Sprouts club growing from strength to strength

SPRING has definitely sprung at Frome Library’s newest club, Sprouts, a free monthly gardening and craft club for under-5s and their adults. 

The club, organised and run by volunteers from the Frome Seed Library, has been going – or growing! – from strength to strength since it launched in November, having welcomed over 150 children and adults to its monthly Saturday gathering.

So far, the Sprouts have learnt how to thresh kale, harvest holly seeds and sow sweet peas, and they have big plans to grow vegetables and wildlife-friendly flowers in and around the library.

Kerry Meech, founder of the Frome Seed Library, explained the motivation behind the club.

She said, “We have been blown away by the level of enthusiasm and support the seed library has received since it opened in July, with close to 1,000 packets of locally produced seed having found new homes, but we were keen to try something that would actively engage younger would-be gardeners.

“Fortunately for us the library team were more than happy to host our sessions, and so every month we unleash horticultural chaos in the children’s section of the library! Not only that but the library is also allowing us to grow plants on their windowsills, which we plan to then plant in a new community container garden to be located immediately outside the library.

“We’re currently fundraising for the garden and have already received some lovely sowing trays from Terry from T Bos Welding, and a hefty bag of compost from the team at Barters Farm Nurseries. You can find further details of the fundraiser on our Go Fund Me page: https://gofund.me/b9ceb8e1”

Further details of Sprouts and the Frome Seed Library can be found on their Facebook and Instagram (@fromeseedlibrary) pages.