Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Seed Lending Library - a fascinating step beyond the bookshelf

Hello everyone,

A friend sent me a link to a really inspiring article (link below). Thanks Shane!

The San Francisco Library has teemed up with Transition San Franciso and the San Francisco Permaculture Guild to develop a seed lending library - from which people can take out seeds and bring back seeds they harvest from plants they grow. This fascinating project supports development of urban agriculture, food security and biodiversity.

People will borrow vegetable seeds from the Library's collection, to plant in their home or shared garden. Library programs will offer classes on how to grow out and save seed, to encourage gardeners to let some of their plants mature so that harvested seeds can be returned to the Library and augment the collection. Gardeners will learn to observe which plants are hardy and growing conditions which developed the plant.

Lia Hillman, Branch Manager of the Potrero Branch of the San Francisco Public Library supports the project for its role in greening the city, promoting health, and encouraging gardening for personal pleasure and strong communities.

Kevin Bayuk, a Permaculture Design Instructor , points out the everyday miracle of a seed: "The cultural practice of selecting and saving seeds demonstrates how we can catch and store energy -- though small, each seed is a dense package of incredible potential abundance of delicious local food, community connection and an astonishing amount of additional seeds to save ... natural surplus resulting in greater biodiversity, easier gardening and most importantly, fun in learning and connecting."

If you have some extra reading time, take a look!

Best regards,

Why's Woman

link to the full article: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/4/prweb8264038.htm

SF Seed Library: http://www.sfseedlibrary.org/.

San Francisco Permaculture Guild: http://www.permaculture-sf.org.

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