Every tree that ends up lining a Donholm street or estate compound has already spent close to a year in our nursery before it ever reaches the ground. Here's what that journey actually looks like, start to finish.
Germination and early growth
It starts with seed collection from healthy, established local trees around Embakasi East, chosen specifically for having survived and thrived in the same soil and climate conditions our seedlings will eventually face. Collected seed is germinated in small potting bags under partial shade, where our youth nursery team monitors germination rates and adjusts watering as needed; some species germinate reliably within weeks, others take considerably longer and need more patience.
Seedlings are transplanted into larger bags as they grow, giving the root system room to develop before it's constrained by pot size, and hardened off gradually under fuller sun exposure to prepare them for conditions at the actual planting site, which rarely offers the partial shade of the nursery itself.
The final check before planting
Seedlings are monitored for the months it takes to reach a size sturdy enough to survive transplanting into open ground, and only seedlings that clear a final size and health check make it to a planting day. This is a deliberate quality filter: a seedling that looks healthy but hasn't developed a strong enough root system is more likely to fail once transplanted, and it's better to hold it back for a few more weeks than to plant it prematurely and lose it.
It's a slower process than simply buying grown trees, but it keeps costs manageable for a volunteer-run programme and gives every tree we plant a far better survival chance once it's finally in the ground. Households can collect seedlings that have cleared this process, at no cost for indigenous species, directly from the nursery.