Double your donation to the Heritage Seed Library
For five decades, the Heritage Seed Library at Garden Organic has squirrelled away parcels of precious heritage and heirloom seeds to safeguard them for future generations.
Unlike a traditional seed bank, they’re not kept on ice but shared with a community of growers and gardeners to grow again. This is a living library cultivated by people for people.
But we urgently need your help to secure the people's seed bank for another 50 years.
Between 2 December and 9 December 2025 we want to raise £30K for the Heritage Seed Library through the Big Give Christmas Challenge. Every donation you make via the Christmas Challenge page, between these dates, will be doubled.
Why donate to the Heritage Seed Library?
Doubling your donation will help us maintain and expand the Heritage Seed Library at a crucial time for biodiversity and food security - and in an era of climate extremes.
The vital work of our living library cannot be underestimated. What started as a race against time to save at-risk seeds has become an even more urgent need to curb the dramatic loss of diversity in our food crops.
Over the last century, 75% of crop varieties globally have been lost. Each variety represents valuable genetic diversity, a food source potentially resilient to climate extremes, and a piece of precious history.
Our planet’s health depends on the diversity of flora and fauna, and the same applies to our own growing patches. As crop varieties decline, so too does the diversity of our gardens and veg patches, leaving growers vulnerable to widespread losses from extreme weather, pests or diseases.
Catrina Fenton, head of the Heritage Seed Library, says the open-pollinated seed saved by the HSL offers more resilience through its wide diversity.
“If seed is not in the ground, it cannot respond to climate changes and we continue to reduce the choices we have to develop better adapted plants,” she says. “The more diversity we can find and reintroduce into our food systems, the greater our resilience to future pressures in a changing environment.”
Which is why, each year, the HSL distributes more than 30,000 packets of heritage seed to ‘everyday’ growers. This home and community production directly connects growers with biodiversity, but also makes a significant contribution to our diets, wellbeing and livelihoods.
What impact will your funds have?
Your Big Give Christmas Challenge doubled donations will helps us:
1. Safeguard more at-risk varieties within the library, protecting their genetic resource and rich local history. We currently have a ‘queue’ of 100+ varieties waiting to be assessed for potential inclusion in the library and with each passing year, the seed becomes less viable.
2. Nurture our volunteer Seed Guardians to grow and return seed to the collection. We need to expand this network by increasing access for new growers and supporting advanced growers to help with trickier crops.
3. Secure essential equipment and infrastructure. Specialist equipment needed for seed conservation on this scale can be costly. Investing in a programme of proactive maintenance minimizes the risk of losing crops or harvests.
4. Provide seed saving advice via training, webinars and more - to give as many growers as possible the knowledge and confidence to produce their own seed year-after-year.
Visit BigGive.org between midday 2 December and midday 9 December to donate. And follow our #HSL50 hashtag to get updates on the campaign via our social media channels and learn more about how to donate.