If gardening is on your mind, the Rock Island Public Library offers great ways to begin growing at your library. In addition to a bountiful collection of gardening books, the library  introduces its 2025 Seed Library in one week and offers ongoing classes with the Illinois Extension this spring. 

If you are ready to start planning, save Monday, March 17 for the opening of the Rock Island Public Library’s Seed Library collection. The full collection of vegetable, herbs, and flower seeds will be available for browsing during regular hours at the Rock Island Public Library Downtown location, 401 19^th Street. Additional themed Seed Library bundles will be available at the Southwest Branch, 9010 Ridgewood Road, and Watts-Midtown Branch, 2715 30^th Street.

There is no charge to take seeds for a personal garden, and no library card or residency is required. Participants may select up to five packets of seeds per household per month, or one Seed Bundle (which contains five packets of related seeds.)

This year’s collection includes more plants and flowers native to Illinois, which are low-maintenance, climate hardy, and support pollinators and biodiversity. Native seeds are marked by a leaf on the packet. The collection also includes a wide variety of vegetable, flower, and herb seeds.

Gardeners can easily find growing instructions for each seed by scanning the QR code on each packet. The Illinois Growing Guide binder with all instructions is available at the Downtown Library seed display, or online at the library website. 

Seeds can be saved at harvest and brought back to the library, but it’s not mandatory. The Rock Island Library distributed more than 4,300 seed packets in 2024, double that of 2023. Keeping up with that demand can be daunting, but it’s worth it, says coordinator Anna Campbell, Rock Island Library Reference Librarian.

“It’s another way to support learning and community engagement. Whether it’s growing vegetables for the dinner table or flowers for a landscape, our free Seed Library opens the door for gardening to anyone. Our patrons can also try out new plant varieties, such as native plants that support pollinators,” she said.

Rock island has offered the free Seed Library since April 2018, the first library in the Quad Cities to do so. The practice has since been adopted by more local libraries.

Once you have your seeds, learn everything you need to know to produce a bumper crop with the library’s Spring Vegetable Gardening series. Illinois Extension garden educators will offer three more sessions in the series, which runs 11:00 am to 12:30 pm on Monday March 24, April 7, and April 21 at the Rock Island Watts-Midtown Branch, 2715 30^th Street.  Topics include:

• March 24: Cool Season Vegetables: Different options for Illinois gardeners, how to grow and harvest them.
• April 7: Warm Season Vegetables: how to make vegetables such as peppers, tomatoes, squash, and more, flourish and thrive in your garden.
• April 21: Insects and diseases: Learn about insects, diseases, and wildlife pests and how to prevent and manage them.

The classes are free and open to any adult. Registration is requested, but not required. To sign up for any of the classes in the series, visit the library events calendar. 

Library events are free and open to all, no library card required. For more information about library services and upcoming events for a wide range of ages, visit the library website, call 309-732-READ, or follow the Rock Island Library Facebook and Instagram social media sites.