In between tending to interlibrary loans and helping teach people how to use their cell phones, tablets and computers, Tamra Bates prepares to stock three cast-off card catalogs.
She takes anywhere from three to a half dozen seeds from a single packet, places them in a plastic bag, adds a card with planting instructions and staples it shut.
The 5,936 seed packets Bates has managed to fill will supply the seed libraries housed in the card catalogs (no longer needed due to digital technology) at the branches in Ridgeland, Flora and Canton that are part of the Madison County Library System.
“I work on the seed packets whenever I have time,” she said. “I design the cards, count the seeds and put them in a baggie. It’s my third year to do this.”
Bates expected to have the seed libraries packed by March 26, so that anyone with or without a library card can stop by and take home free of charge seeds they want to grow.
“All we ask is that you take what you can plant,” she said. “We’ve got a big variety of seeds, including tomatoes, bell pepper, herbs, flowers, corn, kale, chives and onions.”
Ken Hackman of Madison, a birding enthusiast and a member of the Mississippi Native Plant Society, plans to check out one of the seed libraries. “I think that’s really, really neat,” he said.
Bates acquired the task of implementing the seed libraries when she took her job as technology trainer and interlibrary loans specialist for the library system, and luckily, it is a natural fit given her love of gardening.
“My grandparents gardened, my mother gardened, and I followed suit,” she said.
A previous library system employee introduced the idea of a seed library, gathered a few seed packets but never got farther with the project, Bates said. “When I took my position, they handed it to me and said, ‘Do this,’” she said.
This year, a handful of seed companies and numerous library patrons donated seeds from their gardens or packets they purchased, she said. In 2024, the library system purchased about $500 worth of seeds to get the project off the ground, she said.
The Rev. Beth Foose, rector at Grace Episcopal Church in Canton who operates Little Bluestem Farm, which specializes in sustainably grown cut flowers, provided seeds, Bates said.
Bates welcomes donations from anyone who has extra seed packages that are no more than five years old that have been stored in a dry place. She also will take them from gardeners who have saved seeds from plants they have grown but the seeds must be dry.
“Just don’t bring me goopy tomato seeds,” she said.
A seed library is useful for both experienced and novice gardeners. It provides an experienced gardener with the opportunity to pick a seed he or she has never planted, while novice gardeners have a low-cost way to get their hands dirty and see what works.
“All it takes is a container and some dirt,” Bates said. “Gardening is an experiment. It’s fun. With seeds if it doesn’t go great, you haven’t lost a lot.”
It’s a matter of preference, she said, whether to start seeds inside one’s home in a small pot or to bypass that and plant them outside in a larger pot or in the ground. “You don’t always have to start them inside,” she said.
Bates said her grandparents had vegetable gardens along with plum trees and fig trees, which they relied on to feed their families in the summer.
“People are trying to get back to those types of things,” she said. “One of the main reasons we started was to help people with their grocery budgets in areas where they can’t get fresh vegetables. They can grow vegetables at home.”
The seed libraries in Flora and in Ridgeland have grown in popularity each year as more people discover them and select a packet or two of seeds to plant.
Last spring, Bates put out 3,300 seed cards at the seeds libraries in Ridgeland and Flora compared to the 5,936 she prepared this year.
“The first year at the library in Flora we didn’t get a lot of seeds taken out, but they were wiped out last year,” she said. “In Ridgeland, all the seeds were taken the first year and it was the same way last year. We’re not sure what will happen in Canton since it’s the first year for a seed library there.”
There are plans to open seed library at the Madison Library, Bates said, but finding a card catalog had been the hold-up.
“They are few and far between,” she said. “When you find one, it’s expensive to buy. The card catalogs in Ridgeland in Flora were ones the library system had in storage, and the one in Canton was donated.”
Whenever one of the wooden cabinets that once held descriptions of a library’s holdings on index cards becomes available, Bates stands ready to give it new life as a seed catalog.
