‘Giving patrons a calming place to go.’ Library gardens grow interest in plants

While Johnson County’s libraries are growing a readership inside, outside their green spaces are growing an interest in botany. Several branches have gardens on their properties for educational or community use.

At Corinth in Prairie Village, there’s a large container garden just beyond the emergency exit door in the children’s section that opens to the public for specific library programs.

Diana Spencer, youth information specialist, and Meagan Condon, youth services librarian, took what was a fairly bare concrete area and made it bloom.

Spencer had noticed two empty flowerpots in the area and asked if she might do something in the space. At first, she was just going to put in some flowers, but it became an educational pollinator garden.

“My mom’s a Master Gardener, but I do not have a green thumb,” she said “I just wanted something prettier to look at for myself and patrons. It’s good for morale all around.”

Condon is more knowledgeable about plants, Spencer said. To get it set up in 2018, they worked alongside a Girl Scout troop, who planted the seedlings that library personnel grew. In 2019, they were able to plant seeds gathered the previous season.

With last year’s shutdown, only a yarrow plant survived. This year, they’ve replanted and have been able to offer several programs. One was making aromatherapy playdough, where Spencer made a huge batch of the dough, and kids could add essential oils and dried herbs from the garden.

The garden has also served as a setting for kids to blow bubbles, write with chalk and spend time while waiting their turn in other programs.

Spencer also brought the garden inside.

“We also did a few indoor displays, where we grew seedlings, and they could watch the lifecycle of a plant and see how seeds generate and guess what was going to grow,” she said.

Included in the 32 plants in the garden were flax, black pansies, lemon balm and arugula. Spencer said one librarian hopes to harvest the flax to weave something out of it.

“Green spaces in libraries are really taking off. Giving patrons a calming place to go — it’s a growing trend,” Spencer said.

Just west of Oak Park Library in Overland Park is a large community garden, where anyone can rent a garden plot for the season. This organic garden got its start in 2011.

The idea for it came from Beverly Jaderborg, president of Overland Park Community Garden Inc., who wanted to put a community garden somewhere in Overland Park. She worked with both the city and the library to make it a reality.

The property, which belongs to the library, had just been a grass field for years, but it was an ideal location that had a water meter for gardeners to use.

Sixty-four 4-by-10-foot plots now adorn the space. Jaderborg said that typically they’ll get 45 to 50 people gardening, as some rent double plots. Six or seven have been gardening in this space since it opened.

The plots currently rent for $25 a year, though the price will be going up to $45. The money covers the water usage and liability insurance. The group itself is a non-profit.

Returning gardeners get priority, followed by Overland Park residents and Johnson County residents. There’s always a waiting list.

Jaderborg has seen numerous things growing in the space.

“Recently, the most interesting thing is people have grown is cotton. It’s such a pretty plant,” she said. “If we have people from different cultures, we get really interesting vegetables that aren’t Midwestern. One year, someone grew artichokes.”

In past years, one of the children’s librarians who worked at Oak Park had gardened a plot for use in children’s programming. She has since left the branch, but Jaderborg hopes to have another library staff member partner on a plot in the future.

Three Boy Scouts have done their Eagle projects to improve the space in different ways, and Girl Scout troops and other youth groups have also pitched in to help with various tasks. Kansas City Community Gardens installed some fruit trees nearby on the property.

For more information on getting on next year’s waiting list for a garden plot, visit opgarden.org.

This story was originally published July 20, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "‘Giving patrons a calming place to go.’ Library gardens grow interest in plants."