Seed Garden Volunteer Day
The heat wave didn’t stop us from getting out in the sun and planting a garden! We congregated with a big group of about 15 volunteers in order to transplant our bounty of plugs front of our packshed. Despite the sweat and the muggy air, we happily spent the morning planting a bunch of new species in our seed garden.
Looking forward, our natural lands manager Nic said, “This is just the start of this planting around the shed, we hope to continue to increase diversity on the farm and provide more habitat for all sorts of creatures”!
The new species are all of genetic origin sourced from within 150 miles of Sharing Our Roots, many from Dakota and Rice counties, including:
Phlox pilosa, Prairie Phlox
Viola palmata var pedatifida, Prairie Violet (host for Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele) and Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia))
Lithospermum canescens, Hoary Puccoon
Agastache foeniculum, Anise Hyssop
Baptisia bracteata, Cream Wild Indigo
Pedicularis canadensis, Wood Betony (Hemiparasite of grasses and seges, often thought of as a keystone species in remnant prairie ecosystems)
Chelone glabra, Turtlehead (supports a variety of insects, most notably serving as the vital host plant for the Baltimore Checkerspot butterfly)
Dalea candida, White Prairie Clover
Eryngium yuccifolium, Rattlesnake Master
Fragaria virginiana, Wild Strawberry
Galium boreale, Northern Bedstraw
Hypericum pyramidatum, Great St. John's Wort
Physostegia virginiana, Obedient Plant
Rudbeckia triloba, Brown-eyed Susan
Thalictrum dasycarpum, Purple Meadow Rue
Asclepias tuberosa, Butterfly Milkweed
Coreopsis palmata, Prairie Coreopsis
Doellingeria umbellata, Flat-topped Aster
Drymocallis arguta, Prairie Cinquefoil
Lythrum alatum, Winged Lythrum
Scrophularia lanceolata, Early Figwort
Solidago riddellii, Riddell's Goldenrod
Vernonia fasciculata, Ironweed
Veronicastrum virginicum, Culver's Root
Zizia aptera, Heart-leaved Alexanders
We also enhanced our seed garden with a couple of species we already have on the Farm, such as:
Carex pellita, Wooly Sedge (a loose meadow forming sedge, currently described as the Sharing Our Roots Sedge of the Year!)
Carex comosa, Bottle Brush sedge
Carex stricta, Tussock Sedge
Asclepias incarnata, Swamp Milkweed
Dalea purpurea, Purple Prairie Clover
Ratibida pinnata, Yellow Coneflower
Andropogon gerardii, Big Bluestem
Sorghastrum nutans, Yellow Prairie Grass
The addition of our seed garden brings not only habitat and biodiversity, but also so much beauty to the Farm. We will nurture this planting as a small seed garden to diversify the rest of sharing our roots for the years to come. Thank you to everyone who volunteered their time to help make this happen!
Sharing Our Roots deeply values these opportunities to serve and connect to the wider community. If you would like to come out the farm and see our programming in action, contact info@sharing-our-roots.org.
As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Sharing Our Roots relies on community donations to fund our work restoring land and providing immigrant, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ farmers with essential support. If you are able and inspired, please join us in our work to heal our lands and prepare emerging farmers by contributing a one-time or recurring donation. Thank you!
