Not from the Greater Richmond California Area?
It's easy to create your own seed lending library or locate a sister seed library.

What's a Seed Lending Library?

Come to the Richmond Public Library, Richmond, Calif. and “borrow” seeds for free! You may be asking, “How can you ‘borrow’ seeds?” The basic is idea is that you plant the seeds, let some go to  seed, then return some of these next generation seeds for others to borrow. (Don’t worry. We don’t have fines if you don’t return seeds.)

We encourage home gardeners to save seeds from the "super easy" plants: tomatoes, lettuce, beans, peas and peppers. (Some extra know-how needed for peppers.) Do not save seeds from plants in the "easy" or "difficult" drawer until you have more experience seed saving.

Richmond Grows is a non-profit seed lending library located in the public library. We’re open whenever the public library is open. You do not need to have Richmond Public Library card to use the seed library, but we do ask people to watch our on-line orientation. We provide free classes on organic gardening and seed saving, and of course, you can also borrow books from the public library on these topics.

Richmond Grows es una "biblioteca"
de semillas gratis

Lugar: La Biblioteca Publica de Richmond (Richmond Public Library), 325 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond, Calif.

Stories of Seeds 
Highlights from our Collection

Take a picture of a plant that you are saving seeds from. We want to hear your story of the plant you saved seeds from. Maybe let us know what dishes you made with it or share a favorite recipe using the plant. Each month we'd like to highlight something in our collection. You can submit your photos and a little write-up to RichmondGrows@gmail.com.

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Water-Wise Vegetable Gardening

by Marin County Master Gardener Lindsay Laven

The basic tenets are water-wise gardening are:

• Grow a smaller garden
• Grow edibles that drink less
• Compost & mulch
• Irrigate more efficiently

Design can contribute to water efficiency.  Follow these guidelines:

• Grow only what you need
• Locate garden away from winds; winds accelerate evaporation
• Group crops into “hydrozones,” grouping crops with the same water requirements
• Group crops with similar root depth, enabling you to water only to that depth

And consider these tips...
Plant a spring garden with edibles that use residual water in the soil:

• Asparagus; Artichoke, Broccoli: Blue Wind, Arcadia, Marathon, Di Ciccio, & Romanesco; Red Express Cabbage; Carrots; Chard; Cilantro; Collards; French Sorrel; Garlic; Salad Greens; Toscano Kale; Onions; Sugar Peas; Fingerling Potatoes; Radishes; Turnip

Plant edibles that mature quickly (50-60 days) needing fewer days of irrigation:

• Maximel Bush Beans; Emerite Runner Beans; Cylindra & Golden Beets; Broccoli; Red Express Cabbage; Carrots; Collards; Chard; Burpless Lemon & Persian Cucumber; Salad Greens: Millionaire Eggplant, Garlic; Yates Blue Curled Kale; Okra; Onions; Radishes; Early Girl, Sungold, & Stupice Tomatoes; Turnips; Zehpyr Summer Squash

Grow high producers. Get more bang for your buck-et.

• Chard, Kale, Greens, Strawberries, Tomatoes, Zucchini

And, remember, the average plant requires about 1 gallon of water/week.  Look for easy ways to save a gallon.  Minor changes in your habits can ensure water for your garden.

• A low flow showerhead uses half the water of a regular showerhead, saving 15 gallons on a 5 minute shower.
• An ultra low flow toilet uses half the water of a conventional toilet, saving 2 gallons per flush.
• Turning off the tap while brushing your teeth can save almost 10 gallons of water; turning off the tap while shaving can save 20.

Conserving is easy.  Let’s all do our part.

Support Richmond Grows

Richmond Grows is a volunteer organization supported by tax-deductible community donations. All of our seeds and classes are offered free of charge to our community. At the moment, we are working on getting all of our materials translated into different languages. Your donations will help make our materials and seed available to more members of our and other communities - as we share all of the resources we create with the seed library movement. We're a fiscally sponsored project of Urban Tilth.

    A project of the Richmond Rivets
          In collaboration with the Richmond Public Library

A fiscally sponsored project of
Urban Tilth