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Announcing 5th Annual Spring Perennial Plant Sale!

2/8/2017

4 Comments

 
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Help Yourself 5th Annual Perennial Plant Sale!
Each spring, we offer low-cost native fruit and nut shrubs and trees, perfect for hedges, yards and gardens each spring, our proceeds directly funding the year's public planting projects. Over their long lives, they will yield bushels of fresh fruit, beginning in 3-5yrs. Sourced from NE nurseries, they will grow rapidly with good care.

Pick up bare root, 6-18” seedlings, with instructions in Northampton, Greenfield or Holyoke early June, details to come.

All plants 8$ each, 5 = 30$, 10 = 50$, 50 = 250$, 100 = 350$

Order by cash, card, PayPal or check. We're seeking volunteers, stewards and yards to host seedlings as they grow large enough for public plantings.

To order, email [email protected] with desired species and quantity, preferred pick up location and method of payment.


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Shrubs:
  • Nannyberry – shrubby tree, delicious raisin fruits. 20 ft., medicinal bark. Space 10'
  • Rugosa (beach) rose – thorny shrub, pink flowers, edible & medicinal hips and flowers. 6''
  • High-bush cranberry – shrub, flowers, sour red fruit in fall, source of cramp bark. 10'
  • Beach plum: small shrub', nice flowers and fruit, need 2+ for fruit, sand/salt/sun ok. 8'
  • Hazelnut – American. Excellent hedge. Need 2+ for nuts. Space 5-10'.
  • Juneberry – Serviceberry (A. alnifolia). Shrub to 10'. Space 5-8'. Delicious berries.
  • Black aronia berry – Chokeberry. Nutritious, astringent fruit used for juice. Shrub to 8'.
  • Black Elderberry – shrub to 10'. prefers moist soil. Edible/med. Berries.


Trees:
  • American Plum – small tree, flowers, plums in summer Need 2+ for fruit. 12 ft. Space 6-8'
  • Persimmon– med. tree to 50'. Unsexed, females bear delicious fruit, need males nearby.
  • Chinese chestnut– to 50', spreading shade tree with sweet nuts. Need 2+ for fruit.
  • Redbud– Nitrogen fixing tree to 20'. Pretty, edible, sour pink flowers in spring. Bee forage.
  • Paw paw – to 30'. Large, soft tropical tasting fruit. Tolerates wet soil. Need 2+ for fruit.
  • Shinko & Bubblegum plums (Japanese) - to 15'. 25$ Each, limited qty.

Other:
  • Sunchoke – (Jerusalem artichoke) spreading, productive sunflower tuber. To 10'
  • Hops – (english) fast climbing vine to 20', med. flowers used as sedative and bitter beer.
4 Comments
Linda Marie
3/2/2017 04:31:41 pm

We are interested in placing an order, both to aquire some of these plants, and to help support your project!

By the way, redbud blossoms are tasty. The leaves (young ones raw, older ones cooked) are also edible, and the young pods can be used like snowpeas.

Also, the tips of hop vines are also edible as a vegetable, rather like asparagus, and are commonly eaten in France.

Appreciate the sensible approach to 'weeds' under the weeding guide, and the tips on edibility, though there are more edible uses than mentioned.

This project is an idea whose time has come - again. At the very least, having edibles available in common spaces will hopefully get people to stop and think about all the unnecessary toxins we are putting out into the world.

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BARBARA PASSERO link
5/28/2017 02:52:04 pm

This Waltham, Massachusetts-based outdoor environmental education program is for students of all ages. With an unique 8-unit curriculum and fun, engaging activities, we educate citizen scientists and stewards of the Earth to try to resolve challenges to the environment and human society. Participants repurpose monocultural turf lawn into meadows—productive, attractive ecosystems gardens with native flowers, shrubs, and grasses—to increase biodiversity, pollinators, and wildlife habitat.

MS4B is partnering with the Waltham YMCA to offer the Waltham Y Environmental Entrepreneurship Program to local high school students this spring and summer. Students are earning a stipend while learning about native plants and their importance in growing wildlife habitat and building biodiversity. Students are pre-selling native perennial ferns, wildflowers, grasses, and shrubs and installing them for customers. Please check out our website http://www.meadowmaking.org for more information.

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Laetitia Won link
6/1/2017 07:04:54 pm

The Tewksbury Public Library community garden is looking for 3 Paw paw trees, and 4 high bush cranberries.
We grow food for our local food pantry, and are developing educational programs around sustainable food growing practices, aimed at adults, teens, and children.

Reply
Tori link
6/23/2022 09:55:14 am

Hello mmate great blog

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  • Help Yourself!
  • Plant Sale
  • Donate
  • Get Involved!
    • Volunteer >
      • Volunteer weeding guide