by Briscoe White | Apr 2, 2010 | Exploring, Life on the Farm |
Baby bunnies cannot be considered varmints in the garden… Even though their Mama may be munching through your salad garden keeping the cute little babies fed. No, baby bunnies are considered cute critters until they venture out into the world and eat your basil plant one night. To a rabbit, a row of flowering annuals is a salad bar, throw in a few herb plants for seasoning! This is when cute starts to run thin.
Last year baby bunnies were born and raised inside the greenhouse. Mama rabbit slipped in a hole for pipes and made her nest among some large stevia plants. We had to delay shipping some plants until the babies had moved out. This year they were found in the remnants of our wood pile. We stacked some extra logs around them for protection from predators, they should be safe!
Every year we share our growing space with several species of the local fauna.Tree frogs, toads, lizards and snakes all share greenhouse space with our plants. We are growing herb plants for all reasons; therefore we see no reason to use poison when growing them. In our greenhouse we have many allies from beneficial insects to the above mentioned critters helping us keep plants free from harmful pest.
So here we have another reason to buy your herbs and flowering annuals from The Growers- Exchange.com. Not only do we ship you great plants at great prices. You will be helping the environment by providing habitat to all the critters living among our plants.
by Briscoe White | Mar 31, 2010 | A Year in the Life.., Gardening, Growing |
I never thought our Year in the Life of a Garden would be raided by varmints, but it was last night. I cannot tell what it was that dug into a row of Pak Choi seedlings and buried some Arugula with their tailings. Damage was slight and what ever came rooting around did not find much of interest in our salad bed. My guess is that it was a raccoon or opossum attracted by the kelp meal fertilizer. Maybe it is better not to use fish fertilizer, as that will surely bring curious diggers.
Another little lesson we have learned in this spring garden in that using old seeds is risky. We sowed extra because the seeds were two years old, but none of the Spicy Mesculin Mix lettuce seeds germinated. Today I sowed fresh seed into that row and we should still have plenty of time to grow lettuce for cutting. I think next I will add a few herb plants around the borders, maybe a basil plant in the center. The logs surrounding the bed are impregnated with mushroom so we hope to harvest some interesting salad makings soon!
by Briscoe White | Mar 29, 2010 | Exploring, Life on the Farm |
We are busy packing herb plants and sending them south, where spring is well under way. Once again, when weather expresses itself and it does so in dramatic fashion. From what the news says, the pounding rain we received all night was felt along the entire Atlantic Seaboard! Just like the snow-storms this winter, a little does not seem to be enough.
Despite the poor Monday weather, Saturday was as beautiful as a spring day should be. I took this photo of our dwarf peach orchard in full bloom. On closer inspection one finds varying shades of light pink. Each cultivar of peach tree has been carefully bred for peaches, so the flower color is of no importance.
I thought about how as a greenhouse grower, I am mostly interested in the flowers and how well a plant can present them. The reason we grow a spring crop of flowering annual plants is because we believe herb gardening would be boring indeed without flowers.
by Briscoe White | Mar 24, 2010 | A Year in the Life.., Books & Design, Exploring |
We have always wanted a place where all the plants grown in our nursery could be grown out to full size. Now that all of our time is spent working from the nursery, we found the time to dig up the yard surrounding it. Because time is always hard to find for such projects, we have been taking our time. Shrubs were planted the first year and later a waterfall was added. Now we have laid out the paths and beds on the ground and will begin preparing the beds for planting.
It may be fall before we have them ready. Not being in a hurry, we want to dig deep and work plenty of organic material into the soil. Only when the beds are finished will we begin to add herb plants and some perennial flowering plants. Piecemeal is always the way to tackle a large job, so we will finish some beds before others are started. This way we will be able to grow some of our flowering annual plants. Cut flowers like zinnias and celosia will provide fresh cut flowers for the office. We want to demonstrate all the ways our plants can be grown.
Every step will be documented: from soil and bed preparation, planning and planting, to care and harvest. Check out The Growers-Exchange.com for all of our Year in the Life of a Garden updates.
by Briscoe White | Mar 22, 2010 | Exploring, Life on the Farm |
The long awaited time to begin shipping plants is here! We have begun sending gardeners in zones 8-10 their plants. Mixed with the excitement is the knowledge that the hardest part of our spring season has begun.
The quiet days of winter are over, plant growth is now measured in days not weeks. And because sending out the plants is all consuming, I am going back to the greenhouses. I hope the picture of all these plants going out makes you want to plant your garden.
