How does the seed library work?
Growers obtain seeds from the library and check them out at the front desk. A record is made of seeds taken, as well as contact details.
At the end of the growing season, the grower harvests and saves some of the seed for next season and returns a portion to the Kimberley seed library.
Do I need a Kimberley Library card?
Yes. The seed library is open to anyone with library membership who lives in the Kimberley, Ta Ta Creek, Wasa and the Skookumchuk region.
How many seeds can I take?
3 seed packs per person, per season.
I’ve never saved seeds before, how do I do it?
The Kimberley Public Library has some excellent books to check out on seed saving, located in the non-fiction section call # 631.5
We also have handouts with seed saving information, available at the front desk.
Basic information on seed saving is available through the organization Seeds of Diversity, follow this link:
https://seeds.ca/seed-gardening-resources/
How many seeds do I need to return to the library?
As many as possible! Simply fill out the seed label and return at the library front desk. Please include as much information as possible:
Common Name: e.g. kale, curly kale, dwarf blue curly kale
Year: The year the seeds collected on.
Generation: How many years have you planted and harvested this particular seed.
Do I have to bring back the same type of seeds I check out?
Yes, if possible. It helps to build our supply of regionally adapted seeds by harvesting seeds from plants that grew successfully from the seed library.
History of the Seed Library at the Kimberley Public Library
It is believed that the first seed library, established in 1999, was the Bay Area Seed Interchange Library at the Berkeley Ecology Center in California. This sowed the seed for the idea to take root and grow across North America!
The Kimberley Public Library has housed Kimberley’s very own seed library since 2014/15. One of the founders, Chris Vassallo, has kindly contributed this article about the story of how Seedy Saturday (now Seedy Sunday) and the seed library came to be:
“For me, the journey to the seed bank started in the early 90’s when I was waiting for a flight from Hobart to Sydney, Australia. 
In the gift shop I found an interesting book titled Introduction to Permaculture (ISBN 9870908228089 Tagari Publications) which would lead to some profound changes in my life.
Within two years my wife and I had moved to 10 acres deep in the forests of south-east Australia and began the steep learning curve of operating our own business, living in the bush, and raising two sons. Over the next 12 years we strived to live a self-sustainable life and learnt so many things. How to pickle, ferment and bake. Twelve years later, we then made another monumental decision, to move to the country of my wife’s birth, Canada.
Two things were left foremost in my mind after my experiences in Australia. Local currency and Permablitz! So, on arrival in Kimberley BC, in the fall of 2008, I could not yet work, and volunteered my time with Wildsight and went picking apples with the wonderful Erna Jensen.
I continued to ask questions, post flyers and seek others who had similar experiences with Permaculture. I was able to establish a Permablitz group but did not have any luck with the local currency. That is another story!
Word started to get around on what the Permablitz group was doing and that is how we all got involved with Rita’s garden. Rita Cimolai lived close to the High School, was getting older, and could no longer work in her large garden the way she used to. Deer proof fence (if such a thing exists), excellent soil and a small hothouse were all perfect for food production. A well-attended Permablitz to weed and clean the garden and it was ready for use. Before long we were selling greens to some of the local cafes and collecting their scraps for the compost. Rita passed away not long after and was very happy to see her garden being used and we were happy to have the space.
It was about this time that the Farmer’s Market (2014) started Thursday operations and we were attending in the early years with whatever excess we had in the garden. Before long other gardens were becoming available including the Rotary Drive Community Garden, and it began to look like there would be enough space to allow some of the vegetables to complete their growth cycle and go to seed. This resulted in large supplies of some seed.
Having had exposure to local Seed Banks in Australia I thought the idea could work well in our small community and approached the Library. This resulted in the first Seedy Saturday in March 2014 or 2015(?) and a permanent spot for the seeds in the library.
Seed saving is not hard, and our community already possessed many avid gardeners who were skilled in this. Early contributors included April Wells, Jessica Windle and Liz Dowling and many others whose names I do not recall. These early contributions result in a large bank of locally produced seed.
I’m extremely happy to see that this project is still in operation.”