COSTA Georgiadis from ABC’s Gardening Australia has promised to spread the word of Port Macquarie-Hastings Council’s good work in establishing a seed lending library.
The seed lending initiative was officially launched by mayor Peter Besseling and Mr Georgiadis at Port Macquarie Library. It is believed to be only the second seed lending library of its kind in Australia.
Mr Georgiadis – who was also in town to officially open The Lost Plot community garden in Central Road and a smaller community garden at Port Macquarie Library – said the seed lending initiative excited him “no end”.
“This is the new centre of Port Macquarie – according to me,” he said at the launch. “This is the new house of power”.
Mr Georgiadis said this was the first time he had ever been asked to open a seed library but he was planning to take the idea with him and inspire people around the country.
“You’ve unleashed a mongrel seed in me,” Mr Georgiadis said. “This is huge and I take my hat off. This is going to go feral.”
The television personality finished his speech by encouraging local residents to “go forth and sow thy wild oats”.
The seed library is a joint initiative of the Port Macquarie-Hastings Library service and the council’s Move Eat Live Well program and aims to encourage people to grow healthy food, reduce household costs and to become more healthy in the garden.
The seed library works much the same as any library. People visit the library to borrow seeds with their library card, then plant the seeds in their garden, raise the plant, let a bit of it go to seed and then return some of those mature seeds to the library so the collection continues to grow.
There is no cost to borrow and no obligation to return seeds – but the library encourages all borrowers to have a go at saving some of the seed produced from their plants.
