Getting your garden summer ready

Two weeks ago,

Lethbridge Public

Library launched its

Seed Library, and we had over 50 requests for seeds in just three days!

In the fall, we will be putting a call out to community members to harvest new seeds, and return them to the library, to then be packaged up and borrowed by local gardeners for the next growing season — and then cycle will begin again!

Now is the perfect time to start getting your own garden summer ready, or maybe even thinking about which seeds you might be able to return in the fall. Here are just a few books to get you in a gardening mood.

“Vegetable Gardening for Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba” – Laura Peters — The perfect companion for the unique growing needs of prairie gardens.

“Gardening Under the Arch” – Millarville Horticultural Club — Every gardener in Lethbridge needs to read this Holy Grail resource of how to garden under the sometimes-harsh southern Alberta conditions.

“Container Gardening Complete” – Jessica Walliser — Maybe you are new to gardening, lack space or live in an apartment building. This book offers the ins and outs of gardening in a small space — from the importance of drainage, irrigation and other watering concerns, to the best combination of plants to put into your container.

“Herb Gardening” – Melissa Melton Snyder — Having a herb garden is a nice addition to any backyard garden. This book provides everything you need to know about choosing the site, preparing the soil, choosing the plants, caring for them, dealing with pests and diseases, and what to do with the harvest at the end of the summer.

“The Flower Garden” – Clare Foster — Growing flowers from seed is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to supplement your garden and bring in some colour. Many of these flowers are also ideal for cutting, so within a single growing season you can produce armfuls of beautiful blooms to cut and bring inside the house, and to get seeds to bring back to the library in the fall.

“The Complete Guide to Saving Seeds” – Robert. E. Gough — If, in the fall, you are interested in helping us to grow our seed library, then this book will be a great resource to check out. This book outlines in simple steps how to properly harvest your seeds and store them for future use.

These are just a few of the titles we have available to check out. Please visit www.lethlib.ca for more great titles, how to get a library card, and information on requesting titles to be picked up using our curbside service. Happy growing!