Ah, spring! We love spying such an abundance of Mother Nature’s new growth around Austin these days – flowers, budding trees, veggies popping up in the gardens. If you’re looking to do some spring planting of your own, Austin Public Library offers the coolest thing — the Seed Library! Housed on the 6th Floor of the Austin Central Library, you can “check out” and “return” seeds.

This addition to the downtown branch comes from The Central Texas Seed Library, a grassroots group of seed savers, gardeners, activists, and horticulturists that have established a repository and exchange system for “seeds of land race, heirloom, locally adapted and native varieties of fruits and vegetable and other useful plants in Central Texas region.”

How does the Seed Library work?
The seed collection can be found in the classic card catalog cabinet located in the northwest corner of the 6th floor of the Central Library.

  • Do you need seeds to start your garden or get it ready for a new season? Browse the drawers, check out up to four seed packets per visit and record them on a checkout form from Drawer 18. Place the completed form back in the same drawer.
  • Has your garden produced more seeds than you need? Keep the spirit and the seedlings alive with a donation. Use the form from Drawer 19, as well as envelopes from drawer 21, if you need them. Place the completed donation in drawer 20.

If you don’t have much of green thumb and want more information on planting, you can find information on gardening in the Seed Library collection, too. You can even attend events on related topics. Check out the APL Green Gang for free programming on such topics as gardening and sustainability.  Happy planting! 

–> More Library Love: Of course, over here at Do512 Family, we are BIG fans of the Austin Public Library and are thankful for the many storytimes, puppet shows, movie matinees, and huge calendar of events they host all the time! The library is a special meeting place, a community hub, a site to expand our knowledge, learn new things and make new friends. And of course, we love that everything at the library is FREE! To learn about all of the happenings for families, visit the Austin Public Library website.