Local Climate Zone: 8-9 | Cool Temperate to Alpine
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The Robertson Garden Club Community Seed Library is located in the CTC 58-60 Hoddle Street Robertson and is available for access during CTC operating hours.
Open pollinated vegetable, herb and flower seeds are donated by local gardeners for use by the whole community.
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The Community Seed Library was established in October 2024 by Robertson Garden Club and is run in conjunction with the CTC, Robertson Garden Club and community volunteers.
What is a seed library?
A seed library is a community resource providing free vegetable, flower, herb and local native plant seeds to anyone who
wants to grow them.
We want to encourage everyone within the community to grow their own food, herbs, flowers and local habitat gardens to
help build food resilience within the community, promote sustainable gardening practices and support our local environment.
Why have a local seed library, save seeds and
grow your own food and flowers?
* It a practical way to save money and growing your own organic produce is so good for your health!
* It is fun and a very rewarding activity for the whole family.
* Helps preserve seed and food diversity for future generations.
* Builds self-resilience.
* Promotes sustainable living and reduces food miles.
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* It brings together a community of gardening enthusiasts who can share their local knowledge.
* It helps us to preserve Traditional and Heritage varieties.
* Over time we can build a collection of seeds that are adapted to our local area.
How does it work?
COLLECT: Visit the seed library at the CTC and pick up the seeds you would like to grow.
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GROW: Germinate and grow the seeds at home and provide your family with beautiful food and flowers.
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SAVE: Select the healthiest and best plants and allow them to flower and set seed. Then save that seed.
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SHARE: Place some of your saved seed in one of our envelopes, label it and return it to the Seed Library
for others to use. There is no obligation to return seeds, sometimes growing from seed doesn’t work out. We just want to encourage everyone to try.
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TOP TIP
Save seed from open pollinated plants.
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Put simply, open pollinated and heritage plants will come true to type (look like the parent the seeds came from) whereas hybrid plants come from very different parent plants and their seeds will not come true to type and could look like either parent or something completely different.
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Most commercially available seeds are hybrids and therefore will not produce plants that will look the same as the plant you collected the seed from. Some exceptions are open-heart lettuce varieties, herbs (like rocket, coriander, dill, and parsley) and rainbow chard, silver beet.
How to save seeds
Two important seed saving rules - save seed from the best plants (healthiest, slow bolting, disease resistant etc) and from heritage or open pollinated varieties.
Allow fruit or seed pods to fully mature before harvesting.
For plants with exploding seed pods (rocket, broccoli, herbs etc) check that most of the seed is very ripe, pull the whole plant out and place it in a large paper bag and hang in a cool, dry place.
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Collect seedpods of beans, etc. when the outside skin is quite dry and full of seed.
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For seeds of fleshy fruits like tomatoes, capsicum and
eggplant, scoop seeds out of fruit into a container of water and allow to ferment for a few days and then rub together through a sieve to remove flesh. Dry on a paper towel.
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For pumpkin varieties, when processing the plant for cooking save seed and dry on paper towel.
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For corn, cucumber and zucchini etc these will need to stay on the plant until more mature than they would be for eating. Then remove and dry seed.
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For each type of seed collected, fill in all the information on a seed library envelope. Place your clean and dried seeds into the correct envelope and return to the collection box at the CTC. Volunteers will then sort the seed envelopes and place them in the library.
If you cannot get to the CTC soon after packaging, then store in a cool dry, dark place until you can.
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You can find more helpful seed saving information in the RESOURCES section of our site.
How to plant your seeds
All seeds need the right temperature to germinate so make sure you are growing your seeds in the right season. See seed packet or our “sow what when chart” in the resources section of the website.
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They also need a medium (potting mix/garden soil) to grow in and light and moisture to activate the germination process.
They can either be sown directly into the soil where they are to grow or started as seedlings and planted into the ground later.
Step by step: Seed raising
1. Either purchase seed sowing potting mix or make your own from your compost bin or worm farm.
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2. Fill a container with mix and press down firmly.
3. Scatter seeds over the surface or one per cell if planting into celled punnets.
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4. Cover with more mix and press mix down again. Only cover to a depth the same as the size of the seed.
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5. Gently water the seeds well (use a fine spray on your hose nozzle or use a spray bottle).
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6. Keep moist until the seeds germinate. (The exception is for legumes such as peas and beans they like a good soaking then don’t water again until germination has occurred)
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7. Once they have several sets of leaves, they can be planted into a prepared garden bed.
