Growing Value Nursery: 175+ Varieties Available Starting Spring 2024

Cincinnati Permaculture Institute’s Growing Value Nursery carries a specialized selection of edible perennial trees, shrubs, bushes, and berries, along with complimentary plantings for your food forests and guilds, such as flowers to attract pollinators and perennial ground covers. This rare selection has been curated over the years to include the varieties and species that perform well in our local bio-region and includes many edibles that are hard to find at traditional nurseries and garden centers. By shopping at Growing Value, you help support CPI’s mission to catalyze a resilient culture in Cincinnati.

HOW TO SHOP

SPRING PLANT SALE

Our seasonal kick-off sale takes place April 26, 27, & 28, with a special members-only pre-sale on April 20. The nursery will then be open for walk-in shopping every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month from 4 PM to dusk, and by appointment only on Fridays and Saturdays. The third Saturday of every month, all CPI members are eligible to claim their discount on plants purchased at the nursery. Find out how to become a member.

Looking to help a loved one get their food forest started? Nursery gift certificates are available.

FULL PLANT LIST - A to Z

Below is a list of all of the plants we expect to have available for sale starting this spring. However, this list may not reflect our current inventory, so if you are looking for something specific or want to ask before you buy, please feel free to reach out by email for the most up to date information.

• Anise hyssop

• Apple, Arkansas Black

• Apple, Domestic

• Apple, Enterprise

• Apple, Gold Rush

• Apple, Grimes Golden

• Apple, Liberty

• Apple, Pristine

• Apple, Zestar

• Aroniaberry/Chokeberry, Nero

• Aroniaberry/Chokeberry, Viking

• Asian Pear, Hosui

• Asian Pear, Shinsui

• Asian pear, Tennosui

• Asian pear, Yoinashi

• Asparagus

• Asparagus, Purple passion

• Basswood/Linden, Native

• Beebalm/Monarda

• Black Locust

• Blackberry, Arkansas Prime

• Blackberry, Osage

• Blackberry, Triple Crown

• Blueberry, Blueray

• Blueberry, Bonus

• Blueberry, Duke

• Blueberry, Jersey

• Blueberry, Northland

• Blueberry, Patriot

• Bur Oak

• Butternut

• Buttonbush

• Cherry, Carmine Jewel

• Cherry, Chelan

• Cherry, Coral Champaign

• Cherry, Evans

• Cherry, Lapins

• Cherry, Sam

• Cherry, Skeena

• Cherry, Sweetheart

• Cherry, Tart, Mt. Morancy

• Chestnut, Chinese

• Comfrey

• Coneflower

• Currant, Black Consort

• Currant, Black Titania

• Currant, Pink Champagne

• Currant, Red Cherry

• Currant, Red Jonkheer Van Tets

• Currant, Red Lake

• Currant, White Primus

• Dogwood, Cornelian Cherry

• Dogwood, Gray (Native)

• Dwarf Mulberry

• Egyptian walking onion

• Elderberry, Adams

• Elderberry, Bob Gordon

• Elderberry, Marge

• Elderberry, Native

• Elderberry, Nova

• Elderberry, York

• False Indigo (Baptisia)

• False Indigo, (Amorpha)

• Fig, Olympian

• Goji Berry, Crimson Star

• Gooseberry, Amish red

• Gooseberry, Black Velvet

• Gooseberry, Captivator

• Gooseberry, Hinnomaki red

• Gooseberry, Pixwell

• Goumi Berry, Carmine

• Goumi Berry, Sweet Scarlet

• Grape, Agria

• Grape, Mars

• Grape, Niagra

• Grape, Reliance

• Green Hawthorn

• Groumi, Red Gem

• Hazelnut, American

• Hazelnut, beaked

• Hazelnut, Jefferson

• Heartnut

• Hican, Clarksville

• Hican, Dooley Burton

• Hican, Mcallister

• Honeyberry, Aurora

• Honeyberry, Boreal Beast

• Honeyberry, Boreal Beauty

• Honeyberry, Czech

• Honeyberry, Tundra

• Hops, Fugle

• Hops, Nugget

• Hops, Sterling

• Horseradish

• Jostaberry, black

• Jostaberry, Red

• Jujubee

• Jujubee, Shanxi Li

• Kentucky Coffee tree, Native

• Kiwi, Anna

• Kiwi, Male

• Kiwi, MI State

• Mountain Ash

• Mountain Mint

• Mulberry

• Mullein

• Nettle, Skinny, Native

• Nettle, Stinging

• Passionflower

• Pawpaw, Mange

• Pawpaw, Native

• Pawpaw, NC-1

• Pawpaw, PA golden

• Pawpaw, Sunflower

• Peach, Gala

• Peach, Red Haven

• Pear, Magness

• Pear, Potomac

• Pear, Shenandoah

• Pecan, Kanza

• Persimmon, American

• Persimmon, Asian

• Plum, American

• Plum, chickasaw

• Plum, Satsuma

• Prickly pear

• Quince, Champion

• Raspberry, Boyne Red

• Raspberry, Double Gold

• Raspberry, Heritage Red

• Raspberry, Jewel Black

• Raspberry, Purple Royalty

• Raspberry, Yellow Anne

• Red Cedar (Juniper)

• Red Mulberry (Native)

• Red Oak

• Redbud

• Rhubarb, Green victoria

• Rhubarb,Crimson Red

• Rose, Rugosa

• Seaberry, Frugana

• Seaberry, Golden Sweet

• Seaberry, Male

• Senna

• Serviceberry, Downy (Native)

• Serviceberry, Northline

• Serviceberry, Regent

• Serviceberry, Western

• Siberian Peashrub

• Sochan/ Cutleaf Coneflower, Native

• Solomon Seal

• Spearmint

• Spicebush, Native

• Spiderwort

• Strawberry, AC Valley

• Strawberry, Gensics

• Strawberry, Honey

• Strawberry, Jewel

• Strawberry, Native

• Sumac, Staghorn

• Sunchokes/Jerusalem artichoke

• Super spur Mayhaw

• Swamp Rose, Native

• Swamp White Oak

• Sweet Annie

• Sweet Flag (Acorus americana)

• Sweetshrub/carolina allspice

• Trifoliate Orange

• White Pine

• White Sagebrush

• Wild Ginger, Native

• Wineberry, Red

• Wisteria, Native

• Witch hazel, Native

• Yarrow

• Yucca

Spring 2024 Volunteer Opportunities

Want to help Cincinnati Permaculture Institute prepare for the spring season and maybe learn some new gardening skills along the way? Below is our volunteer schedule.

NURSERY

Saturday, February 10, 11-2: a wood chip rumble where some wood chips get moved in preparation for the compost delivery

Saturday, March 9th, 11-2 Nursery prep/design day: moving plants, woodchips and rocks; pruning practice, raised bed building

Saturday, March 30th, 11-2: Greenhouse tidy day and structural project day; pruning & raised bed building

Wednesdays, April 17 and 24th, 4-dusk: Final potting of plants and community consideration of Enright Gardens lot.

Our nursery manager Howard Zuefle will be onsite for all volunteer days providing instruction and access to our tools and materials. Come dressed for the weather, whatever it may be! Our nursery is at 824 Enright Ave. Price Hill Cincinnati (in the back of the lot, behind the greenhouse) and parking is available on Enright and Terry St.

OTHER PROJECTS

Sunday, February 18, 2-4 p.m.: Button Making at the Reading branch of the Cincinnati Public Library - Help our events & marketing committee make buttons to use at our events table this year. All supplies provided. Kids welcome!

SIGN UP

Registration is not required, but signing up helps us communicate with you in the event of a change, cancellation, or other details for each volunteer date. Use this link to be added to our volunteer roster!

QUESTIONS?

Contact us at info@cincinnatipermacultureinstitute.org

Raising a Toast: Ten Kinds of Gratitude for 2023

It is said that success results when opportunity meets preparation.

This is meaningful to me in my first full year as Director of Cincinnati Permaculture Institute. Nothing comes about in a vacuum. It’s always a number of people and events that align for a path of success; that help you prepare, that bring opportunities.

It seems my primary duty this year was to observe and interact with the exciting energy that has been channeled to CPI. In 2023 we welcomed five new guest teachers into three PDC classes that were filled with warm, eager learners. The PDC courses have delivered the five newest board members to us and they keep us moving forward. Our founders remain and provide sage guidance.  Our deepening relationships with committed communities and individuals hold great promise for future developments.

At times I have felt pushed to my personal limits when presented with decision-making and the discomfort of growing pains. But I know we are on very solid ground and well prepared for the opportunities that await us. After all, we create our own success, yes?!

Susan VonderHaar

Together We’re Better: Ten Kinds of Gratitude for 2023

Growing Value Nursery gets some TLC before spring plant sales start

October Harvest Festival Potluck Dinner

Making art with compostable veggies at the Summer Solstice party

Westwood Grows bed installations

Learning about soil at the July 2023 PDC at Antioch

Our 2023 Yearlong PDC Graduates + Lead Teacher Doug Crouch

• New “Neighbors” : We welcomed 12 new members, or as we like to call them, Neighbors, through our membership program that sustains and supports us. We look forward to seeing them at the Growing Value nursery, where members enjoy additional discounts and special shopping hours.

• OneSource gave us a nonprofit wellness check-up and found our organization to be dedicated, effective, transparent, and responsible stewards of our resources. Their suggested strategy is to build our capacity to increase impact. Maybe you or someone you know would be interested in joining our board or working with a committee? 

• Expanding Beyond Cincinnati: Antioch College in Yellow Springs asked us to partner in offering a summer intensive PDC in July. This partnership continues with the second offering scheduled for Spring of 2024. 

• Record-Breaking Growth: The flagship Year Long Permaculture Design Course saw a record number of registrants, growing our total number of graduates to over 300 in 15 years.

• Clear the Nursery: Growing Value Nursery nearly sold out of stock this year! We were able to source some stock locally and organically from growers in the bioregion. New plants arrive in April. 

• Neighborhood Impact: Thanks to the City of Cincinnati’s Office of Urban Agriculture grant funding, we partnered with Westwood Grows and Lincoln Heights Community Development Council and installed perennial, edible plants in nine different residences, schools, and churches. 

• Bringing the Party: We hosted or joined several events, including Spring and Fall Plant Sales, a Harvest Celebration at the Price Hill Greenhouse, the Monarch Festival at Christ the King Church, and a beautiful Summer Solstice gathering at Treasure Lake.

• Getting Our Hands Dirty: We broke ground on our newest continuing education program, “Permaculture Implementation,” on December 9 in Florence, KY with 17 volunteers.

• We Are the Champions: We join many other Green Cincinnati Plan Champions working on six action steps, including “Training farmers and gardeners to increase success, including adaptation to a changing climate.”

• All Aboard: We extend a very special thanks to our board and committee members who work tirelessly to improve CPI and strengthen our community web.

We can’t say it enough: THANK YOU for being part of our mission to create a resilient permanent culture in Cincinnati. We are here for you, with you, and because of you, whether you’re a PDC student, a teacher, a community leader, a nursery customer, a volunteer, a neighbor — you are part of this ecosystem and your contribution matters!

Introducing Our Pilot Implementation Program, Featuring Student Designs

Cincinnati Permaculture Institute’s growing community of permaculture design graduates has been asking us for implementation opportunities and continued education that will give them skills beyond just designing systems and experience actually building them. In other words: you’re ready to get your hands dirty!

In permaculture, one element can serve many functions. As our board brainstormed different ways we could meet this emerging need in our community, we discerned that an output that our classes already produce - student design projects - could become the input for a new implementation education initiative. By selecting a student design project from each year’s class to begin implementing, we create a natural pathway for succession while creating opportunities for our community to come work together and stay engaged with each other past the completion of the class. Our hope is that the selected sites become part of our larger network of educational sites throughout the region that future students can learn from. 

Choosing the Pilot Site

Six designs were presented at the end of the most recent yearlong PDC for six very different sites across Cincinnati. The CPI board reviewed and discussed these designs and narrowed down the selection to one project to sponsor a Phase I implementation at that site. We considered factors such as the scale and scope of the project, the location of the site and access for the surrounding community, and the types of projects that our organization could best support with materials and funding. 

Jess Rinehart presents her segment of the group design for The Shire.

With so much appreciation for the efforts of all of our students this year, who made our job incredibly hard by submitting six excellent designs, we are pleased to announce that the selected site project is "The Shire" - a half-acre suburban homestead in Boone County Kentucky, designed by Jess Rinehart, Jeremy Janson, and Shaher Banu Vagh.

For more than 25 years, this site has been home to PDC classmates David and Nora Brown, who affectionately call their home “The Wallace Avenue Center for the Reality Impaired” and regularly host gatherings there. The group's proposed design includes a food forest, a meditation garden, water catchment solutions, and a passive solar greenhouse.

Nora and David Brown watch the presentation of the group who designed for their site.

CPI will work with the Browns to determine an implementation plan for part of this design in the coming year. Look forward to future announcements of our plans and opportunities to get involved!

Meet Our Graduates: Ayla Bella of Rooting Resilience

CPI students come from all walks of life and bring a diversity of experience and knowledge to our community. In this feature we introduce you to some of our graduates, the work that they’re doing, and how their permaculture education has benefited them.

Rooting Resilience: A Young Nonprofit Focused on Community Forest Gardens

Hello, everyone! My name is Ayla Bella, I am a 2023 graduate of a Cincinnati Permaculture Institute Permaculture Design Course (summer intensive at Antioch College) and the founder of Rooting Resilience, a permaculture-based organization. I’m excited to share our vision with you!

In my city of Columbus, Ohio, much of the public land I see is greatly underutilized. Parks have grass lawns that provide no protection from urban heat, community centers and libraries are bordered by landscaping or grass, and many lots lie vacant. Similarly, there is a great disparity in tree coverage between communities, varying from 41% to 9%. The city has several wonderful initiatives, like the Urban Forestry Master Plan, to address these issues, but more must be done.

Rooting Resilience, the nonprofit organization I am establishing, is focused on creating community forest gardens on this underutilized public land, with the mission to cultivate resilience, equity, community empowerment, and connection to the earth and her inhabitants. Forest gardens have the opportunity to address many problems at once by reducing food insecurity, climate change impacts, and inequity in access to food and green space - but I’m sure you all knew that already! We have been networking with the Columbus community for several months and have an eye on a few sites for pilot projects in the spring in partnership with Recreation and Parks. 

If this mission excites you, below are some ways you can help!

1. If you know of nurseries or seed companies that may be interested in donating plants, seeds, or materials please contact us at rootingourresilience@gmail.com. 

2. If you’re interested in supporting us while staying up-to-date on our projects, follow us on Instagram (@rootingresilience) and Facebook (Rooting Resilience) and share these accounts with others!

3. If you’d like to make a financial contribution to support our forest garden pilot project, this link will take you to the donation page for our fiscal sponsor, Local Matters. Important note: for a donation to go to Rooting Resilience, you must write “Rooting Resilience” in the donor notes section of the donation page. Otherwise, you will be donating to one of Local Matters’ other worthy causes! 

If you have any other thoughts, ideas, or connections, you can reach us at rootingourresilience@gmail.com. 

Thank you for your support!