Landcare in the Library

Libraries are one of the few places left in our communities that offer so much and demand so little in return – I mean they don’t even demand you keep your mouth shut any more, you are allowed to talk! AND craft and connect with people and stay warm or cool depending on the season, the list goes on…

This year for Landcare week we decided to try ‘Landcare in the Library’ which is to say we set ourselves up for a day in Cowra and then a day in the beautiful new facilities over in Canowindra and invited the public to come in for a natter about Landcare-related stuff. We ended up liking that idea so much that we’re planning on making it a regular thing, after all if nobody comes in, we can still get on with our regular work AND catch up on the latest author news and book releases. As we’re both keen readers that sounds like heaven!

Cowra Library now stocks ‘The Land’, a newspaper that often features locals and stories from this very area – it’s a great read and brilliant that it’s now available for everyone to enjoy.

September’s Landcare-in-the-Library was held the day after our committee meeting (Committee meeting is third Wednesday of the month) – we’re hoping to make this a regular event and will most likely stick with that protocol. This month we decided to trial a little up-cycled crafting and opted for seed-packet making, using old magazines (that we provided) and paper shopping bags. There’s usually something in seed most of the year but the run up to Christmas is particularly busy for wattles and she-oaks (with August/ September being a good time for Kurrajong seed collection). Our aim is to create a stock of seed packets that we can provide to our community of growers and seed collectors. We may also use them to contribute to the Seed Library that Central West Libraries are currently rolling out across the region – if they’d like that.

There are lots of seed packet design templates online but this is the one we downloaded. The main reason for choosing this one was a) we found it quickly and b) it reminds you to pop the date and some other details down on the packet!

In terms of material to make the packets out of we’ve found glossy magazines really good as the paper has a higher level of water and mould resistance than the paper shopping bags you now get. That said, the paper shopping bags are a decent resource and something many of us regularly have lying around.