In September, volunteers and staff at the Randall Davey Audubon Center installed a native seed library next to the brand new Nature Discovery Area. The seed library is a publicly accessible, no-cost library where visitors can “borrow” seeds, plant them, and then at the end of the growing season, save seeds from their plants and return a portion of those seeds to the library. This “Little Free Library”-style shed housing was constructed and generously donated by the Iverson family.

Students at the Master’s Program, a charter high school based at the Santa Fe Community College, engage in service learning projects at the Randall Davey Audubon Center every school year. This fall semester, the students installed the seed library and have been harvesting, cleaning, and packaging native seeds from our wildlife and pollinator gardens. 

Seeds in the library include many common pollinator-friendly wildflowers, as well as lesser-known native plants that provide food and habitat for wildlife. To learn more about which wildlife will be attracted to the native plants you care for in your neighborhood, check out the National Audubon Society’s Plants for Birds database. Input your zip code and find a list of native plants common in your area, who they will attract, and resources to care for them.  

If you are interested in sharing your saved seeds with the community, we are gladly accepting seed donations. To donate, please bring your seeds labelled with their common name, scientific name, as well as the date and location of harvest. For more information about borrowing from and donating to the seed library, please contact our Education Specialist, Sally Maxwell.