Green Growing Standards

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Native plants in our managed landscapes and restoration projects are crucial to supporting the local ecology, biodiversity, soil health, and clean water.

While the Cape Cod Native Plant Growers’ Cooperative focuses on increasing the supply of native plants for sale, it also aims to set a new standard for how plants are grown with environmentally responsible practices, which include minimizing the use of plastic, reducing and eliminating the use of peat in our potting soils, using natural pest controls instead of pesticides, growing from ethically and sustainably produced seed to preserve genetic diversity, and as possible, growing eco-typic plants on Cape Cod, for Cape Cod.

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Green Growing Standards

All growers who wish to participate in the program, and benefit from the program’s marketing and branding materials and outreach strategy, must agree to grow according to the following five standards:

  1. Grow regional native plant species as appear on the program’s most recent list of native perennials PDF.
  2.  All plants will be grown locally on Cape Cod, from ethically sourced seeds as identified by the program.
  3. Grow without the use of pesticides.
  4. Use peat-free potting soils.
  5. Minimize the use of plastic.

To understand why each of these standards is crucial to creating a more sustainable model of native plant production, please consult the documents below.

Additionally, growers must sign and adhere to an annual agreement, ensuring that they will follow the standards above. At this time, we have a draft agreement for interested parties, and we thank you for your patience as we continue to iron out the finer details of this document.

To our growers, thank you for agreeing to grow to these standards—together we can make a healthier Cape Cod, one plant at a time!