Panhandle weather can make planting and gardening seem like a risky endeavor, but the Amarillo Public Library and Randall County Master Gardeners are here to help!

Diane Sissom with RCMG says educating the public about successful gardening is part of their organization’s mission, “Whether you’ve gardened before or are just beginning, we want people to be successful. So we carefully select seeds that we know can grow well in our area and provide instruction on how to plant the seeds and care for them as they germinate.”

In addition to providing the seeds, RCMG work with Library staff to provide educational programs to help people learn more about plant care and how to become successful gardeners. The next planned event is Spring Planting with RCMG, which will take place Thursday, March 21 from 5 to 7 PM at the Downtown Library. Randall County Master Gardeners will provide instruction on soil prep, seed starting, and other ways to prepare for the gardening season, and master gardeners will be available to answer all gardening questions!

The Seed Library is a project of Amarillo Public Library, Canyon Area Library, and the Randall County Master Gardeners that allows library patrons to “check out” flower, vegetable, and herb seeds for their own gardens. Patrons can check out 5 packets of seeds per month. Available seeds include carrots, parsley, radish, fennel, cilantro, butter lettuce, spinach, cosmos, zinnias, and sunflowers.