How to Plan a Native Plant Order for a Watershed or Community Project

A native plant order for a watershed or community project starts with the planting area and spacing, then a mix of native species suited to the site, timed to line up with funding and the planting season. A clear order states the location, the area, the species or site conditions, the quantities and stock size, and when the plants are needed.

How Do You Work Out How Many Plants to Order?

The number of plants comes from the planting area and the spacing. The PEI Invasive Species Council's protocol for replanting streamside areas after invasive species control calls for trees planted by hand 1.5 to 2.0 metres apart, about 2,500 per hectare, and at least 60 cm tall.

At that density, a 15-metre buffer along 200 metres of stream covers 3,000 square metres, or 0.3 hectares, and needs about 750 plants. Some will not survive, so the order should allow for losses. The province's hedgerow program, for example, replaces stock when survival falls below set levels in the first year.

Which Plants Belong in a Streamside or Buffer Planting?

Native trees and shrubs are required wherever replanting is done under the council's riparian protocol, and it recommends a mix of species and ages over a single age of softwoods.

The province's own nursery stock follows the same native-first principle as the protocol. The J. Frank Gaudet Tree Nursery grows only native species from local seed, and its current list for watershed groups, updated in July 2026, includes shrubs, conifers, hardwoods and a few herbaceous plants.

How Do Funding and Provincial Stock Affect Timing?

PEI's watershed groups are funded through the province's Watershed Management Fund, which is open only to the PEI Watershed Alliance and its members. There is no application: funding decisions are usually made in April and initial funds released in May, which matters when planning a spring order.

Watershed groups order provincial stock directly from the J. Frank Gaudet Tree Nursery using its order form, and the nursery does not sell seedlings to the public. Island communities, schools and volunteer groups have a separate route through the Greening Spaces Program, which supplies native seedlings and technical advice while the group chooses the site, prepares a planting plan and provides the labour.

What Should the Site Work Cover Before the Plants Arrive?

Site preparation and weed control decide how many plants survive. A PEI Forestry Commission report on hardwood seedlings lists inadequate site preparation, inadequate vegetation control and browsing by mammals among the main causes of seedling death.

Plantings inside the buffer zone cannot lean on fertilizer, because the council's riparian protocol says fertilizer and soil additives are never acceptable there. The species have to suit the soil as it is.

What Should an Order Enquiry to Red Earth Include?

Red Earth Restoration takes native plant enquiries from watershed groups, community organizations and public institutions. Send the location, the planting area, the site conditions, the species or quantities if known and the planting window, and the nursery will review the request before confirming what may be available.

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