Cedar Falls Seed Library
Our Mission
The mission of the Cedar Falls Seed Library is to promote gardening, heirloom seed/plant cultivation, and seed saving and sharing. We accomplish this by putting on programming about gardening and seed saving/storing, and by lending out seeds to patrons with the understanding they will do their best to collect the seeds at harvest time to be returned to the seed library to be shared with others.
How It Works
- Sign up at the Cedar Falls Library Service Desk or at any of our outreach events. Giving name and email address(or phone number if you do not have email.)
- Pick out up to 5 packets of seeds(per year) from the seed library, located downstairs by the self checks in old card catalogs. Then go to the service desk to check them out.
- Take them home, plant them, help them grow, at harvest time save some seeds, and return those seeds to the library to keep the collection growing. See below for how to return.
- Come to classes to expand your gardening knowledge and learn new skills & practices
- And if you’re willing… Volunteer to help sort seeds over the winter
What to do when returning seeds
We accept only heirloom seeds if they are harvested from the garden. Hybrid seeds or cross pollinated seeds harvested from a garden will not be true to the parent plant/seed. If they are leftover seeds from packs that were bought we will accept any type/variety of seed.
If the seeds are harvested from a garden:
Make sure the seeds are dry & place seeds in a sealed vessel (old seed pack, envelope, jar, plastic tub, sandwich bag.)
Label clearly with:
Type of seed (Tomato, Spinach, Sunflower etc…)
Variety(Amish Pear, Norfolk, Mammoth etc..)
The year harvested
If it is a flower please label if Annual or Perennial
If they are leftover seeds they can be given in the original pack. If all the information is still legible there is no need to label. If the original pack is destroyed or not legible, place the seeds in a sealed vessel and label as above and add whether the seeds are hybrid or heirloom.
>Program and Handout Information
Contact Information
Dan Meier
Cedar Falls Seed Librarian
dmeier@cedarfallslibrary.org
Cedar Falls Seed Library
@ the Cedar Falls Public Library
524 Main Street, Cedar Falls, IA 50613
319-273-8643
cfseedlib@gmail.com
Join our >CFSL Facebook Group!
Seeds Donated By:
>Seed Savers Exchange
>Baker Creek
>High Mowing Organic
>Seeds of Change
>Territorial Seed Company
>Hudson Valley
>Prairie Moon Nursery
>Sustainable Seed Company
>True Leaf Market
& Generous Local Gardeners
Funding Provided by:
Friends of the Cedar Falls Public Library
Cedar Falls Community Foundation Kathryn L. Ray Fund
Our partners in education and programming:
>Iowa State Extension Master Gardener Program
>Green Iowa Americorps
>UNI Local Food Program
>City of Cedar Falls Stormwater Program
>Black Hawk Soil and Water Conservation District
>UNI Tallgrass Prairie Center
>Healthy Cedar Valley Coalition
>Good Neighbor Iowa
>A Garden in Every Lot
>Black Hawk County Waste Trac Education
>UNI Recycling and Reuse Technology Transfer Center
>Cedar Valley Unitarian Universalists
>Seed Savers Exchange
>Hearst Center for the Arts
