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Plant Sale

The 33rd Annual Rare & Unusual Plant Sale Returns May 17 & 18

Mark your calendars for SCLT’s most important fundraiser of the year: the 33rd Annual Rare & Unusual Plant Sale returns to City Farm on May 17 and 18, 2025. This beloved community tradition comes at a critical moment as we face unprecedented challenges from federal funding freezes that threaten many of our core programs.

The event showcases an extraordinary collection of 20,000 city-grown, city-sown plants, each nurtured with care using organic and regenerative practices at our greenhouse in City Farm—Rhode Island’s longest operating urban production and demonstration farm. From vibrant vegetables and aromatic herbs to fruit, medicinals, edible flowers, native perennials, and truly unique varieties you won’t find elsewhere, the Plant Sale offers something for every garden and gardener.

Live music will fill the air throughout the weekend, featuring performances by Circle of the Drum, Chris Monti, Phil Edmonds, Mira Goldman, the ‘Mericans, Kenny Ells, Karen Isenberg, The Stinging Nettles (featuring Raffini, Ellen, Dan & Tammy), and other musical surprises. The festive atmosphere belies the serious purpose behind this year’s sale: your purchase directly funds programs now at risk due to federal funding cuts.

SCLT Members enjoy special benefits, including an exclusive preview hour at 9:00am on Saturday, May 17, a 10% discount on all plant purchases, and 50 gallons of organic compost—a $110 value—free with membership. This year, your membership and plant purchases are more crucial than ever, helping us continue our farmer training, youth programs, produce prescription initiatives, community gardens, and urban farm operations despite significant financial challenges.

When you shop at the Plant Sale, you’re not just starting your garden—you’re helping us weather a financial storm. Your purchases directly support our mission to build equity and resilience into Rhode Island’s food system, meeting the food access and economic needs of historically underserved communities in Providence, Pawtucket, and Central Falls. Last year alone, 25,000 people ate food grown on SCLT farms, 50 emerging adults found employment in our Youth Program, and 40 small-scale farmers—predominantly farmers of color—operated 28 small farm businesses on our land.

As federal funding cuts threaten to reduce our capacity to serve, your participation in the Plant Sale becomes an act of community solidarity. Every seedling purchased helps sustain the programs that our communities rely on for food security and economic opportunity. Join us at City Farm (168 West Clifford Street, Providence, RI) on May 17 and 18 from 10:00am to 2:00pm, and help us continue growing not just plants, but hope, opportunity, and resilience for Rhode Island’s food system.

Want to get more involved? Register to volunteer during the Plant Sale or learn more about becoming an SCLT Member.

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Thank you for being part of Plant Sale 2024

The 32nd annual Rare and Unusual Plant Sale was an incredible success, thanks to everyone who came out to share our vision of sustainable urban agriculture, fresh affordable food, and green spaces for all. Special appreciation is given to the hardworking and dedicated volunteers who made it such a special weekend. We were delighted to see so many familiar faces, and to make even more new friends, at this year’s Plant Sale.

Nearly 2,000 visitors browsed a sea of 20,000 fruit, veggie, herb, and perennial plants at our 32nd Annual Plant Sale in May. In addition to staples like ‘tomato world,’ populated by more than 60 varieties, the sale focused on plants with medicinal qualities. Shoppers scooped up tulsi to turn into cold-busting teas, and valerian, whose roots can relieve anxiety, among dozens of others.

Plant Sale is our biggest fundraiser of the year. Proceeds go directly to community gardens and farmseducation programs, and to advocating for equal access to healthy, affordable foods.

Members: the SCLT membership program not only provides you with benefits that help you plant a great spring garden, but it provides us with funds that help with operations all year long. Plus, members get to shop a special preview hour before the Sale opens to the general public, and discounts on every purchase! We appreciate you and your continued support.

What will Plant Sale 2025 bring? Stay tuned for announcements! We look forward to seeing our community for the 33rd annual Plant Sale, coming May 17 & 18, 2025.

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Yes, it’s happening!

Right now, City Farm staff are in the greenhouse seeding thousands of your favorite vegetable, herb and fruit starts to be ready for the 2020 Plant Sale. 

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City Farm gets its first all-female crew  

On the heels of ordering a dazzling variety of seeds for the 2019 season (20,000 alone for the Rare & Unusual Plant Sale), the next order of business for City Farm’s Steward, Rich Pederson is hiring the crew to carry out the work.

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How the Plant Sale has nurtured RI’s urban agriculture movement

“A few years ago nobody knew about urban agriculture,” says Roberta Groch, an SCLT board member who is also an urban planner for the state. “But, slowly we started incorporating it into the zoning in Providence and in other communities. And now it’s up at the State House, it’s in the Comprehensive Plan and in state regulations.

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Rare and Unusual Plant Sale in Providence will kickstart your garden

Southside Community Land Trust’s sale marks its 25th anniversary May 20-21.

With 20,000 plants, live music, and a team of expert gardeners on hand to answer questions, the Southside Community Land Trust’s Rare and Unusual Plant Sale is a perfect start to the growing season.

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At 25, the Plant Sale continues to delight, inform and inspire

An event about ‘feel-good commerce’ has stayed true to its roots

Every May for the past 25 years, gardeners and urban farm enthusiasts have made a pilgrimage to City Farm for our Rare & Unusual Plant Sale. They come to support SCLT’s work to transform abandoned land into gardens and farms and provide resources and training so anyone who wants to can grow food. But they also come to celebrate the start of the growing season and to savor the traditions that make the Plant Sale a joyful, authentic, shared experience.

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SCLT’s Rare & Unusual Plant Sale

SCLT’s annual Rare & Unusual Plant Sale takes place at City Farm, at the corner of Dudley and Clifford Streets in Providence’s South Side. SCLT members* can come an hour early on Saturday (9 am) a for a preview.

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‘City Farm becomes part of you’

Volunteers, interns, apprentices and staff share camaraderie, advice and a passion for organic gardening

As the growing season ramps up, SCLT’s greenhouse at City Farm becomes a bustling place. Even with winter’s final storm (in April!) only just melting away, tiny sprouts are making their way through the soil on a recent Friday afternoon. Their progress is closely monitored by the skilled staff, high school interns and a revolving cast of devoted volunteers who drop in throughout the week to help out.

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