Join us for an intimate summer evening celebrating 10 years of Wild Seed Project! Founder of Wild Seed Project, Heather McCargo, will share in conversation about her life dedicated to plants, and the growth of Wild Seed Project over the past decade. Founder of Avena Botanicals, Deb Soule, will walk us around the abundant gardens and share about the relationships she has developed with the plants that make up Avena. Light refreshments will be provided.

Please be sure to register to secure your spot.  We hope to see you there!

Wild Seed Project is featured in a new documentary about native plants!  Premiering at the Maine Outdoor Film Festival in July, The Buzz on Native Plants explores the relationship between native plants and pollinators and how they can benefit local ecosystems in our ever changing climate.

The Buzz on Native Plants is showing Friday, July 26 at 12:30 pm.  Visit the ME Outdoor Film Festival website to watch the trailer and see the rest of the film fest schedule.

Join us at The Native Seed Center at Turkey Hill Farm for an exploration of all the crawling life thriving this time of year with our staff entomologist Emily Baisden. We will meet in the parking lot at and walk around the field, shrub habitat, and forest at Turkey Hill, looking out for monarch caterpillars, black swallowtail caterpillars, woolly bear caterpillars, and more! Bring a hand lens or a loupe if you have one! This is a great chance to meet other nature-lovers, look closely at these perfectly camouflaged tiny creatures, ask questions to an ecologist and bug expert, and learn about the plants that support the flourishing of these species.

Please register to join us. Hope to see you there!

Join Hogfish, Friends of Fort Gorges, and the Wild Seed Project for a special art and music event.

Beauty is often one of the first invitations to connect. How could the beauty of a summer afternoon in Aucocisco, on modern day Fort Gorges, with gorgeous meditative indigenous and non-indigenous collaborative music weaving in the sounds of nearby plants, while receiving gentle hands-on-healing help you to connect? What would happen if we all took a moment together to allow our eardrums and our hearts to be moved by the beauty of the sound of all living beings coming together to make a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts? How can we re-sound history in a place like Fort Gorges for a better future?

Enjoy a boat ride across Aucocisco, present day Casco Bay, and quickly arrive at Fort Gorges. Stroll into the courtyard, put down a yoga mat or picnic blanket or sit in the grass, and invite yourself to listen to the ocean waves and call of the birds, while hands-on-healers offer their assistance to leave your cares behind and enter the presence of the sensory world. The musical offerings will begin with Hogfish artist-in-residence and Wabanaki singer and dancer Isaac Syliboy who will be joined by Hogfish artist-in-residence and composer/bassist Evan Premo for 40 minutes of instrumental loop-based improvisation for meditation and deep listening, where Evan weaves in music produced live from the electrical impulses of native plants selected by the Wild Seed Project.

At the end of the meditation, spend time exploring the island on your own or on a guided tour, go for a swim, or continue to listen to the reverberations in the space and in your soul.

RAIN DATE

Sunday, July 28th

We are so excited to be partnering with The Maine Coast Heritage Trust for our 2024 Four Season Walk series! In this Brunswick-based Four Season Walk, participants will learn how to identify many of the native plants growing around the preserve. Join Emily Baisden, Wild Seed Project’s seed program director and resident entomologist to explore the flora and fauna of this area.

This is the second of four walks, spaced throughout the year in each unique season, where we will all engage in observing and asking questions of our surroundings, and identifying the varied plants, shrubs, trees, ferns, and wildlife along the trail.

The goal of these walks is to foster relationships with place through relationships with plants, and encourage further stewardship of our community spaces. Come walk and learn about Woodward Point Preserve in all its seasons with Wild Seed Project! We will meet at the preserve’s entrance, in the parking lot on Woodward Point Rd.

Offered in partnership with Maine Coast Heritage Trust. Please register to join us for this popular series.

Wild Seed Project is partnering with the Presumpscot Regional Land Trust to offer a series of Four Seasons Walks at Black Brook Preserve in Windham. These walks showcase native plants and how they change throughout the year. Join Nell Houde, Wild Seed Project’s education lead, as we explore the preserve.  Participants will learn how to identify and form relationships with many of the native plants that grow in the places we live, work and play.  The walk will move at a more leisurely pace, covering a little over one mile of the trail during the walk. Thisis the second walk of a four-part series.

Please register at the PRLT website.  We’d love to see you there!

Each month, WSP’s resident plant experts join members on Zoom to answer questions and talk all things native plants. Current members will receive a link to the session via email.

Not a member? Join today!

We’re excited to bring together our whole community for a story sharing potluck supper at the Native Seed Center this summer, in collaboration with Community Plate.  Community Plate is an organization that hosts suppers across the state, bringing folks together for an evening of connection through the sharing of food, stories, and recipes.

Register at the Community Plates website to get a seat at the table.  

Heather McCargo, founder of Wild Seed Project, will share how native hedges and hedgerows can be used to create living fences for enclosure, privacy, and beauty. Diverse plantings add three-dimensional variety to landscapes, and provide important and abundant year-round habitat for birds, pollinating insects, and many other small creatures. Visit Camden Garden Club for more information.

Update: The plant sale was a success!

The 2024 Native Plant Sale fundraiser was a great success!  Thanks to our members and other community members who came out to support, together we raised over $58,000! This will go to expand capacity at our Native Seed Center, and bring ecology programming into schools across the state.

Over 3,500 native plants found new homes across the region, and hundreds of people came out to see the Native Seed Center in action.

Thank you to the many, many hands who made this all possible: volunteers, board members, staff, colleagues at Cape Elizabeth Land Trust, artists, and of course all the plant shoppers.  This was our first year hosting the plant sale in person, and it was a treat to spend time with all of you out at the Native Seed Center.

Members Only Day: Saturday September 7, 2024 9 AM – 4 PM

General Public Day: Sunday September 8, 2024 9 AM – 4 PM

WILD SEED PROJECT’S ANNUAL PLANT SALE FUNDRAISER will be held at Turkey Hill Farm in Cape Elizabeth.  We are hosting a members only sale Saturday, September 7, 2024, with special access to select species.  Sunday, September 8, 2024, we’re open to the public.  Become a member today and get a free copy of our annual publication and early entry guaranteed to our most anticipated event of the year. We encourage you to arrive excited to explore the property, shop for plants, browse prints and jewelry from local artists, and learn directly from staff and partners on-site. 

In addition to a selection of over 100+ native plant species, we are hosting expert lectures and guided walks. Sign up early to participate in any of the meadow walks and nursery tours throughout the day. Tickets to this event are FREE with an optional donation add-on to support our ongoing work. We are requesting attendees sign up for a time slot to attend as parking is limited on-site. 

ALL PLANTS ARE GROWN either by WSP staff at our nursery at Turkey Hill Farm or by trained and experienced volunteers. Plants are grown using organic growing practices without the use of pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. All of our plants are grown from seed, under natural conditions (not in a greenhouse) with a mix of first, second, and third year plants. The 2024 Plant List shows what we will have available this year.  

Hope to see you there!

Questions about the event? Check out our 2024 Plant Sale FAQ.