UPDATE: Our 2024 Seed Library will be sunsetting for the season at the end of October. We are looking forward to next year!

The Library is excited to offer our first ever Seed Library collection for 2024! 

The Seed Library will be available on a first come, first serve basis! Anyone can use the Seed Library, no library card required! We welcome community members of all ages and skill levels.

We’d like to extend generous thanks to Nunan Florists and Greenhouses of Georgetown and High Mowing Organic Seeds of Vermont for their donation of seeds as well as personal donations of seeds from Georgetown residents! 

What is a Seed Library?

Traditionally, in a seed library, community members come to the library and ‘borrow’ seed for their garden. They grow the plants in their garden, and when it’s time to harvest, they let a few of the strongest plants go to seed. From those plants, they collect and dry the seeds and return a few to the library for future plantings.

This promotes food sustainability, encouraging the community to enjoy the benefits of growing their own healthy food and flowers. When the local community harvest seeds from their plants and donates them to the seed library, it helps create a hardier seed stock that is suited to our local area and climate.

The GPL Seed Library provides free seeds to the community, along with offering plenty of library books and online resources for growing advice. No one is required to return seed to the seed library, but people are welcome to share their leftover seed to grow our collection for future years and informally seed swap with other gardeners.

How does it work?

• Browse the available seed packets in our Seed Binder. We offer a variety of vegetables, herbs and flowers.
• Choose seeds you’d like to try and pick them from the Seed Catalog.
• Please limit to a maximum of 5 packets of veg/herb and 5 packets of flowers per visit.
• Record your name and seeds you took on ‘Seed Check Out’ sheet.
• Take a photo of any growing information you’d like from the seed packet. No smartphone, no worries. Just take a photocopy of the information.
• Browse the Library’s garden book collection upstairs in our NF (Nonfiction) area (look under Dewey number 635), as well as ebooks available on Libby and online resources on our GPL website.
• Check back – we’ll be adding new seeds during the season!
• If you have leftover seeds you wish to donate, you can leave them at the front desk for our donation box. We accept the current year’s seeds in commercial packages, opened and unopened, as well as packets dated up to two years prior.  If you have seeds that you have harvested, please mark them with name, variety, date and any other helpful information (i.e. heirloom, open-pollinated, organic).

If you don’t see what you want, check back, or better yet email Sarah with your questions. Please put “Seed Library” in the subject line.

Our goals

• Provide free and convenient opportunities for the Georgetown community to learn about gardening and growing plants that thrive in our local area.
• Encourage the use of heirloom, open-pollinated and organic seeds.
• Encourage gardeners to save seed and donate seed back to the Seed Library from successful varieties of plants they have grown.
• Educate our community on topics related to gardening, ecology, food and nutrition, health and wellness and the environment. This will be in line with our FY24-28 Long Range Plan that the Library will be an example and resource for sustainability and climate resources through programming, education, and collection management.
• Promote the importance of organic gardening for our health and the health of our planet.

What seeds should I save?

Some seeds are self-pollinators and can be easily saved, others require some know-how to prevent cross pollination. Check out our gardening books and online resources for more information.

Resources: