Dayton "Dirt" - September 11, 2015

As I write today’s blog, I remember sadly in 2001 of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, DC along with the downed airliner in the field in Pennsylvania.  At the time I was visiting nurseries just south of Portland, Oregon watching the television in disbelief as the World Trade Center burned and then collapsed changing the world forever.

On a more pleasant note, more needed rain is in the forecast to supplement the two inches of rain that fell a week ago. Chrysanthemums are budded and blooming in quite an array of colors along with the still blooming hydrangeas that just are not ready to give up.  In fact, the Bloomstruck and Endless summer Hydrangeas will continue to bloom right up until a hard frost that will subdue them sometime in October to go into their long winter nap.

This past week’s 50% sale went well as much of the overstocked plants have been sold although there is still quite a selection of herbaceous perennials that includes some nice grasses that have been brought up from the back stock area.  A few large white pine and Red Sunset Maples still remain with some nice rhododendrons and deciduous azaleas.  While the sale will continue until the end of the season around November, more and more of the selection will be depleted as time goes on.

Next week on Saturday, September 19th, will be the Fall Festival with music, hayrides, crafts and food!  Then on the 26th and 27th is the 25th Mum Festival in Barberton that features water ski shows, crafts, lots of food and of course thousands of blooming mums at the northeast corner of Lake Anna Park.  Mega amounts of planning, planting and much other work goes on behind the scenes to put on such an extravaganza.  As for the nursery, some of the mum madness spills over as always some out of town visitors stop by.

On Ready, Set, Grow on Saturday, September 26th beginning shortly after 8 a.m. be sure to tune your radio dial to 1590 WAKR as I will grill several key players on the Mum Fest including Mayor Judge with his views and aspirations for this important event for the City of Barberton.

Tom

Dayton "Dirt" - September 4, 2015

Today is the start of our Labor Day clearance sale with a wide variety of trees, shrubs and perennials at 50% off the regular price for Garden Club Members only through Monday.  The perennial selection this year is extensive including beautiful coral bells, grasses and hostas along with numerous other varieties for sun or shade.  In the shrub line, about 100 Endless Summer Hydrangeas will be on the list but as I have stated many times, once stock is gone, it is gone so that it is best to arrive early.  The sales list is not a perpetual inventory so that once the stock is depleted, it might still be on the list that is updated only every few days.

A new supply of Igloo mums has filled our front sales area this past week but again stock might be depleted as soon as this weekend as these super winter hardy Dendranthemums have been quite popular.  At some grocery stores and home improvement outlets, the word "hardy" mums are describing the tender Chrysanthemum morifolium which is a misnomer.  Here at the nursery we offer the Chrysanthemum morifolium as a "garden mum" that can be enjoyed in it's pot or planted in the ground to maybe come again in the spring.

The hot weather is somewhat unusual for the first week of September but a cool down and more rain is in the forecast soon.  With the runoff from the rainfall on Saturday overnight, the water supply at the nursery for irrigation has been partly restored; however, at least 2 inches would have to fall in order to replenish the rainwater in the irrigation pond. 

As a reminder, after Labor Day, the sale items are open to everyone.  An e-mail address, while not required to sign-up, is beneficial to receive periodic e-mail blasts of events and special buys as printing costs and postage is becoming extremely expensive when notifying our customers via "snail mail"

Hope to see you at the sale.

Tom

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