Seed to Seed Library
The goal of the Seed to Seed Library is to have every household in Fairfield plant a garden. We are committed to increasing community awareness of the benefits of gardening and saving seeds through education that will foster community resilience, self-reliance and a culture of sharing.
How it works
Borrowing Seeds
The seeds you borrow from our seed to seed library are lent at no financial cost to you. At harvest time, please take some extra steps to save seeds for others. We’d like you to return a portion of the seeds you have saved to the library. The more seeds in the library, the more members our community can experience the pleasures of growing their own food from local seeds.
Why Save Seeds?
When you grow and save your own seeds, you:
- Develop seed stock that is well suited to our climate
- Save money
- Lessen our dependence on agribusiness
- Help create a culture of sharing and abundance
Tips for Planting your Garden
Plan in advance: Will you have a garden on your deck, a square foot garden in your yard or some herbs on your windowsill?
Our planting zone: Zones 6 or 7
Early Spring: Soil temperature is cool, but past the last hard freeze or heavy frost. May still have light frost.
Late Spring: Soil has begun to warm, and danger of frost is past.
Early Summer: Soil temperature and night temperature have warmed.
Late Summer: Soil and night temperatures have begun to cool, but still before frost.
Fall: Soil temperature has cooled and light frosts occur, but before first hard freeze or heavy frost.
Winter: Soil temperature is very cold or soil is actually frozen. Hard freezes and heavy frosts.
Library Resources
The library has wonderful choices of books for you to pick from. Everything from square foot gardening, seed saving, fertilizing and picking and savoring your bounty. Check out the gardening section next to the Seed to Seed Library at Fairfield Woods.
History
Fairfield Woods Branch Library partnered with Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm and began meeting in November of 2010. Through the winter we applied for grants, looked for volunteers, and contacted other seed library and seed saving organizations.
We modeled our seed-to-seed library after the Richmond Grows Seed Library http://www.richmondgrowsseeds.org/ to come up with ideas and literature on how to best distribute and publicize about our seeds.
We also visited Comestock Ferre, (now Heirloom Market) in Wethersfield, https://www.heirloommkt.com/ which is owned by Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds http://rareseeds.com/. We received a great many packets of seeds from them, they are so generous, that we then broke down into smaller seed packets. Our volunteers were fantastic, taking many, many hours to do this.
We wrote and received a grant from New England Grassroots Environment Fund. This enabled us to pay speakers, buy a seed cabinet, and buy additional seeds to use.
Beginning in the fall of 2012, with a garlic workshop through the late winter and spring we offered programs on gardening and planting. We also contacted our Senior Center to talk about putting in a square foot garden there.
After taping a short “how to” about the seed library we were ready for the lending to begin. Our first year had about 65 gardeners who benefited from our seeds. Our return on seeds has been about 8 or 9 people. Our second year has seen an increased number of gardeners using our seed library and our hope is that we will “get back” more seeds that were saved.
Some Places We’ve Been Mentioned
08/2012 Our Seed-to-Seed Library gained international exposure with an article appearing in the July/August 2012 issue of Kaizen, a magazine that is published in France.
http://www.esterlibrary.org/programs/GEB/seedlibraries.html
http://www.richmondgrowsseeds.org/sister-libraries.html
http://www.utne.com/The-Sweet-Pursuit/Seed-Lending-Libraries.aspx
04/2016 Edible Nutmeg Seed Library Article
01/2/2015 Not Your Garden Variety Library
03/18/2014 Fairfield Woods Branch Library’s Seed-to-Seed Program Ready for Spring
03/7/2014 Norwalk Autism Students Help Fairfield Seed Library Grow