The long awaited opening of the Owl Barn Market is finally here.
I hope you’ll be able to come to our open house tomorrow to take a look at all the locally grown produce from neighboring farms as our emphasis is and will be to buy local in order to ensure freshness and quality of fresh foods and to help your neighbors – local farmers.
The Owl Barn will have related food goods such as jams and jellies, some baked goods and an assortment of cooking utensils and paraphernalia.
Lisa Merrick will be displaying some of her art work including her well known works of framed pressed flowers from her own garden.
The Owl Barn is a return to the produce market days of the late 1960’s through the mid 1970’s when I sold produce from my garden at my parents’ home in Norton.
A lot has changed since then about the products available and the display of those products.
Again, locally grown fresh produce is the emphasis of the Owl Barn Market and I think it will fill a void as its location of just ¼ mile north of I-76 on Cleveland-Massillon Rd. will be a convenient location for Norton, Barberton, Wadsworth, Copley and Fairlawn residents.
The other void the market will fill will be the freshness of the product. I was appalled by the sweet corn that was being soil in the local grocery store a couple of weeks ago.
The sweet corn of course was not local because of the early season; however, the dried up mess that the store offered as sweet corn I would have been ashamed to sell!
Just make sure you e-mail the nursery or make it known to one of the clerks if there is something we offer not to your liking in case we goof.
Remember, if we don’t have all the produce you are looking for, it may not be available yet as again our emphasis will be on locally grown produce.
Hope to see you soon.
Tom
Friday, July 9, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Dayton "Dirt" Green Blog - July 2010
On July 17th, Dayton Nurseries in Norton will be opening the Owl Barn Market which will offer fresh produce, Amish jams, Ohio foods, baked goods and related items.
The markets emphasis will be on locally grown produce from surrounding farms in order to ensure the freshness and quality of the products and in order to buy from local farmers instead of relying on suppliers from hundreds or sometimes thousands of miles away as the grocery stores do.
In addition to having a farmer’s market, the Owl Barn’s association with the nursery will result in an expanded offering of Dayton Nursery’s potted small fruits including blueberries, raspberries, currants, rhubarb and asparagus, as well as potted herbs, most of which are grown right at the nursery.
Coupled with the Owl Barn Market is the botanical-display garden Wolf Creek Gardens which is located just north and down the hill on which the Owl Barn sits. The garden includes a dwarf conifer bed and shade gardens including a shade perennial and Rhododendron-Azalea garden and hopefully next year a pick-your-own blueberry patch that will be located along the garden’s north border.
Although the market will not specialize in organically grown foods, the relative safety and freshness of the local farm’s products will be the staple fare.
The Owl Barn Market is another way to accomplish and to advance the vision of Dayton Nurseries as an enterprise of environmentally sustainable practices among which are low energy and pesticide use, water recycling and runoff water containment on the nursery property and now locally grown healthy produce.
The markets emphasis will be on locally grown produce from surrounding farms in order to ensure the freshness and quality of the products and in order to buy from local farmers instead of relying on suppliers from hundreds or sometimes thousands of miles away as the grocery stores do.
In addition to having a farmer’s market, the Owl Barn’s association with the nursery will result in an expanded offering of Dayton Nursery’s potted small fruits including blueberries, raspberries, currants, rhubarb and asparagus, as well as potted herbs, most of which are grown right at the nursery.
Coupled with the Owl Barn Market is the botanical-display garden Wolf Creek Gardens which is located just north and down the hill on which the Owl Barn sits. The garden includes a dwarf conifer bed and shade gardens including a shade perennial and Rhododendron-Azalea garden and hopefully next year a pick-your-own blueberry patch that will be located along the garden’s north border.
Although the market will not specialize in organically grown foods, the relative safety and freshness of the local farm’s products will be the staple fare.
The Owl Barn Market is another way to accomplish and to advance the vision of Dayton Nurseries as an enterprise of environmentally sustainable practices among which are low energy and pesticide use, water recycling and runoff water containment on the nursery property and now locally grown healthy produce.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Dayton "Dirt" - July 2, 2010
Picnics, swimming, fishing, get togethers, fireworks and more conjure up visions of the 4th of July.
That same week in 1776 in Philadelphia, it was hot and muggy with all the delegates of the Continental Congress not on the same page.
I can just imaging some of the heated arguments that the gruff John Adams had with his fellow delegates.
Truly with the genius of men like Franklin, Madison, Adams and Jefferson, its no wonder that the eighteenth century is known as the “Age of Enlightenment”.
Don’t forget this is the last week that you can plant heat loving successive crops such as sweet corn, cucumbers and squash.
The garden spiders will be out soon in full force if they aren’t already and don’t you dare kill any of them as they’re doing you a great favor by catching and eating insects harmful to the garden.
I remember reading a magazine in which a naturalist was searching for a bat cave in Tennessee.
The visitor questioned a farmer about the bats to which the farmer replied that those darned things were in such and such location.
When the naturalist found the cave, he noticed shells of insects on the floor by the thousands which were potato beetles.
When the Tennessee potato farmer found out about the onslaught these beetles suffered from the bats, these bats then became HIS bats!
Enjoy your weekend and the 4th.
Tom
That same week in 1776 in Philadelphia, it was hot and muggy with all the delegates of the Continental Congress not on the same page.
I can just imaging some of the heated arguments that the gruff John Adams had with his fellow delegates.
Truly with the genius of men like Franklin, Madison, Adams and Jefferson, its no wonder that the eighteenth century is known as the “Age of Enlightenment”.
Don’t forget this is the last week that you can plant heat loving successive crops such as sweet corn, cucumbers and squash.
The garden spiders will be out soon in full force if they aren’t already and don’t you dare kill any of them as they’re doing you a great favor by catching and eating insects harmful to the garden.
I remember reading a magazine in which a naturalist was searching for a bat cave in Tennessee.
The visitor questioned a farmer about the bats to which the farmer replied that those darned things were in such and such location.
When the naturalist found the cave, he noticed shells of insects on the floor by the thousands which were potato beetles.
When the Tennessee potato farmer found out about the onslaught these beetles suffered from the bats, these bats then became HIS bats!
Enjoy your weekend and the 4th.
Tom
Friday, June 25, 2010
Dayton "Dirt" - June 25, 2010
I’m getting excited about my annual “shopping” trip to Holland, Michigan to visit Walters Gardens that has 900 acres or more under the cultivation of perennials.
It’s always a thrill to take a look at all the facilities and growing fields to see what’s going on and especially what’s new.
I remember my dad and I taking our first tour of the nursery in 1982 when Dennis Walters gave us the tour.
Mr. Walters was so very friendly and kept asking us after an hour of the tour if we had any more questions or wanted to see more.
He did show us 20 acres of daylilies that were all sold to the marketing company Wayside Gardens while inside this processing building, workers were assembling bags with two oriental poppy roots in each bag for a total of one million poppies!
Walters has a fantastic website too with color photos and descriptions of most of their inventory.
After my tour and a little study, I’ll be able to dream about all the new stuff for 2011 like the new Itoh peonies that have colors of yellow, orange, pinks, reds and purples like the tree peonies only they die down like garden peonies and can be grown in full sun!
I already ordered these plants last January to sell in 2011!
Keep an eye on my blogs for the new developments…
Tom
It’s always a thrill to take a look at all the facilities and growing fields to see what’s going on and especially what’s new.
I remember my dad and I taking our first tour of the nursery in 1982 when Dennis Walters gave us the tour.
Mr. Walters was so very friendly and kept asking us after an hour of the tour if we had any more questions or wanted to see more.
He did show us 20 acres of daylilies that were all sold to the marketing company Wayside Gardens while inside this processing building, workers were assembling bags with two oriental poppy roots in each bag for a total of one million poppies!
Walters has a fantastic website too with color photos and descriptions of most of their inventory.
After my tour and a little study, I’ll be able to dream about all the new stuff for 2011 like the new Itoh peonies that have colors of yellow, orange, pinks, reds and purples like the tree peonies only they die down like garden peonies and can be grown in full sun!
I already ordered these plants last January to sell in 2011!
Keep an eye on my blogs for the new developments…
Tom
Friday, June 11, 2010
Dayton "Dirt" - June 11, 2010
Today would have been my mom & dad’s 61st wedding anniversary but unfortunately, my dad passed away 6 years ago.
I remember this day (in 1972) also because Hurricane Agnes was in the North Atlantic and was absorbed by a low pressure cell over Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania which flooded the region and gave us such cold rainy weather that about a thousand pepper plants I planted were stunted and never did grow.
In fact, on June 15th, in Hartville, it actually frosted and did damage to the truck farms in the area.
Remember on Saturday, June 12th at noon, we’ll have the Rose Lady and Mimi Zak to touch on some rose highlights and answer your questions. I think you’ll like the rose samples displayed from Mimi’s magnificent rose garden.
Its back to work for me as all this rain has made the garden grow but the weeds too!
Tom
I remember this day (in 1972) also because Hurricane Agnes was in the North Atlantic and was absorbed by a low pressure cell over Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania which flooded the region and gave us such cold rainy weather that about a thousand pepper plants I planted were stunted and never did grow.
In fact, on June 15th, in Hartville, it actually frosted and did damage to the truck farms in the area.
Remember on Saturday, June 12th at noon, we’ll have the Rose Lady and Mimi Zak to touch on some rose highlights and answer your questions. I think you’ll like the rose samples displayed from Mimi’s magnificent rose garden.
Its back to work for me as all this rain has made the garden grow but the weeds too!
Tom
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Dayton "Dirt" - June 4, 2010
While Memorial Day signals the commencement of summer, there are still 3 weeks left until the summer solstice.
With the long warm days, our gardens seem to grow wildly as compared with the slow start from the somewhat cold early May.
As I have said before, Memorial Day need not be the end of the vegetable garden planting as successive crops can be planted to keep the harvest going later in the summer and into fall.
An interesting book to read is American Intensive Gardening by the Poisson family as it describes the family’s trials and errors to create the most productive garden in the cooler New England climate of New Hampshire.
Be sure to keep an eye on trees and shrubs you planted early in spring.
Two simple rules are as follows:
1. Container grown plants – water twice weekly by soaking thoroughly. A good rule of thumb is that for every “gallon” of the container in which the plant was grown, give it at least that amount in gallons in any one watering.
2. Balled and burlapped trees and shrubs – soak thoroughly once weekly unless the plant is a Rhododendron or Azalea on of the family I which case the watering frequency is twice each week.
Remember that rainfall counts as watering only if you are sure that the rainy period resulted in one inch of rain or more in a 24 hour period.
Most importantly do bypass a softener when watering your plants if you have a well because most softeners use a sodium exchange type system which is not good for plants.
Although I don’t like hot weather, I still remember shoveling snow in February and I can tell you I don’t miss the snow shovel as this past winter was just a little tiring with the seemingly endless snow storms.
Happy Growing,
Tom
With the long warm days, our gardens seem to grow wildly as compared with the slow start from the somewhat cold early May.
As I have said before, Memorial Day need not be the end of the vegetable garden planting as successive crops can be planted to keep the harvest going later in the summer and into fall.
An interesting book to read is American Intensive Gardening by the Poisson family as it describes the family’s trials and errors to create the most productive garden in the cooler New England climate of New Hampshire.
Be sure to keep an eye on trees and shrubs you planted early in spring.
Two simple rules are as follows:
1. Container grown plants – water twice weekly by soaking thoroughly. A good rule of thumb is that for every “gallon” of the container in which the plant was grown, give it at least that amount in gallons in any one watering.
2. Balled and burlapped trees and shrubs – soak thoroughly once weekly unless the plant is a Rhododendron or Azalea on of the family I which case the watering frequency is twice each week.
Remember that rainfall counts as watering only if you are sure that the rainy period resulted in one inch of rain or more in a 24 hour period.
Most importantly do bypass a softener when watering your plants if you have a well because most softeners use a sodium exchange type system which is not good for plants.
Although I don’t like hot weather, I still remember shoveling snow in February and I can tell you I don’t miss the snow shovel as this past winter was just a little tiring with the seemingly endless snow storms.
Happy Growing,
Tom
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Dayton "Dirt" Green Blog - June, 2010
With the news filled every day about the ruptured well spilling into the Gulf of Mexico, the thoughts that run through many of our minds is what is the true cost of oil.
In a laissez-faire economy, resources are allocated and used according to the economic principles of supply and demand which seems to be a very efficient system that Adam Smith described as an “invisible hand” in his book The Wealth of Nations.
It seems to me that the resulting cost of the oil to run our economy is skewed because of the subsidies provided by the US taxpayer and costs that cannot even be calculated.
For example, the US Six Fleet in the Persian Gulf is mainly there to secure the oil interests of the United States.
The cost of this naval flotilla is not cheap and there is the more important matter of the servicemen and women lost in the first Persian Gulf War under the first President Bush and other lives lost due to our presence in the region to protect oil interests
Another cost not calculated is the long term damage to wildlife and wildlife habitats such as in the Exon-Valdez spill some years ago in Prince William Sound in Alaska and now the even bigger disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Then, the economic damage from the livelihoods lost of those of us in the tourism and fishing industry is not calculated.
Finally, how much of the clean up costs for these disasters will be on the backs of the U.S. taxpayer?
In a recent broadcast on National Public Radio, the company that actually drilled the well in the Gulf will attempt to legally limit its liability to twenty seven million dollars.
What kind of people are the board and top executives that they are not willing to take responsibility for the disaster and step up to the plate to do the right thing?
In summary, the “invisible hand” described by Adam Smith does not allocate these calculable and incalculable cost to the price of oil and its extraction.
If the costs could be truly allocated by the “invisible hand” as described by Adam Smith, it might be that the costs of alternative energy sources might well compete with “cheap” oil.
This recent disaster has made it all even more imperative that the United States must get rid of oil as the main source of energy to power our economy and the sooner the better!
In a laissez-faire economy, resources are allocated and used according to the economic principles of supply and demand which seems to be a very efficient system that Adam Smith described as an “invisible hand” in his book The Wealth of Nations.
It seems to me that the resulting cost of the oil to run our economy is skewed because of the subsidies provided by the US taxpayer and costs that cannot even be calculated.
For example, the US Six Fleet in the Persian Gulf is mainly there to secure the oil interests of the United States.
The cost of this naval flotilla is not cheap and there is the more important matter of the servicemen and women lost in the first Persian Gulf War under the first President Bush and other lives lost due to our presence in the region to protect oil interests
Another cost not calculated is the long term damage to wildlife and wildlife habitats such as in the Exon-Valdez spill some years ago in Prince William Sound in Alaska and now the even bigger disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Then, the economic damage from the livelihoods lost of those of us in the tourism and fishing industry is not calculated.
Finally, how much of the clean up costs for these disasters will be on the backs of the U.S. taxpayer?
In a recent broadcast on National Public Radio, the company that actually drilled the well in the Gulf will attempt to legally limit its liability to twenty seven million dollars.
What kind of people are the board and top executives that they are not willing to take responsibility for the disaster and step up to the plate to do the right thing?
In summary, the “invisible hand” described by Adam Smith does not allocate these calculable and incalculable cost to the price of oil and its extraction.
If the costs could be truly allocated by the “invisible hand” as described by Adam Smith, it might be that the costs of alternative energy sources might well compete with “cheap” oil.
This recent disaster has made it all even more imperative that the United States must get rid of oil as the main source of energy to power our economy and the sooner the better!
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