to stay relevant, and that's what the big problem is with a lot of libraries, is relevancy."
Would you like it if your local library enabled people to grow not only a love of reading, but also green beans, carrots, and tomatoes?