Check out a piece of library history with the Rye Free Reading Room Seed Library.

In one of the historic library card catalogs, you'll find drawers of seeds for heirloom and organic herbs, greens, and vegetables to borrow and plant. Sow your garden and enjoy the harvest. Once the growing season is done, attend one of our seed saving workshops,  and bring back the collected seeds to the library to replenish our stock for the following year.

Grow your mind and your garden at the Rye Free Reading Room!

 

Here's the basics:

1. Select a few seed packets and take them home to sprout
2. Grow greens, herbs, and veggies all summer long
3. Harvest the seeds in the fall and bring them back to the library
4. Select new seeds next spring and start all over again

 

We have the following seeds:

Cucumber
Boothby's Blonde Cucumber
Ukrainian Slicing Cucumber

Greens
Bok Choy
Dino Kale
Komatsuna
Mache
Merlot Lettuce
Parris Island Cos Lettuce
Rainbow Lacinato Kale
Really Red Deer Tongue Lettuce
Siber Frills Kale
Tokyo Bekana

Herbs
Basil : Genovese
Basil: Lemon
Basil: Thai
Garlic Chives
Parsley: Moss curled
Sage

Melon
Sweet Siberian Watermelon

Squash
Benning's Green Tint Patty Pan Squash
New England Pie Pumpkin

Tomato
Aunt Ruby’s German Green
Cosmonaut Volkov
Goldie
Pantano Romanesco
New Yorker
Purple Tomatillo
Stone Ridge

Vegetables
Anaheim Hot Pepper
Burgandy Okra
Chioggia Guardsmark Improved Beets
Cherry Belle Radish
Di Ciccio Broccoli
Gilfeather Rutabaga
Listada di Gandia Eggplan
Ping Tung Eggplant
Purple Savoy Cabbage
Scarlet Nantes Carrots
Tall Telephone Shelling Pea
Utah Tall Celery

Flowers
Amaranth : Love lies bleeding
Bachelor Button: Blue Cornflower
Black Beauty Poppy
Double Click Cosmos
Hardy Hibiscus
Milkweed
Moon flower
Scarlet Peony Poppy
Sunflower : Teddy Bear
Sunflower : Velvet Queen
Tiger Paw Aster