In the early years of Russell's Garden Center, the family loaded vegetables, flowers and eggs onto a horse and buggy every week and drove six hours to Boston's Haymarket Square to sell them. The founder, Samuel Lewis Russell, was a butcher and farmer who ran a stand at the old Wayland town center. As cars became common, his son Lewis Samuel Russell moved the business in 1925 to the family farm on Route 20. Russell's has been there ever since.
That makes 2026 the 150th year for a business that has stayed with one family for five generations, beginning in 1876. It is also the year two very different projects landed on the same stretch of Boston Post Road. Terrain opened at 297 Boston Post Road in late August. Directly across from Russell's at 397, the new owners of Wayland Town Center at 400 Boston Post Road have filed site plans and announced new tenants. Both are building toward the model Russell's has run for decades: a place where buying plants or groceries comes packaged with food, events and a reason to stay.
What Russell's Built Before Anyone Called It a Destination
Russell's describes its path as growing from a small roadside farm stand into one of the largest garden centers in New England. Over that time it outlasted the Great Depression, the 1970s energy crisis, floods, recessions, the rise of big-box and online retail, and the COVID-19 pandemic. "It's really a story of adapting through every generation," the family told Patch this spring. Today the business is led by Tim and Elizabeth, who were joined in 2019 by their son Dan Russell Skehan, the fifth generation.
You can see that adaptation in the fall schedule. The plant sales come with a weekly farmers market and a string of seasonal events. The 2026 market runs on Wednesdays from noon to 4 p.m. at 397 Boston Post Road, with produce, seafood, baked goods and prepared food. Some vendors accept SNAP or Healthy Incentives benefits. The last Wednesday of the season is October 7. Russell's says its holiday shop transforms by early November, and its fall stock includes pumpkins, mums, gourds and Thanksgiving décor.
Terrain Opens as a Garden Store With a Dining Room
Terrain, the home and garden brand from the Anthropologie Group, held its Wayland ribbon-cutting on Wednesday, August 26, 2026. The site has five parts under one name: a retail store, an all-season nursery, a café, an event venue and design services. The project took over the former Whole Foods Plaza, known as Wayland Village, and reused the existing buildings rather than starting over.
The café's posted hours show how much of the business runs after the nursery closes. Terrain Cafe serves Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. On a Friday night, that puts a full-service dining room at an address that used to be a grocery plaza.
Town Manager Michael McCall framed the opening the same way:
"Terrain's grand opening is an exciting addition to our community. With a vast range of offerings, Terrain is a unique destination that brings together gardening, dining and a place for the community to gather."
Terrain Managing Director Beth Smith said the brand is "about more than shopping," describing it as a way of "celebrating the seasons, connecting with nature and creating spaces that bring people together." State Reps. Carmine Gentile and David Linsky presented an official citation at the ceremony. Celebrating the seasons and bringing people together is close to how Russell's described its own Fall Fest: an afternoon celebrating fall and "150 Years of Russell's being a part of Wayland families."
Terrain's public events page lists calendars for its Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Brooklyn locations but not yet for Wayland. For now, the café hours are the most reliable guide to the Wayland location.
Across the Street, Town Center Is Planning for People Who Stay
The changes at Wayland Town Center lean the same way. On September 28 the mixed-use development announced three new tenants. The owners are approaching the first anniversary of buying the property last November.
The tenant with the most local meaning is the smallest. The Guild for Human Services has leased 43 Andrew Ave., a space that has been vacant for more than a decade. The Guild will partner with Revival Kitchen & Cafe on a café serving scratch-made food and coffee. The café will also employ people with intellectual and developmental disabilities supported by The Guild. No opening date has been announced.
The other two announcements:
- New City Microcreamery is moving into the former Takara space and expanding its menu. Patch's earlier report put the move in spring 2027.
- Mathnasium plans an after-school math learning and tutoring center in the former Supercuts space. No date has been announced.
Takara has not left. The Japanese restaurant moved within Town Center from Elissa Avenue to 21 Andrew Avenue, and its ribbon-cutting was scheduled for April 30, 2026.
The site plans matter more over the long run than any single lease. Plans submitted to the Wayland Planning Board this summer call for upgraded gateway signs, a pedestrian-focused Elissa Avenue, new uses for undeveloped areas and a stronger connection to the Rail Trail. The Town Center team hopes to win approvals soon and introduce the improvements in 2027. Other ideas under consideration include an ice-skating rink developed with the Eliza J. Norton Foundation, an enclosed off-leash dog park, and recreation areas for local sports teams and clubs. These remain concepts. Still, every item on that list is a reason to spend an afternoon there rather than run a single errand. Town Center has also partnered with Arts Wayland on public programming, including the Wayland Festival.
The Rail Trail Already Connects the Pieces
The Town Center plan's promise of a "stronger connection to the Rail Trail" builds on a link that already exists. The Mass Central Rail Trail guide lists a Route 20 trail access at Russell's Garden Center, with limited parking in the lower lot, and notes that the trail runs alongside Wayland Center. The Wayland Post's listing for the Wednesday Walks on the Rail Trail gives Wayland Town Center at 400 Boston Post Road as the meeting point and suggests walkers continue on to Russell's farmers market afterward. That listing's own description and its dates don't agree on when the walks run, so check with the organizers before planning around a specific Wednesday.
Put together, the trail, the market and the plaza already form a loop on foot. The 2027 improvements, if approved, would mostly make that loop easier to find from the Town Center side.
The Fall Calendar Along the Stretch
The dated events below are confirmed by each organizer's own listing as of early October. All are planned, and none has happened yet.
| Date | Event | Where | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday, Oct. 7 | Final farmers market of the season | Russell's, 397 Boston Post Road | Noon to 4 p.m.; produce, seafood, baked goods, prepared food |
| Sunday, Oct. 18 | Russell's Fall Fest, marking 150 years | Russell's, 397 Boston Post Road | 1 to 4 p.m.; Trolley Dogs and Natural FruttiBerri, live music by Wayland's own Daddios, adoptable dogs from Save-A-Dog of Sudbury, kids' crafts, face painting, pumpkin decorating |
| Thursday, Nov. 5 | 17th annual Ladies' Night Out | Russell's | 4 to 8 p.m.; early holiday shopping, Christmas shop, demonstrations, food tastings, music |
| Sunday, Nov. 22 | Thanksgiving farmers market | Russell's | 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; seasonal foods, Christmas trees and wreaths |
| Daily | Terrain Cafe | 297 Boston Post Road | Open until 9 p.m. most nights and 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday |
Russell's hosts most of the dated events through Thanksgiving, which fits a business that has been running a seasonal calendar since before Route 20 was paved for cars.
What Is Still on the Way
One more project off the Route 20 corridor follows the same idea. Town House Cafe & Bistro is turning the former Town Hall and library at 21 Cochituate Road into a café, restaurant and event space. A January report expected it to open over the summer. An August update in The MetroWest Daily News moved the target to late November or early December.
At Town Center, the Guild and Revival Kitchen café and Mathnasium have no announced dates, and New City Microcreamery is pointed toward spring 2027. The pedestrian-focused Elissa Avenue and the stronger Rail Trail connection still depend on Planning Board approvals, with the owners aiming for 2027. Until then, the next fixed dates on this stretch of Route 20 are both at 397 Boston Post Road: the final farmers market of the season on October 7 and the Fall Fest on October 18.
Changes along Boston Post Road affect how a Wayland home lives day to day, and they shape how buyers will see it later. If you're curious how new places like Terrain and the Town Center plans fit into the bigger picture for your corner of town, Teri Adler is glad to talk it through over coffee, with no agenda attached. Let's Connect.
