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The Crimson Clover chapter of Master Gardeners hosted a seed giveaway Saturday Feb. 3 at the Coffee County Manchester Public Library.

Club President Gordon Revey said the Master Gardener program is put on through University of Tennessee Extension.

“Our organization is really a volunteer organization, once we are certified Master Gardeners we have community service projects,” he said.

One of those projects is participating in Tennessee Tree Day every March with the county extension office.

“People can be ordering trees online, bare root trees, we will be sorting them and handing them out,” Revey said. “You stick them in the ground and when it warms up they will be green and coming out.”

The idea of a Master Gardener seed library got its start in Franklin County

“One of our Master Gardeners got it going and now it is taking off and we are branching out and bringing it to other libraries in other counties. Revey said.

It was the first time the seed library had been hosted in Manchester, he said.

“The main purpose is just to keep heirloom seeds going,” Revey said. “These aren’t commercial seeds, all of these seeds were collected from our gardens.”

In order to become a Master Gardener, those interested must complete a class and contribute 40 hours of community service.

“We have all gone through a really cool training program,” Revey said. “We have a new intern class right now that just started. We have classes on Tuesday mornings at the University of Tennessee Space Institute past Tullahoma.

Revey said he first became involved in Master Gardener program after moving back to Tennessee from Colorado

“I have got 2.5 acres where I live out by Stone Fort and I am converting as much of it as I can to native meadows and gardens,” he said.

Daphanie Gragg, librarian and events coordinator, said the Coffee County Manchester Public Library is planning to introduce its own seed catalog.

“We are going to use one of the old card catalogs and we are going to start housing the seeds here in the library, so if you have some that you have extra, you can bring them in and put them in the catalog and if you want to pick up some you can,” Gragg said.

For more information about the Master Gardener Program, visit www.mastergardener.tennessee.edu.