Anne of Green Gables? Why not page through the green beans as well

• The focus is on edible plants to combat food insecurity
• Resources available to help anyone grow plants
• Other branches looking to adopt program

Just in time for spring, you can now go to the Okanagan Regional Library, Rutland Branch and check out something other than books.

Close to the front desk is Kelowna’s first ‘seed library’. A small shelf covered in packets filled with would-be plants.

“We’ve been wanting to start a seed library for a couple of years now. We’ve been looking at figuring out where to set up, how to collect the seeds,” Rutland library branch supervisor Rob Marolla, told Kelowna10.

“From a donation from the community, we’re able to get it off the ground and so that’s how we were able to start it here in the branch.”

The first seeds were given by the Incredible Edible Okanagan group.

Morello and his five-year-old son Charlie are attempting to grow their own backyard carrots with seeds from the branch.

Vegetables like kale, parsnips, rutabaga, Swiss chard, and more are available to take home from Rutland.

The focus is on edible plants to help combat food insecurity in the community. But the library welcomes seed donations of other types of plants as well.

“I’m partial to tomatoes. Any kind of heirloom blends that we might be able to get donated would be of interest to me,” Morello said. “But other than that, everything’s welcome.”

Patrons can borrow up to six packets at a time per visit.

They say ‘borrow’ because the expectation is for the person to give back some seeds from the plants they grew to keep the shelf stacked.

Accessibility was top of mind for the program so even the most amateur green-thumbs have a wealth of knowledge to help them produce bountiful crops.

This includes gardening books, online videos, a large database on research papers via their website, online apps, etc.

The shelf containers holding the seed packages were designed and built in-house by Cody Epema, the branch’s tech assistant using their inhouse 3D printer. The device is also available for public use.

The seed library program is brand new, having only started on April 4. Westbank opened their own on the same day.

“I was pretty surprised by the number of people who have already borrowed seeds or taken seeds out,” branch head Alison Hayman said.

Like Morello, she and her nine-year-old daughter are now attempting their first garden with those seeds and is hoping they get Brussels-sprouts donated at some point.

Even if they don’t receive back many seeds from patrons, the program is here to stay. Hayman said they would look for other donation sources to keep the seeds in stock.

The downtown Kelowna and Mission branches are also looking to add a seed library to their repository. Hayman hopes the program grows across the Okanagan.

The Rutland library is encouraging successful growers to show off their crops on social media using the hashtag #Rutlandseedlibrary.