The Seed Library

Our town library started a seed library this spring: little wooden drawers full of seed packets that anyone can "check out." The idea is that you grow the plant, let some of it go to seed and bring seeds back for others.

I borrowed a packet of heirloom tomatoes, some zinnias and a kind of bean called "Grandma Viola's Purple Pole." The librarian told me the beans had been grown by the same family in our county since the 1890s.

All summer my garden grew things with stories. The beans climbed up my fence and turned the color of plums. The zinnias drew so many butterflies my neighbors came over to look.

In September I returned a fat envelope of seeds from Grandma Viola's beans. The librarian put it in the drawer with a label: "Grown by Rachel, 2024." Somewhere down the line, someone else will grow them. It feels like joining a very long, very kind family.