Chats About the Native Plant Nursery

Chats About the Native Plant Nursery

by Sundaura Alford-Purvis

Entrepreneurship Home and Garden

Season 1

Nursery chat 1, part one: The order filling process

I start by responding to a question about how my container-free packing works for various clients and how I handle and pack orders I also get into a lot about the full ordering and fulfillment process, how I organize the nursery space for efficient planting and why I exclusively sell online. This audio is an imperfect recording, excerpted from an unscripted Zoom chat, recorded on March 20, 2025

Nursery chat 1, part two: Transplanting established seedlings and growing media at various stages

A question about moving seedlings from the small plug trays to the larger containers expands into an explanation about what I use for growing media at the various stages of growth and the importance of an ergonomic work space I come back to the topic of peatmoss and alternatives in part five. This audio is an imperfect recording, excerpted from an unscripted Zoom chat, recorded on March 20, 2025

Nursery chat 1, part three: Why plug trays instead of pots and the challenges that come with that

I start by responding to a question about growing and selling in reused pots, which expands into a conversation about why I try to do without pots for the sales stage. -It isn’t just about the containers. Why seedling plugs and in-person sales don’t really work well together Challenges of selling plugs, ways that they can be overcome and the ecological costs of selling plants at larger sizes. This audio is an imperfect recording, excerpted from an unscripted Zoom chat, recorded on March 20, 2025

Nursery chat 1, part four: Plants don't owe us pretty; cultivating ecosystems first

Plants are living beings with complex relationships. Placing their appearance ahead of their relationships is part of what got us to this degree of ecological catastrophe. Even now, we know so little about ecosystem relationships that we can’t plan a perfect ecosystem but there are ways to set the plant community you are working with up for success and get to healthy ecosystems more quickly. This audio is an imperfect recording, excerpted from an unscripted Zoom chat, recorded on March 20, 2025

Nursery chat 1, part five: Peatmoss, coconut coir and compost

Expanding on the topic of peatmoss from an extracted material standpoint, in comparison to coconut coir. We also chat about urban compost, yard waste compost biological diversity and including home compost in potting media. This audio is an imperfect recording, excerpted from an unscripted Zoom chat, recorded on March 20, 2025

Nursery chat 1, part six: What the nursery and these chats are all about

A few final thoughts from the end of our first chat about the nursery documentation project and the reasons that I've been working to develop this business model. This audio is an imperfect recording, excerpted from an unscripted Zoom chat, recorded on March 20, 2025

Chat 2, part seven: How I keep track

How I use a rolling spreadsheet to track my winter sowing, seedling transplanting and seed gathering through the year. This audio is an imperfect recording, excerpted from an unscripted Zoom chat, recorded on March 27, 2025

Season 2

Chat 2, part one: Sourcing and gathering seeds

Seeds for the nursery come from many sources: Roadside patches, seed libraries, gardens and growers; seeds for the nursery come from many sources and, happily, species diversity and availability is steadily increasing. This audio is an imperfect recording, excerpted from an unscripted Zoom chat, recorded on March 27, 2025

Chat 2, part two: Sowing the seeds

How and when I sow seeds and why I dense sow in pots rather than sowing individual seeds into plug trays. This audio is an imperfect recording, excerpted from an unscripted Zoom chat, recorded on March 27, 2025

Chat 2, part three: Washing pots and managing disease cycles

Finding a balance between trying to sterilize a space that will never be sterile ad letting the plants and all the other life that would like to eat them battle it out, with a few notes on disease lifecycles. This audio is an imperfect recording, excerpted from an unscripted Zoom chat, recorded on March 27, 2025

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