OAEC Nursery

10/09/2026

Getting ready for fall planting? Looking to plant a new tree in your garden that is low maintenance and easy to care for?

OAEC Nursery Manager Nicolas Whitaker specifically recommends these 3 plants for our Sonoma County/Northern California climate:

Black Mission Fig (Ficus Carica) 🥧

Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) ✨

Peruvian Wooly To***co (Nicotiana tomentosa) 🌱

09/18/2026

Featured Plant of the Week: The Mission Fig (Ficus carica)

Mission figs are one of the many fruiting plants we grow at the OAEC Nursery. With their sweet, dark fruit and beautiful, spreading leaves, fig trees can be a wonderful addition to a garden or food forest.

At the nursery, you’ll find young fig trees growing in pots alongside mature fruit trees in our gardens, where we get to watch the fruit ripen and harvest it right from the tree. If you’ve ever grown your own figs, you know there’s nothing quite like picking a perfectly ripe fig straight from the tree 😊☀️

08/26/2026

08/26/2026

Your Thursday afternoon itinerary in Occidental: stop by the OAEC Nursery then head to the Occidental Community Farmers Market!

08/21/2026

Have you ever seen turmeric growing? 🌿

The bright yellow spice we know as turmeric comes from the underground rhizomes of Curcuma longa, a tropical plant with beautiful, lush foliage. While we usually encounter turmeric dried and ground in the spice aisle, growing it gives us a whole new appreciation for where it comes from, and how much more there is to the plant than its roots.

Turmeric has also been used for centuries in traditional medicine. Its rhizomes contain curcumin and other compounds that have been studied for their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

Come take a look and get to know this pantry classic in a new way!

Open Wednesday–Saturday, 11am–5pm.

08/17/2026

The Nursery will be closed Wednesday, August 19th, and there will be no garden volunteer day!

We’ll be back to our regular schedule on Thursday the 20th ✨🥳

Thanks for understanding, and we’ll see you soon!

08/14/2026

August in the Nursery can look a little different 🌱

While the garden shifts out of peak planting season, the Nursery is still buzzing with life. Plants fill every corner, seedlings peek through the woodchips, and landscaping seems to crawl up the sides of tables, creating a little biodiverse ecosystem of its own.

Even our California natives and perennials, adapted to our shifting climate, need a little tending. Our team has been busy watering, weeding, pruning, propagating, harvesting, and getting ready for the fall garden.
Come see what’s growing!

The OAEC Nursery is open Wednesday–Saturday, 11am–5pm.

08/12/2026

Valerian, Valeriana officinalis, is a perennial herb native to Europe and parts of Asia, best known for its fragrant roots. While valerian may be less familiar as a garden plant, it has a long history of use in traditional herbal medicine.

Valerian root has traditionally been used as a calming herb and is commonly associated with supporting relaxation and sleep. Its roots contain several compounds that have been studied for their effects on the nervous system, though research on its effectiveness is mixed.

Beyond its medicinal qualities, valerian is a beautiful addition to the garden, producing clusters of small white to pink flowers that attract pollinators.
Come explore our medicinals section, where you’ll find valerian and plenty of other fascinating plants!

08/07/2026

The gardens at OAEC are flowing with midsummer abundance 🍎🍏

This Wednesday, garden volunteers helped our Orchard Manager, Luke Armstrong, with harvesting the many delicious varieties of apples and pears that we grow on site.

All of the collected fruit is sorted into three categories: the best fruit is kept to be eaten by OAEC staff, community, volunteers, and retreat guests, the ground fall fruit will be taken to feed the sheep at the nearby Bodega Pastures, and everything in between is saved for juicing.

This is a great time of year to volunteer in the gardens and experience the abundance for yourself. Volunteer Day is every Wednesday from 10-4pm, and folks who stay for 3+ hours get a free garden-based vegetarian lunch made by our kitchen team! RSVP through the link in our bio. We hope to see you in the garden 🪏

08/04/2026

Seed-saving season has begun. 🌾

As spring and summer planting winds down, our attention turns to the next generation of the garden. Throughout late summer and into fall, our team (and our wonderful Wednesday garden volunteers) collect seed from perennial plants in the gardens and native plants growing in the surrounding meadows.

Saving seed is about much more than preparing for next year’s garden. In a time when crop diversity continues to decline, each carefully collected seed helps preserve resilient, regionally adapted varieties for future generations. Diversity in our gardens is diversity in our food systems, ecosystems, and communities.

Some of the seed we collect will be processed, sown and sold as starts in the Nursery. Much of it, however, will be shared freely at the Ecological Farming Association and West County Seed Exchanges next winter, where seeds, and the knowledge and stories that accompany them, are passed from hand to hand.