Mendocino County Seed Libraries

10/20/2026

Is YOUR community interested in starting a seed library? Read the message directly below the picture, the Seed Libraries Network is hosting a series of online classes to help you do exactly that!

HOW TO START A SEED LIBRARY

We're excited to announce that over the next two months, we'll be sharing a step-by-step guide on how to start a seed library.

Our goal is to help get as many seed libraries started as possible in communities around the world!

Follow along and ask questions in the comments. We'll do our best to answer them in real time.

If you already run a seed library, feel free to share your tips and tricks to help others get started.

Please also follow other seed libraries! It helps the algorithm show everyone's posts to more people and supports the growing seed library community.

08/27/2026

Seed Savers: Please read the original post immediately below the illustration!

🌱 What Does "True to Type" Mean?

When a seed grows true to type, the new plant looks and behaves like its parent.

That means it will produce the same:

🍅 Fruit or vegetable
🌸 Flower colour
📏 Size and shape
🥕 Flavour
⏰ Maturity time
🌿 Growth habit

For example:
You save seeds from a Waltham Butternut Squash

Next year...
✅ The plants produce Waltham Butternut Squash.
That's true to type.

But if those Waltham Butternut Squash were planted near Long Island Cheese Pumpkin, and you saved seeds from the butternut squash,...

Next year when you plant those seeds, they might be

❌ Different colours
❌ Different flavours
❌ Different sizes
❌ Different maturity times

The seeds are still alive—they're just no longer true to the original variety.

This is why understanding pollination is so important.

Some plants, like lettuce, peas,beans, and tomatoes, usually pollinate themselves, so they are much more likely to grow true to type. Peppers can be insect or self-pollinated.

Others, like squash and corn, cross much more easily and need isolation or controlled pollination if you want to preserve the variety.

🌱 Every heirloom variety we enjoy today exists because gardeners carefully saved seeds that grew true to type from one generation to the next.

05/14/2026

It's a few months off, but not too early to add this event to your calendar. We look forward to hosting Mendocino County (and beyond) seed savers in Covelo this November!

03/12/2026

Join us at this wonderful event to get free seeds! This coming Saturday.

The 40th Anderson Valley Seed and Scion Exchange will take place Saturday, March 14th. Hope to see you there!

02/05/2026

The 40th (!) Seed and Scion Exchange is taking place Saturday, March 14th at the Anderson Valley Grange. Hope to see you there!

01/11/2026

The Round Valley Branch will be hosting a presentation with Donna d'Terra. To learn more about the event, visit our event page, here: https://www.facebook.com/events/2324304754715421

10/31/2025

https://www.motherjones.com/food/2020/05/gardens-have-pulled-america-out-of-some-of-its-darkest-times-we-need-another-revival This article is five years old, but just as relevant today as when it was first published.

Despite the headlines, Victory Gardens aren’t back. Not yet.

10/31/2025

We hope that seed savers in Inland Mendocino County and beyond will join us for our third annual Gathering of Seed Savers. 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM at the Round Valley Branch Library in Covelo. You can register for reminders by clicking "Interested" on our event page, here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1501242337862825

10/08/2025

https://seedsavers.org/grow-zinnia/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=mailchimp&utm_campaign=10+8+25+save+zinnia+seeds&utm_source=Seed+Savers+Exchange&utm_campaign=527de0e5d5-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_10_08_09_52&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-527de0e5d5-31663761&mc_cid=527de0e5d5&mc_eid=82086dfb50

Zinnias are easy to grow, prolific bloomers, a favorite of pollinators, and have a long vase life. It's also easy to save zinnia seeds!

08/15/2025

If you want a fall/winter garden now is the time to start! Our friends at Quail Seeds got you covered with this weekly planting guide!

Plant for Fall For many of us, it seems as though summer just started. Surely there’s plenty of summer harvest left, so why worry about the Fall garden now? Of course you’ll get plenty more...