The Alachua County Library District is here to help you with your gardening needs. Whether by one the the Seed Libraries housed at all 12 locations, the online magazines available to card holders with up-to-date tricks and news in horticulture, the collection of books available for checkout, or by the programs we offer. Check out some options below.
ACLD Seed Library
Each location of the Library District has a Seed Library where patrons can “check out” seeds. Our Seed Libraries are supported by donations, but donations are not required to participate. And the best part of the Seed Library is that it is free for everyone! You also do not need a library card to check out seeds.
For more information about the Seed Library, please visit our website or contact your closest branch. Each library location has its own checkout limits. Interested in donating seeds to the library? You can drop them off at any location. Be sure to include as much information about them as possible such as harvest date and variety name.
eMagazines
Our Libby/OverDrive collection offers access to hundreds of magazines on all sorts of topics, including gardening. Try the Home and Garden section for a general focus, or use your own search terms if you want something more specific (i.e. food preservation).
Book Collection
- Physical and digital materials available for check out
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In this revised and updated 2nd edition of Florida Gardener's Handbook, gardeners in the Sunshine State are handed all the know-how they'll need to grow a lush, productive garden. The environmentally sound growing info for both edible and ornamental plants found here is your green thumb map to success. With profiles of more than 300 plants proven to thrive in Florida's unique climate, including shrubs, trees, perennials, annuals, vegetables, fruits, tropical plants, lawn grasses, and more, you'll be able to select the best plants to create a beautiful landscape or a high-yielding edible garden. Helpful charts highlight sun and shade requirements and offer clear and concise plant variety information. Month-by-month care and cultivation guides are offered for each plant group, guiding your journey even if you're a first-time Florida gardener. Authors Tom MacCubbin and Georgia B. Tasker, along with pro gardeners Robert Bowden and Joe Lamp'l, address the many challenges of Florida gardening, including a changing climate and saltwater gardening information. The how-to methods for planting, pruning, watering, fertilizing, and much more are rich with information essential to Floridians. This comprehensive and extensive guide is the best resource for growing in the Sunshine State. Whether you live in Nassau County, the Florida Keys, or somewhere in between, the Florida Gardener's Handbook has you covered.
Are you tired of failing at your Florida gardening? Are stink bugs puncturing your tomatoes and nematodes gnawing your eggplants? Is the sand eating your compost like an RV swallows gas? Fear not! You CAN grow buckets upon buckets of food in Florida - and this book gives you the secrets to pulling it off year after year. Lots more food - for a lot less work! Whether you want to save money, feed your family, start a survival garden, garden year-round, go paleo or build a huge prepper garden, this is the book for you. Learn the cheap simple techniques that will kickstart your Florida gardening. Discover the crops that will always come through for you. Quit hating the sand and the bugs and start reaping abundant harvests like you've never had before! This book provides the answers for both beginners and experts, delivered with humor. If you want yet another boring gardening book - this isn't it. Through combining Back to Eden gardening, Square Foot Gardening, Biointensive gardening, container gardening and some of the most productive crops on the planet, you WILL succeed! This is easy Florida gardening like you've never seen before. Pick up a copy of Totally Crazy Easy Florida Gardening and turn your backyard patch of weeds and sand into a money-saving vegetable factory that will keep your family fed no matter what the economy does. Start gardening RIGHT NOW before it's too late! Expert Florida gardener David The Good shares how in Totally Crazy Easy Florida Gardening.
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Seedswap: The Gardener's Guide to Saving and Swapping Seeds by Josie Jeffery
Presents a guide to seed saving and creating a seed bank, providing information on why seed banks are important, which seeds to swap and save, and how to get involved with the worldwide horticultural campaign to save seeds.
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Let's Get Gardening by Radhika Haswani
Learn to grow your own vegetables and herbs, attract awesome wildlife such as butterflies and bees, and be a green gardener with lots of recycling tips. Whether you've got a big vegetable patch or just a windowsill, you can grow all sorts of plants with this colourful RHS book. Packed full of easy-to-follow step-by-step activities, this book helps children learn about conservation, recycling and sustainability in simple, practical, and hands-on ways. They will build a mini nature reserve, turn old wellies into plant pots, grow fruit and vegetables that they can really eat, plant a bee-friendly space, create a ladybird sanctuary, and much more. Help nature with every activity and discover the joys of growing plants from seeds. So grab your potting mix and let's get gardening!
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Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together with Children by Sharon Lovejoy
Here are 12 spirited, easy-to-implement ideas for theme gardens that parents and kids can grow together, connecting children to nature through gardening. Each project includes a plan and the planting recipe--as well as a "Discovery Walk," activities and crafts to make with what you grow. And each is illustrated with author Sharon Lovejoy's lyrical watercolors.
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The Nitty-Gritty Gardening Book: Fun Projects for All Seasons by Kari Cornell
Grow your own fruits, vegetables, and flowers! Become a gardener in any season with these fun and easy projects. You don't even need a garden space--many of these activities can be done by planting in containers to set on a porch or a patio or even in a window.
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Vegetable Gardening in Florida by James M. Stephens
With full-color photographs and detailed expert advice, this affordable paperback describes how to grow abundant vegetables and edible herbs in gardens anywhere in Florida. Whether you’re planting spring peas and sweet corn or crisp cucumbers and the dill you need to can them, Jim Stephens offers clear explanations of useful gardening terms and practices and joins popular growing concepts with the expertise of the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
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Complete Guide to Florida Gardening by Stan DeFreitas
More comprehensive than ever, the Complete Guide to Florida Gardening explains in step-by-step fashion how to create one's own personal outdoor paradise. Addressing the needs of gardening novices, seasoned hobbyists, and horticulture professionals alike, Stan DeFreitas has, once again, created a reference book that no Florida gardener should be without.
Library programs
- Gardening-themed programs at our branches
Archer
- Seed Bombs for Pollinators - Saturday, April 12, 2 p.m.
Tower Road
- Integrated Pest Management - Wednesday, April 9, 11 a.m.
- Rose Festival - Saturday, April 12, 10:30 a.m.
- Gainesville Rose Society - Sunday, April 13, 2 p.m.
Community Organizations
Also, you may be interested in checking out organizations in Alachua County where you can meet folks with a like-minded interest in horticulture. (note: while they all engage in gardening pursuits, some may require a membership fee to join).