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In 2023, BRN’s Borderlands Nursery & Seed program applied for a new greenhouse to increase native container plant production funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s Burned Area Rehabilitation (BILBAR) Program. In 2024 we were awarded the funds and (thankfully) spent them before executive orders froze federal funding in January of 2025. BRN has contracted with Arizona Sawmill Builders, LLC of Sonoita, AZ to build the structure and it is coming along nicely with completion expected in the spring.
This is the first professional greenhouse we have built at BRN. All of our previous well-loved structures were made from donated and repurposed materials, and even our shade houses are fairly rudimentary and don’t have flooring. This was so the structures could be moved in case we had to leave the previously leased farm. The new greenhouse is 20 feet tall at its peak, and just shy of 3,000 square feet of growing space. It will have automated cooling fans, shade, irrigation, and heat. We are overjoyed to have a state-of-the-art structure that can support the growth of tens of thousands of plants. We will primarily be growing our agave plants in the newly built space in partnership with Bat Conservation International to support nectar-feeding bats.
Since 2013 BRN’s Native Plant Program has provided quality container plants and seed for our ecoregion by hand collecting native seed species and doing in-house propagation for all of our plant material. In 2024, after ten years of leases, we purchased the beautiful 60 acre farm in Patagonia, AZ that we can securely continue to grow native seed on, curate our seed collections, and manage our native plant nursery.
As the vast majority of our program budget has been cut due to the federal spending freeze, going forward we are very dependent on plant sales and growout contracts to support our staff. Funding from the BILBAR program has been instrumental by increasing our infrastructure capacity at a critical time for our organization, and this year we are planning on doubling our container plant production and fee-for-service contracts and are off to a great start.
You can support our program by purchasing our plants and seeds and attending our native plant propagation classes and office hours. Our seeds can be purchased and shipped through borderlandsplants.org, and if you’d like to buy a custom mix you can email us at horticulture@borderlandsrestoration.org. You can also buy our retail container plants for pickup at the nursery or scheduled community deliveries by checking out the events page on our website. Our nursery is open to shop in person on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday mornings from 9-noon, or making an appointment to shop by scheduling through email. We also have seasonal plant sale events at the nursery where everything is 10% off. If you’d like to contract a growout please reach out to us — we love working to provide regionally appropriate native plants and seed for restoration or landscape purposes.