Native Plant Nursery

The best selection of shrubs and trees can be had early in the season and there are discounts for purchasing all plants at once. But with our relatively small volunteer crew, we can't plant everything over a short period. Now we have a safe place to store plants and keep them healthy so we can plant over a longer period. Plugs and tree seedlings typically require daily watering, so it's helpful to have the rain barrel close by.

We have many good native plants on the trail that we would like to spread around, and we do collect and distribute seeds from one place to another. Now we can also use those seeds to start plants (like the trumpet vine pictured) so it's easier to get the right plant for the right place. We can also germinate appropriate native seeds from vendors to increase the diversity of our native plants on the trail. Many native plant seeds require special conditions before germination, such as weeks or months of temperatures below freezing.

Live staking is the common practice of cutting stakes of dormant shrubs and inserting them directly into stream banks to prevent erosion by stormwater runoff--it is difficult to dig holes for plants without further eroding the slope. The nursery gives us a place to store and/or root cuttings so we can help prevent more erosion along Vine Creek.