Marilyn Herrera isn’t a master gardener. But she loves growing things, and, as a mother of three, believes teaching her kids about plants and the earth is vital. After reading about the burgeoning seed library movement, she was inspired in 2022 to create East Las Vegas Seed Share, or ELVSS. The first free seed library, at the Solidarity Fridge on Blackthorn Drive, opened in February 2023. Today, there are a dozen sites, including the Veterans Memorial Community Center, Parkdale Recreation & Senior Center, and the Effervesce/It’s Just Bubbles natural products store.
Herrera began by searching online for someone who was sharing seeds through seed libraries, thinking “Someone else will do it.” But no one was. So, motivated by gardening with her preschoolers and a desire to create community through growing plants, ELVSS was born.
ELVSS seed libraries share vegetable, flower, and herb seeds. Popular varieties include sunflower, Armenian cucumber, and Sugar Baby watermelon. Herrera, who gardens in containers, knows not everyone has extensive yards, so there are seeds that do well in pots and raised beds, such as tomatoes, cilantro, and marigolds.
ELVSS does not “knowingly accept or share any seeds that are chemically treated, patented, or genetically modified,” according to its website. Seed library users are encouraged to harvest seeds at the growing cycle’s end to donate back to the libraries.
“I love seeing pictures of what people have grown,” Herrera says, describing one proud dad’s photo submission of a flourishing Lemon Queen sunflower grown by his child.
Herrera hopes to cultivate more sources for native seeds, joining the growing number of people and organizations working to save and restore native Nevada plants.
One of those people is Gail Brandys. Brandys is a master gardener, and in charge of the seed bank for the University of Nevada, Reno Extension Master Gardener program in Las Vegas. For the last seven years, she’s volunteered to help make native plants and seeds available to the public.
“Local nurseries were not carrying natives,” she says, but working with UNR’s own Botanic Gardens, and its native flowers wash, the master gardeners were eventually able to harvest and save more than 40 varieties of native and desert-adaptive plants. These include desert marigold, desert globemallow, brittlebush, and tufted evening-primrose.
The program distributes seeds for free in booths at home shows, during cooperative events with other community partners, and during some of their own events.
Growing native plants is also an ideal way to support native pollinators, such as bees and butterflies, Brandys notes. But native seeds need to be sown in the right soil, which is not the potting mix sold in most nurseries. “They must have at least 50/50 native soil,” she says.
One of newest organizations to focus on native plants and seeds is Desert Love, now based at the legendary Cactus Joe’s Blue Diamond Nursery. “We’ve been open since January,” said outreach coordinator Kym Martin. Originally, she explained, founders Bill Redinger and Frank Marino connected with the Southern Nevada Water Authority on a restoration project.
Its success led to working with the Bureau of Land Management’s Seeds of Success Native Seed Collection Program. This evolved into Desert Love, because of the perceived need for Las Vegans to be able to grow and share native plants.
Cactus Joe’s offered a natural fit. “All plants will be grown on the property,” Martin said. Seeds will be collected from every plant and made available to the public. The organization continues to work with the Bureau of Land Management to gather seeds, and also aims to become a native seeds donation site. It has already established connections with ELVSS, Master Gardeners, Springs Preserve, local farms, and local eco-conscious landscape designers.
The programs continue to self-seed.
