Urban Seedling

What Urban Seedling does

Urban Seedling is a privately held Montreal-based organic urban agriculture company founded in 2010 by Shawn Manning and Tereska Gesing. The company operates as a hybrid retail and services business, combining a physical garden center in Verdun, Quebec (7000 Boul. LaSalle) with a bilingual e-commerce platform offering 176+ SKUs across vegetable and herb seeds (87+ varieties), seedlings (38+ varieties), soil blends, raised-bed garden construction packages, balcony gardening solutions, and pest control products. Live seedlings are restricted to local pickup or local delivery due to plant shipping constraints, which structurally insulates the retail arm from remote e-commerce competitors. The professional services arm delivers tailored vegetable garden design and installation, corporate mission gardens, edible landscaping, horticulture maintenance, and vegetable garden coaching for residential, commercial, and institutional clients across the Montreal South West area. The company also runs a School Fundraisers Project and a free Educational Vegetable Garden Package for Schools and Childcare Centers, with educational content and growing guides available in both English and French (urbanseedling.com / semisurbains.com).

The business model is primarily transactional and locally constrained: product sales are unit-priced between roughly $4.50 and $710, with gift certificates in $25-$500 denominations, while professional services pricing is not publicly disclosed. Customer segments are vertically segmented into residential homeowners (primary), commercial properties, educational institutions, and institutional accounts, with no external institutional investor backing, no funding rounds, and no multi-site expansion evident in 15 years of operation. The company appears to be a stable, founder-controlled lifestyle-scale operator with strong community positioning evidenced by extensive Montreal media coverage (CBC, CTV, La Presse, Montreal Gazette) and a 2012 Fundica Startup Contest shortlisting, but limited scale signals and no proprietary technology or data assets.

The GTM motion is direct-to-consumer and product-led, leveraging the breadth of the catalog and physical retail presence for lower-funnel conversion, while top-of-funnel demand is generated through bilingual content marketing, an email newsletter, and earned media. There is no AI/ML component, no software platform, and no APIs or integrations disclosed; the business is fundamentally a traditional local horticulture retailer with an attached services arm.

Name

Urban Seedling

Legal name

Urban Seedling

Website

https://urbanseedling.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Urban Seedling is a Montreal-based organic urban agriculture company founded in 2010 that sells seeds, seedlings, soil, and raised-bed garden supplies through a Verdun retail location and bilingual e-commerce store, while providing edible landscaping, garden design, and coaching services to residential, commercial, and institutional clients in the Montreal South West area.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Garden Center & Edible Landscaping Services

NAICS

Nursery, Garden Center, and Farm Supply Retailers (444240), Landscaping Services (561730), Soil Preparation, Planting, and Cultivating (115112)

SIC

Agricultural Services (700), Retail-Building Materials, Hardware, Garden Supply (5200)

akta.pro primary industry

Vegetable & Herb Garden Installation and Maintenance (HSAIAFAM)

akta.pro secondary industries

Plants, Seeds & Nursery Retail (Garden Centers) (CRAIAIAB), Garden Bed Installation & Planting (Annuals, Perennials, Shrubs) (HSAIAFAB), Plant Replacement, Transplanting & Garden Refresh Services (HSAIAFAG), Seasonal Color, Planting & Horticultural Services (BPABADAL), Garden Cleanups & Debris Removal (Bed-focused) (HSAIAFAJ)

Keywords

• Urban vegetable gardening
• Edible landscaping services
• Organic garden supplies
• Raised bed gardens
• Seedling retail

Headquarters

HQ city

Verdun

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Product Sales: The company generates revenue through retail sales of seeds, seedlings, soil amendments, garden supplies, and raised-bed garden construction packages. Products are sold through an e-commerce platform and physical garden center with prices ranging from approximately $4 to $500+ per item.
2. Professional Landscaping Services: Revenue generated from edible landscaping design and installation services, including custom vegetable garden creation, corporate mission gardens, horticulture services, and vegetable garden coaching for residential, commercial, and institutional clients.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Urban Seedling operates a garden center and online store in Verdun, Quebec, selling seeds, seedlings, soil, raised-bed components, balcony kits, and garden supplies, while providing professional edible landscaping services including custom vegetable garden design, installation, and season-long coaching for residential, commercial, and institutional clients across the Montreal South West area.

Product overview

Urban Seedling is a Montreal-based organic urban agriculture company offering a comprehensive ecosystem of products and services for urban vegetable gardening. The core offering combines an e-commerce garden center (selling seeds, seedlings, soil, and garden supplies) with professional landscaping services for custom vegetable garden design and installation. The product portfolio includes over 176 items ranging from heirloom seeds and ready-to-plant seedlings to raised-bed garden components, fertilizers, and pest control solutions. Services include tailored vegetable garden design for residential/commercial/institutional clients, corporate mission gardens, edible landscaping, horticulture maintenance, garden coaching with video and written guidance, school fundraiser programs, and urban clover lawn installation. The company operates a physical garden center in Verdun, Quebec with an online store for local pickup and delivery.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Seeds (vegetable, herb, flower, microgreens) Curated retail seed catalog covering vegetables, herbs, flowers, and microgreens, sold to home gardeners and institutions in the Montreal area.
• Seedlings Live vegetable and herb seedlings grown and sold seasonally for home and institutional gardens in the Montreal region.
• Soil and amendments Bagged soil and soil amendments formulated for raised-bed and urban vegetable growing, sold retail and online.
• Raised-bed garden components Components and kits for building raised-bed vegetable gardens, including modular construction materials priced per unit.
• Garden supplies and pest control Retail garden supplies including pest control products, tools, and accessories for home vegetable gardening.
• Balcony and microgreens kits Compact gardening kits designed for balconies and small urban spaces, including microgreens growing kits for apartment dwellers.
• Urban clover lawn seeds Micro clover seed product for low-maintenance urban lawn alternatives, sold retail and online.
• Tailored vegetable garden service Custom-designed home vegetable garden service for residential clients in the Montreal South West area, including design, plant selection, and tailored setup.
• Edible landscaping service Professional edible landscaping service that integrates food-producing plants into residential and commercial landscapes in the Montreal South West area.
• Turnkey garden service Full-service turnkey garden offering that builds, plants, and hands over a finished home vegetable garden ready for the client to maintain.
• Horticultural service and seasonal coaching Ongoing horticultural coaching and seasonal advisory service that guides home gardeners through the full Montreal growing season.
• Corporate mission garden service Design, installation, and support of on-site edible gardens for businesses and institutions seeking mission-driven, community-engagement-oriented urban agriculture projects.
• Educational vegetable garden package for schools Packaged educational vegetable garden offering for schools and daycares, including a school fundraiser project component, designed to support classroom learning and fundraising initiatives.
• Gift certificates Prepaid gift certificates usable toward Urban Seedling products and services, including school fundraiser sales.

Quantifiable outcome

• Season-long support with written and video guidance formats
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves2 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• West Coast Seeds: British Columbia-based Canadian seed retailer offering vegetable, herb, and flower seeds with strong organic and heirloom focus. Comparable to Urban Seedling in catalog breadth, organic positioning, and emphasis on home food gardening.
• T&T Seeds: Manitoba-based Canadian mail-order seed and garden supply retailer. Comparable to Urban Seedling as a Canadian-focused seed and gardening retailer targeting home gardeners, though without the urban landscaping service layer.
• Veseys Seeds: Prince Edward Island-based mail-order seed and plant retailer serving Canadian gardeners with vegetable, herb, and flower seeds plus live seedlings. Closely comparable to Urban Seedling in product mix (heirloom seeds, seedlings, garden supplies) and target customer (Canadian home gardeners).
• Botanical Interests: Colorado-based heirloom and organic seed retailer serving home gardeners across North America. Comparable to Urban Seedling in heirloom/organic positioning and educational content focus, but operates at much larger scale without the local landscaping service business.
• Richters Herbs: Ontario-based Canadian herb specialist offering herb seeds, plants, and dried botanicals. Comparable to Urban Seedling in the herb/edible plant category and educational focus, though more narrowly specialized on herbs.
• OSC Seeds: Ontario-based Canadian seed retailer (Ontario Seed Company) offering vegetable, herb, and flower seeds plus garden supplies. Comparable to Urban Seedling in product mix and Canadian home-gardener focus, though it lacks the edible landscaping service offering.

Broad incumbents

• Burpee: Iconic US seed and live plant company (vegetables, herbs, flowers) with national distribution. Overlaps with Urban Seedling across seeds, seedlings, and garden supplies but operates at much larger scale without the localized edible landscaping services.
• Bonnie Plants: US-based national vegetable and herb seedling supplier sold through mass-market garden retailers. Most directly comparable to Urban Seedling's seedling offering, though it operates at national scale through big-box retail rather than direct-to-consumer.
• Johnny's Selected Seeds: Maine-based, employee-owned seed and tool company serving both home gardeners and commercial growers. Overlaps with Urban Seedling on the seed catalog side but is far broader, with a commercial-grower focus and significantly larger catalog.

Regional players

• Premier Tech: Quebec-based horticulture and growing-media company producing peat, soil mixes, and gardening products sold under brands like PRO-MIX. Geographically and structurally adjacent to Urban Seedling as a Quebec-headquartered horticulture supplier; Urban Seedling even resells a 'Professional Organic Agro Mix' soil product, suggesting shared supplier ecosystem.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/urbanseedling
• Facebookfacebook.com/urbanseedling.semisurbains
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/urban-seedling

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Urban Seedling