Planting Seeds for a Better Future: A Photo Essay From the Onion Foundation’s Day With the Wild Seed Project

At the Onion Foundation, we view our grantees as active participants in preserving the past and building the future of Maine. They’re the organizations and individuals who nurture the state’s environment, make space for marginalized voices, and help our communities thrive.

And it’s these organizations that inspire us to step out of our daily routines to visit their locations and experience the work they do every day. At a recent site visit with the Wild Seed Project, a longstanding foundation grantee organization, we were able to do just that: explore Maine’s environment from a new perspective, getting our hands dirty as we replanted seedlings and came to understand the vital nature of native plants.

As we walked the lands of the Native Seed Center located at Cape Elizabeth Land Trust’s Turkey Hill Farm, we were reminded of the critical impact our grantees have on the world around them and inspired by the deep knowledge their teams so freely share with others.

About the Wild Seed Project

The Wild Seed Project makes the complex process of mitigating the effects of climate change approachable for the everyday Mainer. Its focus is simple, yet its impact is profound: The team propagates and plants native seeds — and teaches others to do so — to support biodiverse habitats and make an actionable difference in the climate change movement.

The organization works with individuals, land-holding organizations, and businesses to equip community members with the skills they need to repopulate the state’s natural landscape. To date, the Wild Seed Project has propagated a staggering 3 million native plants, and it offers more than 90 plant species in its online store each year. Additionally, the organization holds educational workshops, nurtures community seed gardens, and publishes guides and free digital resources to educate Mainers and encourage more people to engage in this work.

Reflections From the Onion Foundation Team

At our site visit, Maura Sanchi, the Wild Seed Project’s Volunteer Coordinator, and Emily Baisden, Seed Center Director, guided us through the process of cleaning, sorting, and replanting native seedlings. After disentangling densely packed seedlings from their pots and each other, we learned how to identify each plant and carefully nestle them into fresh soil.

All the while, Sanchi and Baisden taught us about the plants’ natural life cycles and their importance to sustaining biodiversity amid a rapidly changing climate. It was energizing work that fueled our collective passion for safeguarding Maine’s environment.

Here are our takeaways from our time working hands-on in the dirt with the Wild Seed Project team.

A Slower Pace To Foster Connection

“Our volunteer work at Wild Seed prompted us to slow down and notice the shapes of leaves, the smells, the ways roots tangled together. It gave us time to turn up the sensitivity of our noticing and turn down the pace of our action. The wind and diffuse sunlight eased this change of pace. Sometimes the yarrow or zigzag goldenrod mingled with a plant of a different species. We replanted all of these misfits who had wandered into the wrong pot all together. I took some delight in the ‘random’ pots this process created, with their collection of odds-and-ends plants now getting to know and grow with each other in a new milieu.” — Holly Taylor, Program Associate

“I found myself noticing the land. There’s open, sunny space for growing plants directly in the ground and tree-shaded space for nurturing young, freshly repotted plants. A greenhouse sits adjacent to the garden, and a fence surrounds more fragile plants, protecting them from deer. It’s a welcoming and warm space that invites people to connect with plants, the land, and nature. As we separated and repotted plants, I felt grounded in this place.” — Susan Onion, Co-Founder and Trustee

“My first mistake was declining the garden gloves. As I used my fingernails to tear apart the segments of bee balm, I enjoyed the feel of soil on my hands, but I soon realized that the dirt under my fingernails was going to linger. My second mistake was gaining too much confidence separating out the bee balm, which had 4-6 plants per pot. But the shrubby St. John’s wort had about 50 strands to extract and replant per plot — and my rate of progress slowed to a crawl. Fortunately, it was a lovely September day, and slowing down allowed me to enjoy a pleasant afternoon with colleagues, breathe fresh air, and help a great nonprofit do their work. I would happily make the same mistakes again!” — Fritz Onion, Co-Founder and Trustee

New Skills, Learnings, and Lessons

“Before our volunteering at the Wild Seed Project, I didn’t fully appreciate what wild seeds are nor their importance to sustainable and vibrant ecosystems. The seeds that this organization works with today aren’t exact, pristine replicas of the seeds that the same plant species generated decades ago. Rather, they’re seeds with traits that allowed them to flourish in changing environmental conditions and that have resulted from continued evolution or adaptation of the species to meet those changing conditions. Wild seeds’ vitality not only contributes to the health of our local ecosystems, but also allows Indigenous communities — including the Wabanaki nations in our region — to secure the food and medical supplies that have sustained them for generations and that are integral to their cultural practices.” — Diana Morris, Executive Director

“You make real change by getting to the roots, cultivating deep roots, and ‘getting to the root’ of things. As we literally handled the roots of these delicate (but really not-so-delicate) seedlings, separating them into smaller groups and bigger pots, I was reminded of the importance of creating the conditions where those roots have what they need to grow, nourishing and supporting the rest of the plant and its more visible growth. Volunteering gave us time to work shoulder to shoulder, quietly repotting small seedlings, hands in the dirt. We talked about the plants, the work, and anything else that came to mind, sharing time and space and working together. It’s the kind of experience that can change the dynamics of a group and reinforces relationships.” — Sally Struever, Grants and Office Administrator

“The rules for growing native plants are counterintuitive to most gardeners: Instead of starting indoors or in the warmth of a greenhouse, native plant seeds need to experience winter to germinate. Rather than planting seeds in uniformly spaced rows, native plants do best when they are sown in dense clusters, growing into a tight, soft carpet of seedlings. We got to experience the intense focus and fine motor skills required to disentangle those fragile roots and gently tuck individual seedlings into their own pots. We got to imagine the relief students must feel when they take a break from their desks to search, gather, feel, dig, and observe native plants in their schoolyard habitats. The real power of native plants isn’t the learning outcomes they can help achieve. It’s that their growth habits provide a window into the functioning of our native ecosystem as a whole. And by following nature’s rules to facilitate their growth, we get a better appreciation for how Wabanaki citizens have tended to native plants for millennia, and the special connection to the land that that requires. In the peaceful environment of the native seed nursery, these lessons were clear.” — Rosalind Erwin, Environment Program Officer

“We encountered spiders, grubs, other critters, rocks, acorns, and more — which is how I learned not to feed errant worms to chickens because the worms concentrate heavy metals! It all points to Wild Seed’s insistence on connectivity and the role of native plants in the larger complex interplay between ecology and human impact. Small pieces consolidate into something potent. One climate-resilient plant in a Mainer’s yard moves us one step closer to a Maine landscape that can sustain itself and thrive as temperatures warm.” — Holly Taylor, Program Associate

The Importance of Learning From Our Grantees

“You can’t fully appreciate the magic of an organization’s work until you experience it. In the normal flow of the grantmaking process, I’ve learned about the Wild Seed Project’s experiential ecology program, which they deliver in partnership with classroom educators. The team has explained to me the unique role of native plants as a vehicle for blending standards-aligned science with Wabanaki studies. When we had the opportunity to volunteer in the native plant nursery, I saw that firsthand and came to understand the quirks of the plants themselves.” - Rosalind Erwin, Environment Program Officer

“The Wild Seed Project staff have so much experience, years of watching these small plants grow through their whole cycle of life. They can tell you what plant a seedling is when it has only a few small leaves and measures just an inch tall. I have a passion for native plants and I’ve spent a lot of time in my garden, and I’m so impressed by the Wild Seed Project. They’re spreading seeds throughout the state — literally and figuratively. They’re determined to share their knowledge generously with the community. All of our grantees have this kind of deep experience in their fields and within their communities. I appreciate all of the expertise embedded in the people and organizations we support. It’s so inspiring to see it in action.” — Sally Struever, Grants and Office Administrator

“One aspect of our Environment Program is advocacy to protect the environment and mitigate the harms of climate change so that people in Maine can continue to enjoy and benefit from natural habitats. The Wild Seed Project’s stewardship of wild seeds effectively helps provide that protection, and its programs are consistent with the Onion Foundation’s approach to nature learning — to support experiential, standards-aligned education that embraces ‘two-eyed seeing,’ or the use of Western and Indigenous knowledge systems to understand the environment. Gathering around the planting tables at the Wild Seed Project’s farm with my colleagues gave me an excellent introduction not only to the organization’s experiential activities and educational approach but also the importance of wild seeds.” — Diana Morris, Executive Director

“I appreciated learning about the partnership that Wild Seed Project and the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust have developed, and I was reminded that this land is being honored and used by the community and is serving both organizations’ missions to educate and build a volunteer base. It’s such a perfect example of how two organizations can come together and share resources: the land trust has beautiful land and space at Turkey Hill Farm, with a vision for environmental and agricultural education and native seed propagation. The Wild Seed Project now has a place to engage community and volunteers and to grow and develop their native seed nursery. Together, they’ve created something that not only supports their missions but also builds community and connects people to a beautiful natural place.” — Susan Onion, Co-Founder and Trustee