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Mother Garden Biodiversity Program

OAEC’s Biodiversity Program focuses on curating and propagating a diverse plant and seed collection of over 3,000 varieties of heirloom, open-pollinated annuals and over 1,000 varieties of edible, medicinal and ornamental perennials. This plant collection — developed over the past 30 years of intensive horticulture at the OAEC site — emphasizes food crops of special genetic, cultural and historic importance. Through classes, tours and weekly volunteer days, the OAEC Mother Garden demonstrates small-scale, bio-intensive, human-powered organic gardening, and provides a foundation for the philosophical, intellectual and cultural work of the Center.

The Biodiversity Program donates approximately $5,000 worth of OAEC’s seeds and plants to some 50 daughter gardens in Bay Area schools and communities each year, and sponsors seed exchanges at farming conferences. The OAEC gardens also yield an abundance of organic food for the Center’s workshops, events and community life, including a great variety of herbs, fruits and vegetables, and spectacular salads composed of up to 50 different greens, herbs and edible flowers.

OAEC continues to collaborate with Food for Thought, the Sonoma County AIDS Food Bank, to create and manage the organic garden, orchards and edible landscaping at its facility in Forestville, providing food and flowers for Food Bank clients. OAEC also co-sponsors the annual Calabash fundraiser at the Food Bank.

The Mother Garden Biodiversity Program offers three plant sales — two in the Spring and one in the Fall — which allow the public to take home OAEC’s unique organic plants for their gardens. Come experience the gardens directly by participating in one of our Garden Tours, The Tai Chi of Gardening: Building Strength ~ Avoiding Injury and Healing Through Food, Gardening, Herbs, and Ceremony courses, or Medicinal Plant Walks in June and August . Volunteer Day — each Wednesday from 10 am to 5 pm — is a wonderful way to become involved and familiar with the garden. Call the OAEC office (ext. 201) for more information.

OAEC's Mother Garden Biodiversity Program includes:

  • Curating OAEC’s collection of 3,500 varieties of food, fiber and medicinal crops.
  • Managing OAEC’s demonstration organic gardens and orchards.
  • Producing organic fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers for thousands of meals annually prepared for OAEC courses.
  • Providing seeds and thousands of plant starts to dozens of community, school, prison, and food bank gardens around Northern California each year.
  • Hosting three major weekend Plant Sales , selling over 100,000 plants each year to benefit OAEC, and sharing the OAEC collection of open-pollinated and heirloom varieties with the public.