Resources
Castlemaine Seed Library aligns with a global community of like minded souls doing wonderful things. Earth care, people care and fair share. Have a look!
Featured
Castlemaine Seed Library’s very own Growing, Saving and Sharing Seeds Around Castlemaine is a beautiful and informative resource for growing and saving seeds. Relevant to wherever you are, but in particular has a focus on Central Victoria’s climate and conditions. Produced in 2017.
The Seed Savers’ Handbook is a reference for growing, preparing and conserving 117 varieties of food plants. Written in 1993 by Michel and Jude Fanton, founders of The Seed Savers’ Network, especially for Australian and New Zealand cultures.
The Seed Savers’ Handbook has 180 pages with stunning original illustrations. It’s available to borrow from the Castlemaine Library!
Saving & Growing Seeds
Civil Eats TV: Saving Seeds with Kristyn Leach
A beautiful and thoughtful video highlighting how crucial seed saving is for biodiversity and food sovereignty. Farmer Kristyn Leach of Namu Farms provides tips on how best to save seeds.
Seed Planting Calculator
Johnny’s Seeds is located in Maine USA, but much of the information on their website is transferable. Including this tool to help work out the optimum time to plant seeds in various regions and calculates when seedlings will be ready to transplant or withstand your local climate, maximising your growing season. Another useful page is their Growers Library.
Milkwood – Free Seed Saving Guide
A free downloadable guide AND how-to video to get you started with seed saving. Heaps of other great resources and inspirational articles, like this one on Seed Balls.
Seed Saving 101 with Kat Lavers
A webinar featuring seed saving for home gardeners by City of Casey in Victoria who in 2022 launched two seed libraries.
Find out more about Kat Lavers and her productive pocket backyard in Melbourne >>here.
Gardening Australia
A valuable resource to all gardeners the television program, magazine, books, DVDs and extensive online content. Provides practical, realistic, and credible horticultural and gardening advice, inspiring and entertaining all Australian gardeners around the nation. Presented by Australia’s leading horticultural experts.
We particularly like the 2min video and notes to grow Cold Climate Tomatoes from Seed presented by Hannah Moloney.
The Enormous Value of Seeds
La Via Campesina
La Via Campesina; the international peasants’ movement took the opportunity of its 20th anniversary to launch a new website full of voices, faces, people and music. Representing 200,000,000 peasant, Indigenous and small farmers in 182 countries. An interesting and amazing website based in Zimbabwe. Join the actions and add your voice!
A Food Revolution Starts with Seed
The Gaia Foundation’s Seed Sovereignty Programme aims to support the development of a biodiverse and ecologically sustainable seed system in the UK and Ireland. Around the world, seed diversity is threatened, and yet it is critical for ensuring a secure and resilient food system that serves both people and planet. At a time of climate crisis, there has never been greater urgency to protect and restore global seed diversity.
A Sharing Economy for Plants: Seed libraries are Sprouting Up
Thanks to intellectual property rights, agribusinesses and global laws, our ability to share seeds is restricted. Realizing this, food activists, garden enthusiasts and community leaders are trying to make it easier by making seeds available through libraries. Published in The Conversation USA in 2018.
Palestine Heirloom Seed Library
Heirloom seeds also tell us stories, connect us to our ancestral roots, remind us of meals our families once made at special times of the year. The Palestine Heirloom Seed Library (PHSL) is an attempt to recover these ancient seeds and their stories and put them back into people’s hands. The PHSL is an interactive art and agriculture project that aims to provide a conversation for people to exchange seeds and knowledge, and to tell the stories of food and agriculture that may have been buried away and waiting to sprout like a seed.
A related article in the Guardian is They kept us alive for thousands of years: could saving Palestinian seeds also save the world?
Palestine’s only national seed bank, the only seed bank in the West Bank was destroyed in July 2025 when Israeli forces bulldozed the Seed‑Multiplication unit of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC’s) seed bank in Hebron, Gaza. It safeguarded over 70 varieties of indigenous heirloom seeds, many of which no longer exist elsewhere in Palestine.
SEED The Untold Story Film
Few things on Earth are as miraculous and vital as seeds. Worshipped and treasured since the dawn of humankind. In the last century, 94% of our seed varieties have disappeared. SEED: The Untold Story follows passionate seed keepers protecting our 12,000 year-old food legacy. As biotech chemical companies control the majority of our seeds, farmers, scientists, lawyers, and indigenous seed keepers fight a David and Goliath battle to defend the future of our food.
The Story of the Modern Seed Library:
A Historical Analysis of Seed Saving, Its Evolution Through the Ages, and Its Current Impact on Community, Culture, and Connection. Download the pdf. above.
Grasshoppers
A Mighty Girl – Food / Gardening
We must instil into the minds forever, of our very youngest the joys of botany, soils and organic food production. A massive collection of books, toys and movies for smart, confident, and courageous girls. Browse/purchase nearly 200 books on food and gardening.
Image credit: Compost Stew by Mary McKenna Siddals.
Kids Gardening
Educator resources like ‘Lettuce Be Healthy’, easy parent and kid garden activitis, growing ideas, gardening toolbox and much more. kidsgardening.org has global appeal, based in Vermont USA.
Seed Saving School
(Gardening Australia – SERIES 31, Episode 01) A massive global seed bank is held in Norway, but there is also an important one at Woodlupine Primary School in Perth. Principal Trevor Phoebe said that many plant species native to the area were becoming endangered and the school wanted to be part of the solution. He asked Dr Andrew Crawford from the WA seed centre in the Department of Biodiversity if there was anything the school could do to help, and he suggested growing rare local plants so harvest the seed.
Gardening Australia Junior Podcast
A sprinkle of Costa’s magic compost can turn any backyard into a fantastical wonderland. Follow along with all the episodes on ABC Kids Listen App.