Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library (HSL) conserves a living collection of open-pollinated, heritage vegetable varieties that are not commercially or widely available. The collection consists of mainly European varieties, including:
– historic and rare landrace varieties, which are adapted to specific growing conditions.
– heirloom varieties that have often been saved over many generations.
– varieties that have been dropped from popular seed catalogues and are no longer available.
The library both conserves and distributes seed to members to grow and enjoy, as well as supporting communities to share, grow and save seed through training, events and partnership projects.
Seed is grown onsite to organically certified standards and by a network of volunteer Seed Guardians. The Heritage Seed Library continues to rediscover lost heritage varieties and believes that the best way to conserve varieties is to get people growing and enjoying them again.
More information about our work can be found at https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/hsl.
