Dayton "Dirt" - June 22, 2012

Last Sunday morning the rains fell heavy at the nursery and again on Monday night that gave thirsty plants some relief from the heat and drought. By opening a valve at the end of a pipe that is in the creek that flows through the nursery, we were able to capture much needed rain water for our irrigation pond. Besides annuals, the colors lighting up the nursery are multi-colored hydrangeas, especially the electric blue Endless Summer variety. It seems like only yesterday that we unloaded the plants bare root from a Minnesota nursery in order to pot up for sale beginning in June. Other potting is going on including our azalea production and “shift ups” of otherwise pot bound plants to larger sizes. The tomatoes in Southern Ohio look like they are on the edge of being ready. We plan to open the Owl Barn Market later this coming week and will be featuring sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers, and a few other beginning fruits and vegetables. We still have not planted all the flowers at the nursery yet because of the horrific heat but flower planting is scheduled for early next week. Please watch the watering of your newly planted trees and shrubs as it is still too dry even with the recent rains. It will take at least another 2 inches of rain to play catch up with the dry spell. No doubt the rain will fall. It’s just a matter of when. Summer began on Wednesday, June 20th this week with the summer solstice so that the long warm days will really make things grow – including the weeds! Tom