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URI Master Gardeners seed incubator program brings plants to community gardens statewide

URI Master Gardeners gathered at East Farm at their annual seedling donation pickup in May, handing off newly grown seedlings headed to Frenchtown and Waddington elementary schools in East Greenwich and East Providence. URI’s Master Gardener Program grows plants annually for schools, community gardens, and nonprofits statewide; this year, they raised more than 12,000 seedlings for community sharing. (photo by Philip Fong)

KINGSTON, R.I. – June 7, 2023 – The University of Rhode Island hosted its annual seedling donation pickup earlier this month, bringing schools and nonprofits from across the state to URI’s East Farm in Kingston to collect their URI-grown seedlings, ready to be transplanted to gardens statewide.

This year, the URI Master Gardener Program raised more than 12,000 vegetable, herb and annual seedlings in greenhouses starting in March. Everything from broccoli to thyme was carefully tended for donations to groups across Rhode Island. Nearly 100 community organizations and Rhode Island schools submitted orders for seedlings over the winter.

In May, community partners came to URI’s greenhouses at East Farm to collect their seedlings, including Smith Castle, Slater Mill, the Narragansett Tribal Nation, Mount Hope Farm, Welcome House in Peace Dale, the Autism Project, and over 40 schools.

The URI Master Gardener Program leads the seedling donation effort, encouraging people to grow their own food and increasing access to fresh, nutritious produce statewide.

Susan Scotti, a Master Gardener, is team leader for the Donation Propagation Project. The scale of the program has expanded dramatically in the last decade, she says: “It’s a comprehensive community produce-growing program.”

History lesson

Valerie Begin came to the URI Greenhouses to pick up an herb order including dill, foxglove, horehound, fennel, and more, for the historic Reuben Mason Medicinal Garden in Chepachet. Begin reports that the site’s pollinators are very happy with the new additions to the garden, which presents a large medicinal plant collection. A retired teacher, she is clearly still teaching today, using plants to impart lessons about Colonial history and early medicine.

“Plants tell the history,” she says.

Nonprofits get ample instructions at pickup, and follow-up as needed. And of course, the Master Gardener hotline and email — (401) 874-4836 / gardener@uri.edu — are always open.

The majority of the plants were grown with seeds donated by Ocean State Job Lot. Job Lot cannot sell last year’s seeds, so they donate them annually to the Master Gardener Program, letting the Master Gardeners bring the seeds to life for community groups statewide each spring. The company – which was started by two URI alumni, Marc Perlman ’69 and his brother Alan Perlman, with friend Roy Dubs ’73 – also gives the seeds, with the help of URI’s Cooperative Extension program, to Rhode Island residents at libraries across the state. Since 2005, the Ocean State Job Lot Charitable Foundation has donated millions of packets of non-GMO Burpee seeds to URI’s Master Gardener program. Their goal is to increase food security, encourage local food production and inspire the next generation of gardeners.

Producing the produce

Several plants grown with the Job Lot seeds went to the Produce Donation Garden in Providence’s Roger Williams Park, among other sites. The new plants were planted in the park garden at the end of May, from broccoli to tomatoes. Produce grown at the park’s garden then goes to several soup kitchens and food pantries in the Providence area, with clients getting fresh produce to supplement their diets. The goal of the donation initiative is to increase food security, in particular for underrepresented communities.

Since the inception of the garden in 2012, the site has translated to 35,000 pounds of fresh produce, picked and delivered to recipients the same day.

“We are proud to support these valuable agencies and serve their constituents,” says site leader Kevin Rabbitt. The project currently has 65 Master Gardener and community gardener volunteers.

At the end of the giveaway week, more than 600 excess plants also went to CCAP in Cranston for their community garden as well as Gardens of Second Chances, Groden House, Habitat for Humanity, Broad Rock Community Gardens, Welcome House, and Community Care.

Across the state, Master Gardener volunteers watch the plants’ growth and bounty in a host of sites and all agree on the value of a program that starts in the smallest of ways — one seed, one volunteer’s hand.

“The best part of all this is we see the fruits of our labors,” says Sue Amoroso, who graduated from the Master Gardener Program in 2005.

Registration for next year’s community “seedling donation” program will take place next winter; schools and organizations serving food-insecure communities are encouraged to apply. To learn more, email mg.donation.gh@gmail.com.