Where the Wild Things Come
Our 1.7-acre property backs onto a forest, but it didn’t start this way in our care. When we moved in, we inherited a vast, immaculately kept and quiet expanse of grass. There were a few mature trees here and there, but for the most part, we inherited a giant, water logged lawn.
To change that, we brought several trailer loads of young trees, shrubs and plants I had grown and nurtured in our old garden in Aylmer, and I built a greenhouse. Last year, we added thousands of plants grown from seed, right here, in our nursery. We created a large rain garden and water management system, as well as our first Miyawaki tiny forest, and reverted several areas of the property back to meadows, native plant communities, and native gardens. We planted over 300 baby trees throughout, and intend to continue rewilding, patch by patch, year after year.
Today, this space is our living Seed Orchard. We grow our plants in communities, just as they would be found in the wild, possibly with some surprising and accidental combinations that thrive. We are a small-scale nursery rooted in restoration: we grow for wildlife first, and for our own learning and observation second.
The Ethics of our Seed Harvest
Harvesting seed is a “bonus” to us—a gift the land gives back once our plants feel at home. Because we care about the future of our local canopy, we follow a strict set of ethical guidelines.
A Circular Cycle for Our Community
We don’t harvest for profit. The seeds we collect are either grown through our nursery, or shared with our community through Canopée Localeaf and the Aylmer Seed Project.
We want these locally adapted seeds to find their way into local green spaces, and help fuel more lawn replacement projects. To help that happen, we are expanding our mission through Canopée Localeaf to host free Native Seed Harvesting Workshops throughout the summer. Our workshops will demonstrate how to identify, ethically harvest, clean, and store seeds, to share them forward, and contribute back to the Aylmer Seed Project and a steady, local and genetically diverse seed supply.