You knew you could borrow books at the library. But did you know that you can also find seeds at the New Port Richey library?

You can check them out. Take them with you. And use them to make your garden grow.

The seeds are each stored in a drawer. Each seed is pure and chemical-free.

So how does the library expect to keep offering seeds if everyone shows up and takes them? Well, once you’ve planted a seed and once you’ve harvested a plant, the hope is that you’ll bring some of those seeds back to share.

The seeds are arranged alphabetically, and are further arranged by how difficult they are to grow. If you’re new to gardening, just choose “easy” seeds. If you want a bit more of a challenge, pull something from the “advanced” drawer.

The seed exchange is part of a larger program, one that encourages residents to plant gardens on vacant lots that they own throughout the city. This kind of gardening increases the food security of each resident here while helping to produce more sustainable food.

What makes locally grown food so sustainable? Well, for one thing, it won’t have to travel is far to get “from farm to table.”

By contrast, the average piece of produce will travel 3000 miles from its point of origin before reaching your local grocery store.

You can watch a short video about the seed exchange here:

You don’t need to be a resident of New Port Richey to get a library card, but you will have to get a library card to check out those seeds. As the video mentions, you don’t rack up any fines if you don’t share any seeds yourself–though, of course, this would be a nice thing to do.

There are 168 seed varieties to choose from right now, so there’s a good chance that it will be easy to find something you want to grow. Check out the seed exchange today!