Libraries are contributing to the landscape of Orange County.
Alongside books, patrons are taking home tomato seeds, kale starters and native wildflower blends — free seeds from their local public libraries.
“It’s a nice way to kind of surprise people and show how libraries just aren’t books, they’re part of the community,” said Blake Repsher, who visited the Huntington Beach Central Library’s seed library with his wife and two daughters.
Over a dozen public libraries across the county offer a seed library to the public – including all branches of the Huntington Beach Public Library, Mission Viejo Library, Newport Beach Crean Mariners Library, Yorba Linda Public Library, Anaheim Heritage Center and all branches of the Orange Public Library.
Earlier this month, several OC Public Libraries including Brea, Costa Mesa, El Toro, San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente and Westminster joined the growing list of libraries that offer this program.
“Here you can build a garden, meet people, or you can see a puppet show, like we take our little one to,” Repsher said, noting that they are working on building a potted garden at their apartment. “It’s changing people’s ideas of what a library can be.”
Public libraries across the county have distributed thousands of seeds for free to residents through seed libraries – collections of vegetable, herb, fruit and native plant seeds available to “check out” for free.
Librarians note that seed libraries can help make fresh food available to those who can’t access it easily.
“We have a very diverse socioeconomic makeup of our community and a lot of families don’t have money to go to the grocery store and buy fresh ingredients,” said Lizette Guerra, librarian with the Orange Public Library (OPL). “This gives them an opportunity to have quality produce.”
Seed libraries can be found at the El Modena, Taft and main branches of the OPL system, which were established in 2016 by the Orange Public Library Foundation partnership with Orange Home Grown.
OPL’s collection includes essential food items like tomatoes and lettuce, California native wildflowers and more unique seeds – like luffa and lupine seeds.
The seed collection costs over $20,000 to maintain including the Orange Public Library Foundation’s executive director Lynn-Marie Frediani’s salary.
The seed libraries can be accessed during the branch’s open hours.
Other branches are placing an emphasis on local history through their seed library.
“The people who started the Anaheim seed colony were really creative with how they engaged with plants,” said Nichole Grimes, senior librarian who established the seedling library at the Anaheim Heritage Center in 2023.
“We want to carry that legacy forward. The seed library’s focus is on being able to retain these seeds and foster new generations through planting.”
The library contains hundreds of seeds, including plants that have a direct tie into the city’s history – like the Anaheim chilli pepper and sugar beets.
The collection costs around $1,500 annually to maintain, according to Grimes.
To check out seeds, patrons fill out a checkout form indicating how many packets they take.
Visitors can access the Heritage Center’s seedling library Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Attendees can pick up more free seeds from the Founders’ Park seed library during the park’s open house the first Saturday of every month.
Seed libraries can engage patrons across generations.
“It’s really an all ages experience. It’s exciting to see people and families come in, have their small child come up and find seeds to grow,” said Cynthia Flores, library assistant at Huntington Beach Public Library.
“We have other people who come in for their elderly parents and their elderly parents are now growing the garden with the seeds.”
The Huntington Beach Central Library’s collection was founded in 2016 also offers a variety of vegetables, herbs and flowers such as marigolds.
The collection costs around $1,000 annually to maintain, according to Flores.
The seed library can be accessed anytime during the branch’s open hours, but visitors must have a library card or digital access in order to check out seeds.
The Huntington Beach Public Library’s other four branches — Oak View, Main St., Helen Murphy and Banning Libraries — also offer seed libraries.
Similar to the Huntington Beach Central Library, patrons must use a library card to check out seeds from the seed library at the Mission Viejo Library.
More than 4,300 seed packets have been distributed to the community since it was established last year, according to librarian Bruce Dunphy.
“People come to the library for knowledge and information, and this is a different way. This is considered a Library of Things,” Dunphy said.
“The seed library encourages people to garden as a form of creativity outside of all our programming, and shows that anyone can garden,” said Alex Johnkins, branch manager of the Crean Mariner’s Library in Newport Beach.
The seed library at the Crean Mariner’s branch has hundreds of seed packets available, offering flowers, vegetables, herbs and native plants.
Although the branch could not provide an exact figure, maintaining the seed library “costs very little” aside from the expense of supplies and staff time, according to Dunphy.
The collection offers seeds like herbs, flowers, fruit and vegetables like tomatoes, radishes, peppers and pumpkin. Donated seeds come in more unique varieties, such as yellow watermelon seeds.
“The seed library encourages people to garden as a form of creativity outside of all our programming, and shows that anyone can garden,” said Alex Johnkins, branch manager of the Crean Mariner’s Library in Newport Beach.
The seed library at the Crean Mariner’s branch has hundreds of seed packets available, offering flowers, vegetables, herbs and native plants.
Seeds can be checked out at either the reference desk or the front desk during the branch’s hours of operation.
The collection costs approximately $600 annually to maintain, according to Johnkins.
“There is a low barrier of entry here,” Johnkins said. “People can get some seeds at no cost to themselves, and then just go home and try them out.”
“And if they fail, it wasn’t a big loss.”
Erika Taylor is a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow and photojournalist. Contact her at etaylor@voiceofoc.orgor@camerakeepsrolling.