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Newsletter: Fall, 2021
| issue No. 4 | October 2, 2021 | bluestemnatives.com |
Blue Stem Natives
Norwell, Massachusetts 02061
Hello, friends!
Thank you so much for all of your support this year. We are happy to report we will be returning again next year. This is with a big thank you to all of our customers and supporters this year. :) We are officially closed for in-person shopping this season but will stay open throughout October for online shopping and subsequent pick-ups. If you make a purchase online in October we will email you with pick-up instructions. Fall is always a GREAT time to plant.
Cheers! Britt, Jasmin, and Kristen
01
greenhouse build + crowdfunding
WE ARE GOING TO BUILD A GREENHOUSE BUT WE NEED A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS....
We are women-owned business in a male dominated field, and we are quickly becoming a go-to resource for native plants in the area. We are passionate about increasing awareness about the benefits of native plants through education and increasing accessibility of historically native plants to everyone.
We have been overwhelmed with the support and wonderful enthusiasm from our customers. We started from the literal ground up and made the best of our available space. We made it work! However, we quickly realized that in order to to meet demand, we need to move to the next level of production, and for that we need to have a heated greenhouse on the property. The demand for native plants in this area is both huge and has been largely unfulfilled. Our customer base has grown exponentially, and we have had multiple requests to grow our plant offerings in the next year. We have the opportunity to lease more land in the same location and we want to greatly expand the quantity of species and number of plants we offer. To do this we need to build a heated greenhouse and that's where you come in!
The property we are leasing already has the base of a greenhouse, and we are using that footprint to install a new 30'x72' greenhouse. We believe strongly in making environmentally sustainable choices wherever possible throughout our business. We are investigating the installation of renewable energy sources, use of recycled materials, and using the most energy efficient materials we are able to afford. We are asking for help in funding the bulk of the purchase of the greenhouse set-up. We are facing a few different obstacles in this endeavor. The supply chains for these products have been disrupted, and while we are sourcing our greenhouse from a relatively local company (CT), there is still at least a 6 week lead time before we could potentially have the greenhouse installed. This leads us to the next big obstacle...Mother Nature. She's already shown us that she's not messing around (hello, rainiest summer in history!) We need to get the plastic ON the greenhouse before snowfall, and ideally a heck of a lot sooner than that! If we are unable to get the greenhouse up in time, our Spring offerings will have to be scaled back dramatically.
Our supporters have been outstanding this year, and we are looking forward to many years of bringing native plants and education to the area. In return for your financial support, we have cooked up some fun rewards. We appreciate every single dollar given, and promise to use this greenhouse to grow many thousands of native plants for many years to come. Take a look at our offerings, from a personalized thank you, an opportunity to be an early-bird shopper in the Spring, kid's birthday parties, to a personal wreath-making class with your closest pals (we promise to make it a night to remember!)
We invite you to join us on this adventure, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your continued support.
This is what we aim to build:
Current site:
02
seeds!
We are excited to announce we will be carrying native seeds for purchase this fall. Seeds go on sale October 25 and will be sent via mail. Although we will have only a small offering this season (around 25 species), we will be growing our seed selection in the following year. A few species we will carry this year: great blue lobelia, common milkweed, coastal plain grass leaved goldenrod, grass leaved goldenrod, gray goldenrod, blue flag iris, new england aster, turtlehead, big leaved aster, and many more. You can visit here to see the start of what we will be offering (this is still a work in progress).
03
BSN farm field
What is this farm field we've been talking about? The wonderful Norwell Conservation Commission has allowed us to be stewards of a gorgeous farm field. It's located in Norwell on the Hanover line. We've mowed the majority of the property to prepare for planting native perennials. We will then sow seeds and plant plants in rows beginning this fall. Next year we will begin to harvest seeds from these plants. We will use this seed to grow plants for you and we will sell the extra seed.
We have been busy bees collecting "wild" seed from this farm field as there is one area chockablock with native plants. From bayberry, milkweeds, goldenrods, Joe pye weed, wild geranium, and so much more. We have started to put down "crop" rows, smothering the grass with very thick cardboard. In the next two weeks we will be planting small plants as well.
If farming in New England is new to you...farms and meadows in New England, for the most part, will revert to forest over a period of time. Our goal is to keep this land for farming for the future. Our job is to keep woody species down and keep the property up. So far we've cut down invasive autumn olive, mowed, and cleaned up garbage. Lots more work to go!
06
pot, label, and tray return
Calling all “DEEPOTS”! If you purchased plants in these Deepots from us this year, we would love to reuse them. These were our favorite pots, by far, and we would love to “reduce and reuse”, keeping down plastic usage and saving a little money.
There is a drop off bin for our pots in front of the nursery on the right side of the entrance. Drop off any time. We also reuse our plastic plant labels and trays. We cannot use pots from other garden centers, sorry.
Thanks, friends!
