Borrowing from the Seed Lending Library is free and easy to use, and open to all members of the public, either at the Woodward Library or Education Library locations.
The Seed Lending Library operates on the honour system and borrowers are expected to return seeds at the end of the growing season to keep the library well stocked. For non-expert seed savers, we recommend starting with beans, lettuce, peas, and tomato seeds and learning more about seed saving through the available guides, workshops, and books. If you are unable to save your own seed, please donate a packet or two of commercially grown, open pollinated seeds at the end of the season.
1) Visit us: Visit either UBC’s Woodward Library or Education Library
2) Choose Your Seeds: Browse the available seeds and select the ones you’d like to grow! Seeds are organized by their common name and seeds that are easy to save or grow quickly are labeled. Please only take what you need for this season, and no more than 75 seeds in total. For plants that you will save seeds from, consider checking how many plants you will need to grow to produce quality seeds.
3) Borrow Seeds: Fill out a paper or online form to let us know what seeds you are borrowing. You can hand the paper form in to a staff member at the Information Desk.
4) Enjoy: Take the seeds home with you and plant them!
5) Save & Return: Learn about seed saving and return your harvested seeds or donate a packet or two of commercially grown, open pollinated seeds at the end of the season to help restock the Seed Lending Library. Browse the links on this guide to learn more about saving different types of seeds! To return seeds, bring your clean dry seeds to the Information Desk. We provide bags and labels for the seeds.
6) Repeat! By borrowing, growing, and returning seeds, you’re helping to propagate successful, local seeds, and sharing your knowledge and harvest with our community!