Dayton "Dirt" - August 28, 2015

The Igloo mums are finally ready and now adorn the sales area in front of the store so that now, the age-old question about mums of "will they come back next spring?", can be answered with a resounding yes! The Igloos are actually a Dendrantemum and not a Chrysanthemum that gives them  ironclad hardiness.  The other benefit of the Igloo mums is that they bloom somewhat in late June and July and then can be cut back to display a full bloom in early September.

Next Friday at 7:30 am is the start of our annual 50% off sale of trees, shrubs, roses and perennials Garden Club Members only for the first 4 days after which the sale is open to everyone.  Again, just a reminder that no notice of this sale will be via a postcard so that our mass e-mails will notify most Garden Club Members of the sale as we do now our other specials.  Garden Club Members that do not have e-mail and are interested in periodic e-mail blasts should forward their address as soon as possible.  Hopefully those members without e-mail will be notified by friensd and relatives.  Non Garden Club Members, as always, may take advantage of the sale as long as they sign up the same day.

Look for the list of items on sale on Thurs, Sept 3rd and remember, inventory usually is depleted quickly so get here early!

The word at the nursery is mums, mums and more mums with cabbage, kale and perennial aster included as fall is at hand.

Tom

Dayton "Dirt" - August 16, 2015

With Labor Day approaching, many customers are looking forward to our annual clearance sale in which many items will be 50% off the regular price. As always, not everything will be on sale as much of the stock is grown here and will be stored for sales next spring. All items that are 50% off will be clearly marked and once they are sold there will be no more available. For the very best selection, it’s best to arrive early on the first day of the sale. A listing of sale items will be available on the internet on Thursday afternoon, Sept. 3rd and in printed form on the opening Friday of the sale; however, the list will be updated only about every 2-3 days as we take stock of what has been sold. One thing different about the sale this year is that we will e-mail all of the garden club members that will get first choice of the sale items for the first three days of the sale and then on Monday, members and non-members of the garden club are  eligible for the sale prices. We have discontinued the mailing of postcards as the cost of postage is astronomical! Our hope is that those of you without e-mail will receive the message via friends and  relatives that do have e-mail. The thousands of dollars saved in postage costs can then be passed on in additional savings and “deals” instead of transferring these dollars to the post office. The “Big Sale” begins Friday, September 4th when the gates open at 7:30 a.m. Hope to see you  there! We’re hoping to restock some out of stock items such as arborvitae and Green Giant Western Red Cedars before the sale but may not be able to do it due to the dry weather. More “tweaks” of the grounds are going on and the seemingly never ending potting of trees, shrubs and perennials for next year’s sales. Tom

Dayton "Dirt" - August 7, 2015

At the nursery this past week and next is the word “plant”. Thousands of perennials are now being potted to supplement our spring potted crop of plants so that sales in May begin earlier in spring.  With the hard winter, some species of perennials have not done well being overwintered above ground in pots so that cold frames to suspend a ¼” thick insulating of a product called microfoam will be suspended over the product in addition to the protection of the white layer of plastic over the overwintering structure which in effect is a cold frame within a cold frame.  This structure will further insulate the root system of the plants from extreme cold and yet allow aeration of the structure to keep down fungus disease.

Repair and maintenance of almost all the equipment is completed as it’s constant and hard use during the rushed spring season is over. The propagation of numerous shrubs is complete while the cuttings sit under intermittent mist which will root most of them in about 6-8 weeks.  A concern for customers is the presence of crabgrass in the lawn even after a pre-emergent crabgrass killer was applied in April.  The reason for this annual grass spreading over lawns is the fact that a crabgrass preventer does prevent germination of this weed up to 95% but the remaining 5% has grown prolifically from the more than adequate rainfall resulting in the phenomenal growth of the survivors!  One preventive measure to perform with the return of normal, drier weather would be to stir any hardwood bark mulch with a rake, fertilize the bed with the addition of 10 lbs. of 10-10-10 fertilizer per 1000 ft² and then the watering of this area to prevent the shotgun fungus that will spot siding on the house with a sticky resin that is nearly impossible to remove.  By fertilizing and watering the mulch, bacteria will begin to grow and are able to subdue this nasty fungal pest that seems to thrive in drier hardwood mulches.

With the August sun comes quick ripening of peppers and tomatoes that will overwhelm everyone as freezing and canning of the vegetable bounty of the garden moves into full swing.

Well, the motto at the nursery is to “pot on” as late August and September will bring another set of chores.

Tom

Dayton "Dirt" - July 30, 2015

The typical heat of July has returned and with it an improvement in the growth of vegetable gardens and annual flower plantings. At the nursery, petunias that were cut back with just “stalks” remaining have exploded into growth and a riot of color.

More and more perennials keep arriving from various vendors so that another batch of potting mix must be made. Each 25 cubic yard batch of mix is made up of 5 parts pine bark and 2 parts sphagnum peat with various fertilizers and leave to make a light fluffy mix that is difficult to over-winter and one that is of a slightly acidic nature of a ph of about 5. An ideal soiless mix should have a ph of 5.8; however, the nursery mix must be more acidic due to the higher alkalinity of the  irrigation water.

New sedums “born and bred” in Zeeland, Michigan are growing well and will allow us to offer even more color of these wonderful plants that tolerate drought so well.

A few ash trees in the lower garden have succumbed to the Emerald Ash borer and will have to be cut down. The Valley Forge American Elms that were planted 4 years ago are now almost 16 feet tall and growing fast to take over where the ash once stood. Hopefully, with hundreds of millions of dollars and hundred’s of paid workers, the Asian Long Horned Beetle can be stopped in southwest Ohio as it kills maple trees and 8 other species of trees. How I would think it prudent to tax importers by imposing a fee on wood pallet products to add to the Treasury’s coffers to fight all invasive insect and disease species. Now the budgets of the federal, state and local governments are strained fighting these pests. No doubt, this is another example of the “hidden costs” of free trade that market forces do not take into account.

At the nursery, I think that we use too much electric power to run fans, pump water and light buildings. It is quite difficult to save energy in such a business as ours but try we must. I always have thought when even at home every time a light switch goes on how much of that power  contributes to a mountain top removal somewhere. Fortunately though, renewable power source’s costs are declining and most likely “dirty” energy will be a thing of the past in the not so distant future.

Water recycling, the weed discs used for weed control on stock and the progress to reduce pesticide use are all working well with even more “tweaking” going on to improve the systems. The end game is to produce and market products that enhance and beautify the environment with  sustainable practices.

Tom

P.S. Last week on Ready, Set, Grow I stated that because of the cold weather, Bauman Orchards in Rittman would not have peaches this year. Mike Lieberth of Bauman’s called me on Monday to correct me that they in fact DO have their own peaches! Almost unbelievable after last winter’s  cold, cold February for any peach to be found in Ohio. I stand corrected as Red Haven peaches will show up in markets including the Owl Barn Market all from Bauman’s!

Dayton "Dirt" - July 24, 2015

The Owl Barn market is in full swing now with the arrival of Seiberling sweet corn. Brand new varieties with new sweetness and longer lasting sweetness after picking are available this year. How fitting then that the name of the first early variety is “Sweetness”! Following will be Java and Cup of  Joe which will have a certain percentage of super sweet corn on the cob along with the sugar enhanced kernals. According to Chuck Seiberling, 100% super sweet corn can be somewhat tuff so that the mixed ear of sweet corn is tender yet sweet. How different things are from 30+ years ago! Back then, sweet corn had to be eaten the same day as picked to be sweet or quickly chilled to prevent the sugar from converting to starch. Then too, yellow corn was the favorite with a small amount of bicolor sweet corn chosen by customers. Now the opposite is true today.

On the nursery side, transplanting of shrubs is still going on as well as major renovation of the grounds and the potting of scads of small perennial plugs from the companies of Walters Gardens of Zeeland, Michigan, Terra Nova of Canby, Oregon and Greenleaf Perennials of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Most of the plants will grow strong all summer and root out into their containers in order to “bulk up” for the long winter ahead. Come spring the plants will begin to grow in mid-March and will be trimmed to remove dead foliage from the previous year. The same goes for the hundreds of clematis that have been potted this past week. In early March, the plants are trimmed to 2-3 inches above the crown and then explode into growth in a matter of days as they wind around their trellis. Time is running out to take cuttings of various shrubs so that this chore will begin tomorrow and be finished by Monday.

With the new condensing boiler installed last year in the greenhouse, cool days and/or nights that would slow the rooting of the cuttings can now be cancelled out so to speak with the addition of “bottom heat” from the super efficient boiler. It seems summer is rolling along and time is limited to get necessary timely chores done.

Tom

Dayton "Dirt" - July 17, 2015

As the rain machine continues, long established trees and shrubs are suffering or even dying as soils that are normally well-drained are saturated with water depriving roots of oxygen. The latest casualty is a 25 year old Crimson King Maple that is collapsing because of the roots being water soaked. Then too will damage or death of plants in wet zones be apparent next year especially if next year is hot and dry.

The Edith Bogue Magnolia planted at the nursery in 1992 is suffering from the cold February temperatures as is evident by the top half barely sprouting growth so that it will be chopped back severely to grow again with the strongest growth coming from the former small leaves that  actually protected the entire tree from dying. On a lighter note, the various hydrangeas just keep blooming with Vanilla Strawberry and Strawberry Sundae dressed in white and soon to blush with a strawberry pink coloration on the flowers so that both pink and white will be displayed. One of my new favorites is the Hydrangea called Bobo that is compact in growing to 3-4 feet and pure white. It is so easy to grow in full sun or part shade that this beautiful plant should be in every landscape.

The grounds at the nursery are undergoing a major renovation that was last accomplished 10 years ago. New plantings and a massive planting of a new perennial garden in the lower half of the botanical display garden is now underway. These renovations require lots of time and labor but  in the long run are well worth it as some of the landscape areas appear “tired”.

The Plow to Chow dinner put on by the Summit County Farm Bureau was a rousing success so that a few thousand dollars will be donated to the Ronald McDonald House for their operations and building expansion that will greatly benefit families in which parents of children that need  long term care at Akron Children’s Hospital will be able to be housed while their children are undergoing treatment.  See pictures of the event

On Ready, Set, Grow 1590 WAKR tomorrow at 8 a.m. will be my guest Chuck Seiberling ofSeiberling Farms that basically will be a discussion of what goes on “down on the farm”. To get your questions answered call 330-370-1590.

~Tom

Dayton "Dirt" - July 10, 2015

Tomorrow is the Blueberry Fest with hayrides, children’s activities and lots of blueberries all centered around the Owl barn Market. If this were not enough, the “Plow to Chow” dinner for the Ronald McDonald House is next Thursday evening in which 120 paying guests will sit down to an  outdoor gourmet dinner sponsored by the Summit County Farm Bureau. The event will also be used as “teaching” tool that will center on talks of various agriculture activities to produce food that will be on the gourmet menu and one on water conservation and recycling as we now do at the nursery. Unfortunately only paying guests will be able to take part in the activities, hor’s d’oeurves, wine and food as the $100 each that the participants have paid will cover the expenses of the gourmet chef , waiters and other workers and yet have enough left over to benefit the  Ronald McDonald house in Akron.

In the nursery, even more trees became available for sale from our spring potting and include more Eastern Redbuds, Sweet Bay Magnolias, American Elms, Flowering Pears, White Fringe Trees, American beech, Maples and even more flowering crabapples. Sadly for us, those trees were not available for sale in May when they would have quickly sold because they were bare root trees when they were potted last March. These trees will stay out all winter long and are actually meant for next spring’s sales although they could easily be planted now.

The continuous rain has been a real “bummer” in that annual flowers are not in their prime and are even dying do to the constant wetness and limited sun. Even our greenhouse manager planted 300 plus wave petunias for her daughter’s wedding which have stopped blooming and have gone to  “sticks”!

At least some sun is supposed to be present for the Blueberry Fest tomorrow.

~Tom

P.S. Don’t forget to join me at 1590 AM WAKR at 8 a.m. on Saturday, July 18th as I interview Chuck Seiberling about everything “down on the farm”. The Seiberling farm has been growing and selling sweet corn and other produce that Chuck’s mother began selling from the front steps of  the old house beginning in the 1940's.