AGRIENGAGEMENT 101 Community building through gardening and sustainability

AGRI-ENGAGEMENT 101 Community building through gardening and sustainability March 2015 KPLA Conference IGNITE! Session

Madison County Public Library Project #1: Seed Library • Make a plan • Find a partner • Recruit volunteers • Acquire seeds

Make a plan • Set the scope of your initial project • We selected 15 plant types for our first year • Started with plants that would grow well from seed (didn’t have to be started indoors, etc. ) • Figure out what resources you need • • We needed seeds – could only afford to buy bulk to repackage Needed a way to display the seeds for checkout Involve Tech Services – how to catalog Volunteers to prepare seed packets

Catalog record

Find a partner • Our partner was Sustainable Berea – they had started a small seed library the year before and were looking for a way to expand • We had several meetings to decide what we were going to do • They brought expertise, some seeds, volunteers, and promotion to the project

Sustainable Berea members sorting seeds

Acquire seeds • Donations • • Sustainable Berea Whole Foods Baker Creek From the community • Sources of high quality heirloom and organic seeds • Seed Savers Exchange • Johnny’s Seeds • Baker Creek

Our first round of seeds

Programming/Community Connections • Promote the project • Use the project to promote library materials and programs • Use the project to jump-start other initiatives • Tool lending library • Storm water mitigation project

Garden tool lending library

Making paper starter pots

Madison County Public Library Project #2: Clean Stream Team • As part of a facilities expansion, the city forced us to add expensive storm water mitigation components to our project • We were able to turn a stumbling block into a productive community outreach project

Partnered with EKU Office of Sustainability and the City of Richmond Stormwater Management program

Programming/Community Connections • Partnered with Bluegrass Green. Source to do rain barrel workshops • Also borrowed Enviroscapes from them to demonstrate how storm water moves through different environments on its way to streams and rivers • Used these projects to seque into programs for kids with the Fueling the Mind Summer Reading/Lunch program