Roscoe Gardening Club partnering with Talcott Free Library in planting seeds for future growth

To establish a strong foundation for the Seed Library at Talcott Free Library, Roscoe Gardening Club and Talcott Free Library hosted a seed collection event on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026.

Garden Club members and Library staff answered questions and demonstrated how the library will be set up.

Seeds, once collected, are sorted and cataloged with growing tips, available for the public to take as they wish.

Residents in the area dropped off donated, purchased, or collected free seeds for community members to grow on their property.

“The seed library collaboration is a new partnership between Roscoe Gardening Club and Talcott Free Library,” Roscoe Gardening Club treasurer Rachel Rutledge said.

“The mission of the seed library is to empower our community by expanding access to gardening and nurturing resilient, locally adapted seeds that flourish in our region.“

“To accomplish this, the Seed Library will offer free seeds to anyone in the community wishing to start their own flower or vegetable garden.”

The seeds collected at the event ranged from flowers to vegetables, grasses, native flowers, and heirloom seeds. No hybrid seeds were accepted.

Beans and tomatoes were the most common seeds, but the collection included everything from beans to watermelon.

Many flower seeds, such as Asters, Love Lies Bleeding, and Hollyhocks, were also in the starter collection.

It is reported that almost all of the drawers are already at least half full.

Donors can purchase pre-packaged seeds or collect them from the donor’s own garden.

If seeds are collected rather than purchased, the Garden Club and library ask that they be correctly identified and that donors include whatever information is known about the seeds.

Volunteers place the collected seeds in convenient envelopes to make them ready for distribution.

Donations of seeds will continue to be accepted anytime, up to the start of the growing season. Once seeds are collected, anyone wishing to plant a garden can simply come and take a packet of seeds and try their hand at growing them.

In addition to the growing information provided with each packet, the Talcott Free Library has numerous books on becoming a successful gardener.

Seed planting times depend on whether someone is starting their seeds indoors or direct-sowing in the ground.

“If someone is starting seeds on their own, indoors, about 60 days from the last frost date is a good time to start,” said RGC Marketing Director, Lisa Brown.

Brown advises, “For our area, the last frost date is May 15.”

Brown adds, “I would never plant anything directly in the ground until the last frost date. There are a lot of exceptions, too; for instance, if someone is planting a cool-weather crop like lettuce or radishes, or a summer crop like cucumbers or melons. Basically, [waiting until the last frost date] is a good rule of thumb, as our Midwest springs are very unpredictable.”

According to Michelle Koch, Talcott Free Library’s Adult Services Librarian, “The Talcott Seed Library was started in April 2025 with the help of local amateur horticulturist Michael Goodwin.”

“While seed libraries inspire community gardening, they also offer communities a deeper understanding of sustainability, native plants, pollinators, and local ecology. After a very positive debut, we are thrilled to be partnering with the Roscoe Gardening Club.”

RGC will continue offering seeds to gardeners in the community.

The Club is excited to have plans for future programs about seed saving and gardening from seeds. For those that do plant a garden, Talcott is also a University of Illinois Extension Plant-A-Row drop-off site during the summer, for when gardeners produce a little too much.

The “Plant a Row" program encourages growers to plant a row in their home gardens and to take the harvest to a drop site for distribution to pantries throughout the area. Talcott Free Library is the areas drop off site.

“Any gardener will always tell you they have an abundance, This is a great way to share the riches,” Brown said.

Anyone is free to join the Roscoe Gardening Club, which started in January 2024.

Sponsorships and donations enable the group to host monthly meetings with speakers on a variety of gardening related topics including wildlife, civic beautification and development, improving our environment, and fostering community involvement.

The group holds their monthly meetings at the Roscoe Township Community Center located at 4562 Hononegah Rd, Roscoe, IL. A calendar of events can be found on the Roscoe Gardening Club’s Facebook page, or online at www.roscoegardeningclub.org. Friends are encouraged to join by signing up via Facebook.

The first seed collecting mission has yielded great results through this new collaboration. Talcott Library is the drop off point for future seed donations.

All are invited to catch the action from the seed collection event via a TikTok video.

“Roscoe Gardening Club and Talcott Free Library were both extremely pleased with the kick off seed collection event,” Brown said.

“Next up will be seed distribution. We will announce when the community can come to pick up the free seeds for planting. All anyone has to do is show up, log in with their name and what they are taking, then actually agree to plant the free seeds after taking them.”

“It is our hope that this effort will go a long way to encourage a new generation of gardeners and to help reduce insecurities for those in need this summer.”