Gardeners can 'check out' seeds from Saskatoon Seed Library

The Saskatoon Seed Library works much like a regular library, but instead of books, gardeners borrow seeds and grow food.

"It's just like you'd take a book out of a library, read it and return it. You can take our seed and grow it," explained the library's co-founder, Karen Farmer on Saskatoon Morning.

"Then you save the seed, we can teach you how to do that, and then you return the seed and other people grow your seed the next year," Farmer said.

The library currently offers tomatoes, beans, cilantro and lettuce. Farmer said the varieties  chosen to be part of the library are especially suitable for Saskatoon's climate.

"These seeds have been developed over time to be very responsive to our unique growing environment, our shorter growing season the amount of rain we get," she said. 

Farmer started the library in partnership with the Saskatoon Food Bank and Learning Centre. She said the project has gotten a good response.

"I'm seeing a lot of interest from younger people [and] older people who have doing seed saving that want do more and encourage and mentor other people," she said. 

Farmer will give a workshop on the library at this year's Seedy Saturday event, which happens today from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Station 20 West.