The Mountain View Public Library maintains an ever-changing collection of seeds for you to grow at home. The seeds are free and available to anyone. The Seed Library is built on donations from the community. You don’t need to donate seeds to take seeds home.

How It Works

1. Visit the Seed Library on the second floor, near the Information Desk.
2. Select the label slips for the seeds you would like to take home. Most label slips include growing instructions.
3. Bring the label slips to staff at the desk to retrieve your seeds.

Limits are as follows:

• Five packets of seeds per household per week.
• One packet of any individual variety of seed per household, per week.

Seeds We Have

• Heirloom, organic, non-GMO seeds.
• Popular vegetables.
• California native wildflowers.
• Plants that attract pollinators like bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.
• Whatever our generous community donates.

There are roughly 9-15 seeds per packet. We include growing instructions from the original grower if available.

Our inventory changes according to planting season and what we have on hand. Some seeds come from commercial growers and others come from plants grown by neighborhood gardeners.

As our seed supply is limited, we encourage you to save the seeds from the plants you harvest to grow more plants. You may also donate seeds back to the Seed Library.

How To Donate Seeds

We welcome donations of seeds saved from the plants you’ve grown or leftover seeds from commercial packets you’ve bought. New to seed saving? Learn more about How to Save Seeds.

1. Separate your seeds from your plant. Make sure the seeds are clean.
2. Pack your seeds into a bag.
3. Bring your bag of seeds to the Second Floor Information Desk.
4. Fill out our seed donation form at the desk. Include the name or variety of the plant and growing instructions if you have them.

We are not accepting seeds saved from store-bought produce at this time. These are often hybrid plants with different parents and their seeds might not produce what you expect.

Resources

• Seed Saving Basics - Top tips for successful seed saving  (UCCE Master Gardener Program of Santa Clara County).
• Vegetable Planting Chart – Recommended times to plant vegetables in Santa Clara County (UCCE Master Gardener Program of Santa Clara County).