CONSHOHOCKEN — April was National Gardening Month, but Conshohocken Free Library’s new seed catalog makes gardening a nearly year-round option for patrons — even those whose thumbs are less than green.
According to Branch Manager Holly Holst, the catalog — basically, a monthly distribution of free seeds — “has been years in the making, going back several branch managers.”
“The pandemic brought about challenges libraries had to face, which delayed program development, including our seed catalog, but we’re back on track now,” she said. “The project is made possible with a general seed donation from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company as well as the Conshohocken Community Garden, whose members have volunteered time to consult and sort seeds.”
Seed distributions take place the first Wednesday of each month. Patrons “check out” seeds, much like they do CFL “Cooking with Conshy” spice of the month kits. The packets contain directions for planting, growing and harvesting each plant.
Recent packets were February’s red kale, sorrel and tatsoi (“frost-hardy leafy greens”); March’s caraway and radicchio; and April’s black carrot, white balloon flower and sugar snap peas, the latter, “courtesy of Conshohocken Community Garden.” Spinach and greens salad burnet are on tap this month for May; sunflowers and peppers, for June.
“Because sugar snap peas grow vertically, they don’t require a huge amount of space and can be grown in a large container,” Holst said. “Caraway and greens salad burnet are also excellent choices to grow in containers. Just about any type of herb seed would probably do well in a container and can be very attractive, especially when flowering. We have books on container gardening at the library, knowing that many local residents don’t have adequate yard space for a large garden.”
The CFL manager said memberships in Conshohocken Community Garden as “a great option for people who don’t have room to garden at home.”
“Conshohocken Community Garden has been great with providing time to consult on which seeds would be best and how to make the program successful,” she continued. “In addition to donating the sugar snap pea seeds, they helped with seed sorting in March (and) plan to come back to continue sorting seeds and advising what should be used when. It’s been a terrific partnership, an ongoing partnership that we hope continues.”
As planned, May’s thyme give-away will be part of CFL book club’s participation in Longwood Garden’s Community Read project.
“This is the first time we’ve interlinked programs like this,” Holst explained. “Both (groups) will be reading ‘The Last Garden in England’ by Julia Kelly. It’s a World War II historical fiction book, and one of the characters has a company called ‘Turning Back Thyme,’ so we’re including a recipe for a World War II ration bread made with thyme, which is what we’ll be giving out to (participants) as part of our spice program in May. It’s a simple recipe that follows the rationing restrictions that were in effect in England and here in the United States during World War II.”
Holst said response to both CFL’s seed and spice initiatives as “good and getting even better as the word gets out.”
“They’re just two of the many perks of having a library card,” she added. “And if people don’t have a card, they can sign up for one for free.”
CFL, a branch of Montgomery County-Norristown Public Library, is located at 301 Fayette Street. Additional information: 610-825-1656.
