The snow is starting to melt and gardening enthusiasts are eager to plant. But instead of starting at the garden store, many are making their way to Chemung County libraries. Reporter Matt Jarchow has more on a program that's growing both local gardens and the libraries themselves.
HORSEHEADS, N.Y. -- The Horseheads Free Library is stocked full of them.
Visitors browse through the selection and check out what they want, but they won't be going home to read a book.
"It's a fundamental behavior, but instead of a book it's a seed," Horseheads Free Library supervisor Owen Frank said.
It can be a broccolli seeds, turnips, soybeans, or a wide variety of other vegetables and flowers. It's an easy and cheap way for gardeners to get their seeds, and a creative way to draw visitors into the library.
"It's an attempt to make libraries relevant and try new things to go beyond the traditional services of a public library and to branch, no pun intended, into new areas," Frank said.
After the seeds are turned into vegetables or flowers, borrowers will then return more seeds into the seed library, making it a self-sustaining operation.
"It's my hope in a few years that we won't have to order seeds from a catalogue, that rather all the seeds in this collection are harvested by participants," Frank said.
At the end of the year the library could have enough seeds to make that happen. Officials said the seed program has taken off to the point that more seeds needed to be ordered.
"People really like this idea, and we've already had an overwhelming response to seeds thus far in calendar year 2015," Frank said.
That will pay off at the end of the year, when gardeners return their selection for the next person to enjoy.
The Big Flats library also offers the seed-lending program, and both libraries host gardening classes to help the plants thrive.