Did you know that one of the Pima County Public Library/PCPL Seed Library's goals is to become self-sustaining? This means that one day the seeds shared through the Seed Library will come from seeds that you, the community, have grown and shared with the Seed Library.
You can help us continue to grow this community-supported resource! Here is what you need to know:
The Seed Library is happy to accept donations of your locally saved open-pollinated (OP) and heirloom seeds in any quantity. The seeds should be collected from your healthiest plants. Want to know more about how to save seeds? Visit our online catalog to find some great books to help you learn how to save seeds in your garden.
We also are happy to accept your unused quantities of OP/heirloom seeds from seed packets you might have purchased commercially. If we can’t use them we can help get them to folks who can.
Seeds saved from grocery store or farmers’ market produce are not suitable for the Seed Library. This is because there’s not enough information about how the plants were grown. Please put them in your compost bin instead.
Donated seeds should be relatively free of chaff or other plant matter. To help you clean your seeds, the Seed Library has seed cleaning screens available for you to borrow, to find out how to check out a cleaning screen here..
Your seeds should be completely dry to prevent them from molding and can be returned in any type of container that will hold them—jars, medicine bottles, zipper bags, envelopes, film tubes all work. You don’t have to package them up into smaller quantities, we can do that for you!
Please tell us something about the seeds you are sharing! At the very minimum, let us know the specific variety of the seeds you are sharing (an example would be Moon and stars watermelon just “watermelon”). Seeds that don’t have enough information to help us know what we’re sharing will be composted. You can write this information on a piece of paper or download our donation slip online (English, Spanish). You can also pick up donation slips at your local library.
Your seed donations can be dropped off at any PCPL library location. See a list of library locations and the hours.
If you have any questions, we’re just an email away: Seed.Library@pima.gov
When we save seeds, we are passing on the genetic qualities of the plant that provided the seeds, and we’re creating abundance. We hope you learn a lot as you experience the joys of gardening, seed saving, and seed sharing!
Some examples of the community’s donations:
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