Seed Library Aims to Grow Community in Spring Valley

SPRING VALLEY — Magali Disdier is building community from the ground up.

For Disdier, an avid gardener, seeds are a key foundation for community, so the Spring Valley resident is spearheading an effort to start a seed library at the Spring Valley Public Library. The program will allow the public to check out packets of seeds to plant in their own gardens, which will lead to a healthier community.

Volunteers from the Friends of the Spring Valley Public Library and Spring Valley Garden Club, plus other local residents, have been meeting monthly over the winter to get the packets ready for distribution. The program will launch on Saturday, March 14.

Magali Disdier, standing at right, talks to volunteers putting together packets in January for the Spring Valley Public Library new seed library, which will launch March 14. (Photo by David Phillips)

Disdier, who works at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, has been a master gardener for about five years. The University of Minnesota Extension Master Gardener volunteer program, which started in 1977, has more than 3,100 active master gardeners who share U of MN horticultural expertise in almost every county in Minnesota.

Disdier got the idea from other Fillmore County master gardeners who organized seed libraries at the Lanesboro and Chatfield public libraries. Preston also has a seed library that was started by library staff.

Small packets get people started

Disdier is getting the seeds from national companies that have excess seed packages. The local volunteers are taking the larger packets and breaking them down for distribution in smaller sample packets with instructions for growing the seeds. The vegetable and flower seed packets are available free of charge to participants, who don’t have to be library card holders.

The hand-written seed packets are bundled together by type of seed in trays that will be set up in the Spring Valley Public Library. (Photo by David Phillips)

Disdier said she is hoping the seed library will enable people who haven’t experienced gardening to grow something: “A new flower. A new vegetable. There is a movement towards enticing people to start growing things, because mentally it’s very good. Even if it’s just a flower on your balcony, you see it growing, and it’s just wonderful.”

Gardening doesn’t just improve mental health, she added. It also creates movement to improve physical health, and most of all, it provides fresh, healthy food.

“That’s one of the things that working at the hospital and then being a gardener, I like to entice people to grow their own food and so that they know what they are eating, and it gives them exercise,” she said. “My purpose is that I want people to get moving and then at the same time eat healthy things rather than chips or stuff that is not good for them.”

Magali Disdier, left, explains the process to community volunteer Brenda Bergemann during a seed preparation session at the Spring Valley Public Library. In the background are Spring Valley Garden Club members Ann Irhke and Vicki Rolli. (Photo by David Phillips)

Community already building

Disdier’s aim of growing community is already taking place as local people are coming together to get the project started. Garden club members are backing it because it promotes an activity they all love. The library friends are actively promoting the program because it highlights the library, which is a community resource that features more than just books.

The bond between the two groups, along with other local residents who are volunteering to get the packets ready for distribution, is already deepening. During the sessions in the community room of the library, the volunteers have shared stories about growing things or growing up on a farm. Disdier contributed to the bonding atmosphere by bringing tea bags and muffins or cupcakes to the sessions.

The launch is set for 10:00 a.m. to Noon on March 14, with an hour program on starting plants at 10:30 a.m. by Disdier. She will follow up with one-hour sessions at 5: 30 p.m. Tuesday, March 17, on straw bale gardening and Wednesday, March 18, on companion plants, both at the library.

Youth will also be included in the new program as, coincidentally, the theme of the summer reading program is “Plant a Seed, Read,” based on the concept that a farm or garden grows food that nourishes bodies, while a library grows ideas that nourish minds.

Magali Disdier, left, and Spring Valley Public Library director Melissa Vander Plas in the Spring Valley Public Library where Disdier is setting up a seed library. (Photo by David Phillips)

Library director Melissa Vander Plas said she plans to tie in the summer reading program with agricultural themes, including gardening. She would like to put a raised garden in front of the library, but is uncertain if that is possible due to a construction project. Still, she will have some type of structures available so the children can grow flowers, herbs or other fast-growing plants during the summer program, using seeds from the seed library.

Vander Plas has been supportive of the seed library ever since Disdier came to her with the idea last year.

“I think it serves a good purpose, especially with food insecurity on the rise,” she said. “It’s one more resource we can offer.”

Master gardeners branching out

Katie Drewitz, University of Minnesota Extension in Houston and Fillmore counties, has also been very supportive of seed libraries, said Disdier, as she offers support to the master gardeners involved in their communities.

Rae Rowell, a master gardener in Lanesboro, has ties to all three area seed libraries already in existence.

When former Lanesboro library director Tara Johnson started its seed library in 2023, Rowell wrote to the seed companies to ask for donations. She catalogs the seed storage boxes, which are available at the library all year long with about 75 people checking seeds out. She also gave presentations at the library on seed germination and how to winterize a garden for improving soil health.

“From the comments left in the seed log, I think our community appreciates the seed library,” she said.

Although Rowell hasn’t been directly involved in the seed library at the Preston Public Library, she has given some talks on gardening there. She also inspired master gardener Sandy Sullivan of Chatfield with starting a seed library at the Chatfield Public Library after Sullivan attended one of Rowell’s presentations at the Lanesboro library.

Preparing seed packets in January are Friends of the Spring Valley Public Library members. From left, are Lori Campbell, Deb Hagen-Moe and Pam Phillips. (Photo by David Phillips)

“Being an avid gardener, I saw the possibility of making seeds available to others free of charge and in quantities more reasonable to small-scale gardeners,” said Sullivan. “I talked with Raechel Murphy, who was the groundskeeper at the Chatfield Public Library and had experience with the seed library in Rochester. Together, we were able to get donated seeds from a number of companies and put together an inventory.”

It started small in 2024, she said, but last year they recruited about 20 volunteers and were able to distribute approximately 1,200 packets, which includes some they also handed out at the weekly Chatfield Growers Market. This year, the program will launch Saturday, March 7, at the Chatfield Public Library.

“I have heard positive comments from many who took seeds and who tried some new varieties they wouldn’t have if they had to buy a whole packet at a store,” said Sullivan.

Disdier isn’t sure what to expect in Spring Valley, but she is hoping for a good response from the community.

“Even if you just have a balcony, grow your own thing. Even if it’s just a tomato. It’s just a joy to see something growing and then knowing that you can eat it at the end,” she said. “Some of these things are not that hard to grow. That’s part of the education that as master gardeners, we need to bring to people.”