NELSON SEED LIBRARY

Situated inside the elma Turner Library, the Nelson Seed Library (nelsonseedlibrary.weebly.com) is run by volunteers and works on a selfservice, trust-based system. It is available for any member of the public and can be accessed any time that the library is open.

The basic idea is that any person can come along to the seed library and borrow some seeds for the growing season. At the end of the season, they collect the seeds from the plants that have grown, keep some seed for themselves and return the rest to the library for others to borrow. This idea has worked very well overseas and there are a few seed libraries operating in New Zealand.

The ‘seed’ that started the Nelson Seed Library was a box of seeds that had initially been collected and circulated by the local permaculture group. Their oldest seed stock had been in circulation for more than 30 years! Now there are more than 200 varieties of seeds in the seed library drawers and there has been a great deal of public interest and use so far.

Maintaining the quantities of seed in the library is a big job and in order for the rate of return to rise and continue, the group will run training sessions in the future, teaching people how to grow and harvest seed for collection. It is often not so easy to grow enough seed in an urban garden to save, but when you consider that one lettuce plant alone can have up to 6000 seeds, it makes sense to make space for one or two plants to carry out their life cycle to the seed stage.

ABOVE Clearly label your seeds with the variety, where they were harvested and the date; left from top Use the fermentation method to save tomato seeds; Dill ready to have its seed harvested; Legume seeds should be dried quickly and completely before storing.