Around Town
New Canaan Library to Launch ‘Seed Library’ This Month
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Town residents soon will be able to borrow more than music, books and movies from New Canaan Library, as staffers are working to create a seed library—with its own, dedicated (NewCanaanite.com got a sneak peek) Web page on the facility’s website—within the month. The way it’ll work is basically this, said Melanie Kelly, a reference librarian here for three years who’s project leader on the seed library: patrons will come in, check seeds out through a standalone database, grow their plants, let some go to seeds themselves and bring those seeds back at the end of the season. Asked to describe the interest level in gardening in New Canaan, Kelly noted that the town has multiple groups dedicated to it, saying: “People like to grub around in the dirt.”
“In addition to that, people especially my age (31) like to learn about organic farming,” she added. “My husband and I just put in raised beds last year, and I’ve never had a garden before in my life.”
An idea pursued by the library after Director Lisa Oldham heard about and read up on seed libraries, and discovered that there’s a lot of interest in this region, New Canaan is modeling its program, in part, on the successful seed2seed effort at Fairfield Woods Branch Library. Kelly at her desk has thousands of seeds, representing hundreds of varietals, both vegetables and flowers, and the staff is planning to house the physical seed library just behind the desk that visitors face when they come in off of the parking lots out back.