The California Native Plant Society (CNPS) is currently sponsoring Bloom! California, a statewide campaign to increase the presence of native plants throughout our state “from backyard gardens to city parks to business fronts and more.” Each year, various types of native plants, such as mints, phacelias, irises, oaks, sages, ornamental grasses, manzanitas, and more, are featured at participating nurseries throughout the state. All the selected plants are easy to care for, suited to our region, and attractive to pollinators and other native wildlife.

Statistics on the CNPS website indicate that as of 2021, native plants, which are vital to healthy landscapes and local wildlife, totaled a mere three percent of industry sales. Bloom! California encourages “all Californians to transform our environment with the native plants that define our state.” And to help you start or enhance your native plant garden, the Bloom! California website offers a garden inspiration page, with designs for different styles and circumstances. They include helpful planting tips and specific plant quantities (but can you really buy too many plants?).

You will find many of the recommended plants plus others at Harvests & Habitats, Chico's newest nursery, and the only Butte County nursery taking part in Bloom! California this year. Harvests & Habitats is located on West 17^th Street, behind the 1078 Gallery and Equilateral Coffee building at 1710 Park Avenue. The small but skillfully organized space is stocked with a large variety of sages, lavenders, thymes, mints, native shrubs, garden vegetables, and culinary and medicinal herbs - all appropriate for growing in Butte County's valley and foothill environments.

Sherri Scott, the owner of Harvests & Habitats, has made her nursery into a great community resource. Scott was recently interviewed for this article, and during our conversation a steady stream of people came in to buy plants, and to take advantage of Scott's deep knowledge and expertise. Scott has been in Butte County for over 25 years, during which she has developed an intimate understanding of local soils, plants, plant needs, and weather conditions. What she loves most about plants, though, especially edibles, is their capacity to create cultural connections, to bridge differences, and to serve as ambassadors that can tie us together as a community.

That we can all come together over food was the underpinning of Scott's initial local community effort in organizing GRUB, which stands for Growing Resourcefully Uniting Bellies. The original organization of GRUB has changed since its beginnings in 2007, but the GRUB CSA (a Community Supported Agriculture weekly vegetable harvest program), Harvests & Habitats (formerly GRUB Grown Nursery), and vegetable and plant booths at the Chico Certified Farmers Market (CCFM) all help maintain the original intentions of GRUB.

Scott is familiar to many locals because of her own long-time CCFM booth where she sells plant starts. In fact, she credits the CCFM with sparking her love of aromatic herbs and edible plants. Competition for market spaces is high, and CCFM initially stipulated Scott could only sell edibles in her booth space to increase the variety of plants available at the CCFM and to avoid conflict with established vendors. This directive encouraged her to learn about and experiment with plants that are not commonly available but thrive in our climate.

Scott loves the international representation at the CCFM, the long arc of plant wisdom and culture represented by vendors there, and the wide variety of plants that find their way into our homes as primary ingredients, flavorings, and medicinals.

While the current inventory at Harvests & Habitats is 85% edibles, Scott is especially drawn to multifunctional plants which provide food and beauty or garden interest, create habitat for native creatures, and/or serve an extra purpose, such as “dynamic accumulators.” This is a term for plants that extract minerals up from the soil and make them available to adjacent plantings.

Scott notes that with Harvests & Habitats, she has come full circle. When she initially moved to Chico (following friends from the Bay Area), she came with the dream of starting a native plant nursery. She was drawn to the small, rural feel of 1996 Chico, which reminded her of her small hometown in Los Angeles County. She liked the local culture and the way Chico tucked up against the mountains. Her path to finally owning the nursery she dreamed about took her through GRUB, then her CCFM booth, and since spring 2021 to the location on West 17^th Street. When you visit, be sure to notice the orange mural in front of the 1078 Gallery that showcases local Butte County plants. The nursery is open Thursdays through Sundays, 9 am to 3 pm.

Next up for Harvests & Habitats are plans to involve and educate the community. Scott certainly has the bona fides for this! She's a co-organizer and creator of the Seed Swap, been involved in GRUB's Tomato Fest and Chico Seed Lending Library, and taught workshops through GRUB Ed where she also partnered with other organizations like Catalyst and 6th Street Center for Youth.  She has taught gardening and cooking for preschool, afterschool, and summer school programs. Her seed saving presentations have been featured in TED X Salon and given to Master Gardeners and the Butte County Local Food Network. One of Scott's goals is to create a Discovery Center for children at Harvests & Habitats, using educational tools such as flash cards and incorporating interactive plant games and tastings.

This last bit is not surprising in the least. Watching Scott interact with a child accompanying her mother who came in for vegetable starts, one can see that she is a natural teacher. As the child looked around, Scott supplied her with a magnifying glass, a box of treasures gleaned from the forest floor (lichen, buckeye, mosses, a paper wasp nest), and a puzzle book. Bringing over a kid-sized table and chair, Scott encouraged her to explore and enjoy. All visitors to Harvests & Habitats are greeted as old friends by both Scott and her friendly, calm, four-year-old rescue pup, Verna. Visit this neighborhood nursery to take part in Bloom! California, and you will leave with an appreciation for this new addition to our community.

Vegetable Plant Sale! Stock up on popular varieties of vegetable plants at our Plant Sale on Saturday, April 2, 2022 from 9 to 11 am.  The sale will take place at the Master Gardener Demonstration Garden at Patrick Ranch (10381 Midway, Durham) rain or shine.  For more details, including a plant list, check our Vegetable Plant Sale webpage.

UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area, visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu (preferred) or call (530) 538-7201.