Booting made me £100
Went to a bootsale today and made myself £100. Sold all the plants I had left over from the seeds I bought in early spring. This should cover some of the cost of this years gardening. Also came home with around 20 perennials (cost £8) for some major gap filling. Try it for yourself.
How I catch my Slugs
I hate slugs. Slimly little cabbage munchers. However I've not been defeated. I've recently been using a neat little slug trap.
I cut the top and bottom off of a coke bottle and glue them together. Fill it about a quarter of the way with cheap beer (the expensive stuff's for me) and bury it up to halfway near my precious plants and wait.
Using a bottle instead of a jar means it's less likely to fill up when it rains.
I keep the top too because 10 to 15 drunk, dead slugs don't smell too sweet. I screw on the top and throw 'em in the trash.
I cut the top and bottom off of a coke bottle and glue them together. Fill it about a quarter of the way with cheap beer (the expensive stuff's for me) and bury it up to halfway near my precious plants and wait.
Using a bottle instead of a jar means it's less likely to fill up when it rains.
I keep the top too because 10 to 15 drunk, dead slugs don't smell too sweet. I screw on the top and throw 'em in the trash.
More Tomatoes?
When pinching out side-shoots from your cordon Toms pop the little off-shoot into some gritty compost and water well. In a week or so you'll have a new plant completely free. Bargain!
Plant them deep
When planting Tomatoes, plant them deep. Roots grow from the side of the stem and anchor it firmly into the ground, making a sturdier specimen.
Glass of Dandelion?
If like me you have a lawn full of Dandelions put them to good use. Don't dig them out, after all, weeds are only flowers in the wrong place. Use them. Cultivate them. Make them into wine.
Homebrew Dandelion Wine
Homebrew Dandelion Wine
How to make paper pots
The first thing you'll need is some paper. I use newspaper as it's eco friendly and cheap.
Pull out a whole sheet and fold it over again.
Using a jar, roll the newspaper around it, making sure about 3 inches overhang the open end and secure with some sticky tape. Push the overhanging paper into the inside of the jar.
Slide the newspaper off the jar and with a smaller jar or a rolling pin push down into the centre of the paper pot to fasten it together.
Now you have a lovely little handmade pot. Pop in a seed or two and when it's ready to go into the garden put it in pot and all.
Sow, sow, sow!
Sow as many plants and flowers as you can. Use any old containers you can find and start sowing. Put them in the window sill and give them some tender lovin'. You'll be thankful you did when summer comes and you've no need to buy the expensive garden centre plants. Every inch of my house is full of seedlings of some sort or another. Come on! Get on with it!
Greenhouse clean-up
Now is the time to give your Greenhouse a big spring clean. Wash all the glass down with some warm soapy water. Clean glass lets in the maximum amount of light. Your plants will be grateful!
Let’s Plant Potatoes in the Garden
By Kathy Anderson
Potatoes, taters, spuds…call them what you will, potatoes are a staple in the diet of many people all over the planet. Potatoes are a nutritious, versatile vegetable, and they’re incredibly easy to grow. But before you run out to the garden with your shovel and hoe, there are a few things you should know about planting potatoes.
You may have heard old timers say that potatoes should always be planted on Good Friday. This old wives’ tale is absolutely absurd. Good Friday does not fall on the same calendar date each year and can fall anywhere from early March to mid April. If folks in New England or the upper Midwest tried to plant potatoes on Good Friday, many years they’d be digging through rock-hard soil that was still frozen solid.
Do not plant potatoes too early, while the ground is still icy. If the ground is too cold and wet, the seed potatoes will delay sprouting until the growing conditions are more favorable. This is usually in early March to late April, depending on the climate. Potatoes do tolerate cool soil and a light frost, but not much growth will take place until the soil warms up a bit.
You won’t find potato seedlings or packets of potato seeds for sale at your local garden center. Instead, potatoes are grown from seed potatoes. A seed potato is nothing more than an ordinary potato, with at least one “eye”.
Back in the day before supermarkets, when gardens supplied most of the food put on the table, the last of the potatoes in the storage bin come spring were used for seed potatoes. Wise gardeners set aside their blemish-free, healthiest potatoes for seed. Seed potatoes can be planted whole, or they may be cut into pieces with at least one eye per piece. Seed potatoes with more eyes will grow to produce a larger quantity of potatoes but the potatoes will generally be smaller. Seed potatoes with fewer eyes will produce fewer potatoes, but those potatoes will tend to be larger.
If you choose to cut your seed potatoes into smaller pieces, divide them a day prior to planting. This allows the cuts to heal over slightly, which helps to prevent soil-borne diseases from infecting your potato crop. Always choose seed potatoes that are free from blemishes.
Plant your whole or cut seed potatoes two to three inches deep in good, rich soil. Rows of potatoes should be about three feet apart and the potatoes within the row should be planted twelve inches apart. If your potato crop has suffered from scab in the past, toss a small handful of dry pine needles in the holes beneath your seed potatoes. Along with moving your potatoes to a different section of the garden each year, this will help prevent further scab infection. Potato scab appears as rough patches on the skin of the potatoes.
Depending on the warmth of the soil, potato plants will begin to emerge from the soil anywhere from one to three weeks after planting. When the plants are about a foot tall, use your hoe to mound six to eight inches of soil continuously along the entire row of plants. This is called hilling. Hilling ensures that the potatoes will grow deeply under the soil, away from sunlight which would cause them to become green. Potatoes that suffer from greening will be bitter and the inedible green parts must be discarded.
Keep the potato plants evenly watered while they are growing. A dry period followed by a rainy spell will cause some potato varieties to develop a hollow core. Yukon Gold potatoes seem to be especially prone to this problem.
Another potential problem with potatoes is the potato beetle. The larvae and adult beetles will feed on the potato foliage, and a heavy infestation can damage the foliage enough to reduce your harvest considerably. Watch for the beetle’s yellow eggs on the undersides of leaves and crush the clusters whenever you see them. Larvae are a deep orange color with a row of black spots on both sides, while the adults are a paler orange with black stripes on the body and black spots on the head. The larvae and adults can be picked off the leaves and crushed if there are only a few. An infestation can also be controlled with Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt. Bt is an organic control that is very safe to use. Look for Bt that is specifically for potato beetles. It is sold in many garden catalogs and garden centers.
Once your potato plants have bloomed, you can begin to harvest small “new” potatoes. Depending on the variety of potatoes you’re growing, this is about eight weeks after planting. In the fall, after the foliage has begun to dry and die back, the entire crop can be dug. Before storing them in a cool, dry and dark place, make sure the surface of your freshly dug spuds has dried a bit. Spread them out in a dry spot out of direct sun, such as a garage or shed, for a day or two before putting them in storage.
Freshly dug, crisp potatoes taste better than any you’ll buy at a grocery store. Grow some yourself and discover how easy and fun it is to produce a staple crop of delicious potatoes for your family.
Kathy Anderson has been an avid gardener for many years and has grown tomatoes by the acre, along with many other vegetables, flowers and landscape plants. Kathy recommends http://www.freeplants.comas a great place to learn more about gardening. Article provided byhttp://gardening-articles.com. If you use this article the above two links must be active.
Free Gardening Tips For a Well Maintained and Simple Garden
Did you ever want to turn your backyard into a garden but then you gave up because you didn’t know anything about gardening? You don’t have to do that anymore: gardening is actually not as hard as people might think it is. If you know a few basic rules, then you can have your own garden without much effort. The time you need to create a garden is not too long, and it is definitely a good way to relax. The beauty and scent of the blooming flowers will repay you for your effort, you can be sure of that. Here are a few basic gardening tips, that will help you gain that beautiful garden you’ve always dreamt of.
Flowers grow and bloom, but so do weeds. There can be a lot of unwanted weed among your plants. This is natural, since most weed seeds are carried by the wind and it is impossible to stop their spreading. Weeds are usually stronger than flowers and much more resistant, so they have a bigger chance of survival even in bad conditions. Get rid of weeds in your garden, because they take away the water and the minerals from your flowers. The best way is to rip them out with their roots to make sure that they won’t grow back again. You can also use weedkiller products, but avoid using sprays, because they can destroy your flowers as well.
Most of the flowers and plants require certain conditions, otherwise they won’t survive or they will be very weak. Water your garden regularly, at least once a week, and more often if it’s a very dry hot summer. Deep watering is relevant because that way the roots can absorb much more minerals and the flowers will be more fresh looking and beautiful.
At all times try to avoid the use of chemicals in your garden. Most of the chemicals do more harm than good. For instance if you use a pesticide, it kills the bad insects but the beneficial ones as well. This way you will only destroy the natural balance of the garden. Some chemicals are also harmful for the plants and flowers, and they can be dangerous for humans and pets as well. For all problems there are organic, natural products that you can use instead of the chemicals.
If you want to fertilize your garden, choose fertilizers that are organic. Don’t use too much fertilizer, most of the times the soil contains already a lot of minerals that the plants need. The minimal amount of fertilizer is enough to give your flowers extra strength and resistance. Use this regularly, especially if you water your flowers very often. Repeated watering washes away nutrition from the earth and that’s why you should add fertilizer to it.
Cutting of dead flowers and leaves will not only make your garden look more beautiful and organized, but it is also beneficial for the plants. Most of the flowers will bloom more if the dead flowers heads are removed. Some perennials will have new flowers only if the dead flower heads are cut, like dahlias and geraniums. Similarly, there are some plants that require their top to be pinched out. This way they will be more bushy and have more flowers. Some of them will grow too high if you don’t do this, like fuchsias for instance.
Liani Widjaja is a blogger and writer who is always interested in gardening and related subject. You can find more information about Lawn mower reviews and tips on Do It Yourself Lawn Care at her site.
Flowers grow and bloom, but so do weeds. There can be a lot of unwanted weed among your plants. This is natural, since most weed seeds are carried by the wind and it is impossible to stop their spreading. Weeds are usually stronger than flowers and much more resistant, so they have a bigger chance of survival even in bad conditions. Get rid of weeds in your garden, because they take away the water and the minerals from your flowers. The best way is to rip them out with their roots to make sure that they won’t grow back again. You can also use weedkiller products, but avoid using sprays, because they can destroy your flowers as well.
Most of the flowers and plants require certain conditions, otherwise they won’t survive or they will be very weak. Water your garden regularly, at least once a week, and more often if it’s a very dry hot summer. Deep watering is relevant because that way the roots can absorb much more minerals and the flowers will be more fresh looking and beautiful.
At all times try to avoid the use of chemicals in your garden. Most of the chemicals do more harm than good. For instance if you use a pesticide, it kills the bad insects but the beneficial ones as well. This way you will only destroy the natural balance of the garden. Some chemicals are also harmful for the plants and flowers, and they can be dangerous for humans and pets as well. For all problems there are organic, natural products that you can use instead of the chemicals.
If you want to fertilize your garden, choose fertilizers that are organic. Don’t use too much fertilizer, most of the times the soil contains already a lot of minerals that the plants need. The minimal amount of fertilizer is enough to give your flowers extra strength and resistance. Use this regularly, especially if you water your flowers very often. Repeated watering washes away nutrition from the earth and that’s why you should add fertilizer to it.
Cutting of dead flowers and leaves will not only make your garden look more beautiful and organized, but it is also beneficial for the plants. Most of the flowers will bloom more if the dead flowers heads are removed. Some perennials will have new flowers only if the dead flower heads are cut, like dahlias and geraniums. Similarly, there are some plants that require their top to be pinched out. This way they will be more bushy and have more flowers. Some of them will grow too high if you don’t do this, like fuchsias for instance.
Liani Widjaja is a blogger and writer who is always interested in gardening and related subject. You can find more information about Lawn mower reviews and tips on Do It Yourself Lawn Care at her site.
Gargoyles
Gargoyles have been a part of history and architecture since the early days of the ancient Greek and Egyptian empires and are most commonly associated with medieval lore. Though gargoyles often have a fearsome appearance, their use is thought to be far more altruistic. The power to ward off evil spirits is a significant part of the mythological explanation surrounding gargoyles. Many Greek gargoyles are very often seen as happy or jolly characters and are often seen mounted on the parapets of many public buildings or spewing water as part of a public fountain.
Garden Gargoyles are the ‘cutest’ ugly things you can put in your garden landscaping to add charm and beauty to your garden. Some of the earliest known forms of gargoyles have been found in ancient Roman and Greek ruins and were made of terracotta. As time passed on, these figures were carved of wood, with a complete shift to stone by the 13th century.
Gargoyles were created as waterspouts and drains to keep rain water from damaging the foundation of buildings. The term gargoyle, comes from the Latin gurgulio, and the Old French gargouille, not only meaning “throat” but also describing the “gurgling” sound made by water as it ran through the figure. Superstition held that gargoyles frightened away evil spirits while serving their practical function. In the sixteenth century, after the lead drainpipe was introduced, gargoyles primarily served a decorative function.
Although most have exaggerated and scary features, the term gargoyle has come to include all types of figures. Some gargoyles were depicted as monks, gnomes, dragons and combinations of real animals and people, many of which were humorous. Unusual animal mixtures, or chimeras, did not act as waterspouts and are more properly called grotesques. They serve more as ornamentation, but are now synonymous with gargoyles.
Many gargoyles take the shape of animals, especially reptiles. Often dragon like in appearance, their gaze was usually facing down from the structure. In mythology and lore, dragons were thought to be the guardians of sacred places or great treasure troves, greatly contrasting with the more popular view of dragons as fierce and fire breathing creatures. Other animals such as birds of prey or the mythical Roc were the inspiration for many gargoyle figures.
The history and lore of garden gargoyle figures takes many forms. Garden gargoyles may represent combinations of human and animal forms sometimes taking on the appearance of hooded monks and friars. Just as they may be used to ward off evil, they were thought to have other uses, such as avoiding the wages of sin as well as be a powerful force used to keep people from straying into a life of eternal damnation. It is thought by some historians that garden gargoyles may have been placed in prominent view to remind people that Satan, or other supposed forces of evil, were all about and these areas should be avoided.
Since many gargoyles appear with wings, they may very well have been the inspiration for the flying monkey characters seen in the movie the Wizard of Oz. Many dragons of myth were often depicted with wings and were though to be capable of flight, reflecting the myth of flying gargoyles. From the funny to the frightening, many other modern day film and cartoon monsters have been patterned from these legendary winged figures.
Whether collectors of garden gargoyles are seeking redemption is certainly open to debate. Gargoyles do appear in many pieces of medieval artwork. They can often be quite scary in appearance and could be used to frighten away superstitious people. Given the wide variety of garden gargoyle shapes, many collectors may have more of an artistic motivation to maintaining their collections.
Today, garden gargoyle figures stand vigil as yard ornaments, water fountains and various types of outdoor statuary. Even though warding off evil spirits may not be in your garden decorating plans, some interior design schemes can also benefit from the addition of gargoyles. Garden gargoyles make the perfect the perfect gift for fans of medieval mythology and religious history.
ToddD is the garden landscaping design guru. For great deals on all things gardening, visit Garden Gargoyles.
Garden Gargoyles are the ‘cutest’ ugly things you can put in your garden landscaping to add charm and beauty to your garden. Some of the earliest known forms of gargoyles have been found in ancient Roman and Greek ruins and were made of terracotta. As time passed on, these figures were carved of wood, with a complete shift to stone by the 13th century.
Gargoyles were created as waterspouts and drains to keep rain water from damaging the foundation of buildings. The term gargoyle, comes from the Latin gurgulio, and the Old French gargouille, not only meaning “throat” but also describing the “gurgling” sound made by water as it ran through the figure. Superstition held that gargoyles frightened away evil spirits while serving their practical function. In the sixteenth century, after the lead drainpipe was introduced, gargoyles primarily served a decorative function.
Although most have exaggerated and scary features, the term gargoyle has come to include all types of figures. Some gargoyles were depicted as monks, gnomes, dragons and combinations of real animals and people, many of which were humorous. Unusual animal mixtures, or chimeras, did not act as waterspouts and are more properly called grotesques. They serve more as ornamentation, but are now synonymous with gargoyles.
Many gargoyles take the shape of animals, especially reptiles. Often dragon like in appearance, their gaze was usually facing down from the structure. In mythology and lore, dragons were thought to be the guardians of sacred places or great treasure troves, greatly contrasting with the more popular view of dragons as fierce and fire breathing creatures. Other animals such as birds of prey or the mythical Roc were the inspiration for many gargoyle figures.
The history and lore of garden gargoyle figures takes many forms. Garden gargoyles may represent combinations of human and animal forms sometimes taking on the appearance of hooded monks and friars. Just as they may be used to ward off evil, they were thought to have other uses, such as avoiding the wages of sin as well as be a powerful force used to keep people from straying into a life of eternal damnation. It is thought by some historians that garden gargoyles may have been placed in prominent view to remind people that Satan, or other supposed forces of evil, were all about and these areas should be avoided.
Since many gargoyles appear with wings, they may very well have been the inspiration for the flying monkey characters seen in the movie the Wizard of Oz. Many dragons of myth were often depicted with wings and were though to be capable of flight, reflecting the myth of flying gargoyles. From the funny to the frightening, many other modern day film and cartoon monsters have been patterned from these legendary winged figures.
Whether collectors of garden gargoyles are seeking redemption is certainly open to debate. Gargoyles do appear in many pieces of medieval artwork. They can often be quite scary in appearance and could be used to frighten away superstitious people. Given the wide variety of garden gargoyle shapes, many collectors may have more of an artistic motivation to maintaining their collections.
Today, garden gargoyle figures stand vigil as yard ornaments, water fountains and various types of outdoor statuary. Even though warding off evil spirits may not be in your garden decorating plans, some interior design schemes can also benefit from the addition of gargoyles. Garden gargoyles make the perfect the perfect gift for fans of medieval mythology and religious history.
ToddD is the garden landscaping design guru. For great deals on all things gardening, visit Garden Gargoyles.
Eye, eye
Cover the tops of garden canes to prevent nasty eye injuries.
What could you use?
Old tennis balls (highly visible)
Plastic drinks bottles
Glass jars
Plant pots
What could you use?
Old tennis balls (highly visible)
Plastic drinks bottles
Glass jars
Plant pots
NEST BOXES
Why not brighten up the garden by placing a coloured tile on the top of the lid of nest boxes. Tiles can be easily cut to fit on top of the lid and will give the nest box some protection from the weather during the winter months.
Protect your seats
Garden furniture should be cleaned and treated with a wood preservative and stored away under cover.
BEANS!
Broad Beans may be sowed in the garden. Many gardeners say that they plant their broad beans around Bonfire night. This is because they are more likely to be free from black fly infestation.
Lawn time
The UK lawn should receive its final cut during the next couple of weeks. Clean the lawn mower and remove all petrol and store throughout the winter.
Garden Housekeeping
By
Kathy Anderson
Most gardeners, myself included, would much rather be outside working in the garden than inside doing housework. Gardening also requires some housekeeping, but plant lovers generally don’t mind being outside fussing with their plants.
Garden housekeeping is done for two reasons. Keeping the garden neat and clean is done to maintain the aesthetics of the garden, and also to maintain the health of the plants in the garden.
Keeping the garden free of weeds is a simple step that will improve both the beauty and health of any garden. After all, it’s difficult to enjoy your beautiful flowers if they are hidden amongst weeds. Weeds also attract and harbor plant diseases and insect pests, both which will happily spread to your garden plants. Not only that, weeds will also compete with your desirable plants, using more than their fair share of water and nutrients.
The best way to keep weeds out of the garden is to eliminate the weeds even before you plant anything. At http://www.freeplants.com you’ll find an excellent article on weed control that explains how to eliminate weeds from your garden. Of course, more weed seeds will constantly be blowing or carried in to the garden, but you can stay on top of the problem by pulling or hoeing the young weeds weekly, before they get a chance to grow large and set deep roots.
While you’re weeding, remove any trash and debris that may have blown into the garden. Watch for over-ripe fruit and vegetables and discard them before they rot and attract insects or rodents. You can also take this time to examine your plants for insect or animal damage. After determining what insect or animal is damaging your plants you can take appropriate steps to prevent further damage.
Try to walk through your garden every day that you can, not only to admire blossoms that have opened that day or to harvest any ripe vegetables, but also to keep an eye on the overall health of your plants. This way you can identify and deal with any problems immediately and not give diseases or pests the chance to become established. Carry a pruning shears with you whenever you’re in the garden and deadhead any faded flowers, especially on your annual flowers. Deadheading simply involves removing flowers that have already bloomed and are no longer attractive. For many annuals, this will encourage more blooms.
It is very helpful to keep a garden notebook for a number of reasons. In your garden notebook you can keep track of the names of all your plants and make a map showing where each one is planted. This is especially useful when you want to share plants with friends so you can tell them the name of the plant they’re receiving. It’s also helpful if you sell your property. The new owners will be grateful to have that information about the plants on their new property.
In your garden notebook you can also make notes to remind yourself when each plant blooms or is ready for harvest, what vegetable varieties you planted and which of those performed best or weren’t worth planting again, and how you dealt with any insects or diseases that attacked your plants. If you found that your garden was too cramped, make a note to create wider paths between the rows or beds when you plant again the following spring.
It’s particularly important to make a map of your vegetable garden each year. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, a simple sketch would be sufficient. The purpose of your vegetable garden map is to remind you where each crop was planted the previous year so that you can rotate the current year’s crops. Since many plant diseases and even some insects are harbored in the soil, moving your crops from one area of the garden to another will help reduce disease and insect damage.
Some vegetable crops should never be planted in the same area two years in a row. Tomatoes, corn and potatoes are good examples of crops that should be rotated. Several common tomato diseases will overwinter in the soil and will infect tomatoes again if they’re planted in the same spot as the previous year. Colorado Potato Beetle larvae overwinter in the soil and will have more difficulty finding a potato meal if the potatoes are on the other end of the garden when the larvae emerge in the spring. Corn is a heavy feeder and depletes soil of nitrogen. Where the corn was planted the previous year, beans or peas should be planted the following season, as these legumes will fix nitrogen in the soil, replacing what the corn depleted.
Finally, garden housekeeping involves cleaning up the garden at the end of the growing season. Any diseased plants should be removed from the garden and discarded. Do not add diseased plant material to your compost pile unless you are confident that your compost pile heats up enough to kill any pathogens. Woody material such as cornstalks and sunflower stems should be removed from the garden and composted. You may want to break these down into smaller pieces as they tend to decompose very slowly.
Vegetable plants that are not diseased or infested with insects can either be removed and composted or tilled into the soil in the fall, where they will break down over winter and add organic matter to the soil.
Blooming annuals can be pulled from the flowerbed after the first killing frost. Perennials should be allowed to go dormant before the dead foliage is trimmed back close to the ground.
Garden housekeeping is an important step towards a healthy and bountiful garden. It does require a little effort, but garden housekeeping is still more fun than vacuuming and dusting in the house.
Kathy Anderson has been an avid gardener for many years and has grown tomatoes by the acre, along with many other vegetables, flowers and landscape plants. Kathy recommends http://www.freeplants.com as a great place to learn more about gardening. Article provided by http://gardening-articles.com.
Mouldy leaf mould
Rake up the leaves that are falling this time of year and stuff them into a large black bag. Stab them with a fork and pile them up behind the shed. Next year you will have a beautiful black gold (leaf mould).
Simple Chutney
Today I made some really simple Chutney. Wondering what to do with the hundreds of apples, apart from making more crumble, I looked for a recipe book. Although I didn't follow the instructions to the letter I ended up with quite a tasty concoction.
I chopped up some Apples, Onions, Pumpkins, Carrots and whatever other fruit or veg that was within eyeshot.
Added some spices (don't ask, I can't remember) and topped up the pan with some Red wine vinegar. Left it to boil for what seemed an eternity (3 hours) and packed it into jars. I steal these from neighbours recycling bins on collection day (I do this Ninja-like at 6am to avoid capture).
I chopped up some Apples, Onions, Pumpkins, Carrots and whatever other fruit or veg that was within eyeshot.
Added some spices (don't ask, I can't remember) and topped up the pan with some Red wine vinegar. Left it to boil for what seemed an eternity (3 hours) and packed it into jars. I steal these from neighbours recycling bins on collection day (I do this Ninja-like at 6am to avoid capture).
Money for nothing and trees for free!
When pruning trees and shrubs plunge the cuttings into some sandy soil. Leave them for a while and soon enough you'll have "mini-me's". Give them to friends or sell them from your front door.
Saving seeds from your garden
By Kathy Anderson
For many gardeners, the garden actually begins in January when the first seed catalog arrives in the mailbox. While the cold wind howls outside, we retire to a cozy chair and leaf through the catalog, carefully notating which varieties of lettuce and tomatoes to try and wishing we had the space to plant each and every flower so artfully displayed on its pages.
But have you ever wondered where your great-grandparents acquired the seeds for their gardens, before there were seed catalogs and fancy garden centers?
They saved seeds for the next year from their own gardens!
Saving seeds from your own flowers or vegetables is a wonderful way to fully experience the cycle of plant growth. It’s also much less expensive than buying seeds each spring, and seeds saved from your plants will be well suited to the peculiarities of your own garden’s growing conditions. Not only that, it’s also quite a simple process.
Save seeds only from vigorous, healthy plants. Some plant diseases may be harbored in the seed where it will then be passed on to the next generation of plants. So don’t save seeds from a plant that is obviously diseased or has struggled all season. Collect seeds from the plants that have the characteristics you desire, such as height, hardiness, early or late ripening, flavor or vigor.
It is not recommended to save seeds from hybrid plants. Hybrids are the result of crossing two genetically different parent plants, both of which have been severely inbred to concentrate the desirable characteristics. The first generation, referred to as an F1 hybrid, is superior to the parents. But succeeding generations of plants grown from seed saved from an F1 plant tend to randomly revert to the characteristics of the original inbred ancestor plants.
Plants that are not hybrids are referred to as open pollinated. Many seed catalogs will identify which of their seeds are hybrids or open pollinated. If you intend to save your own seed, always start with open pollinated seeds. Some of these may also be identified as heirloom seeds. These heirloom varieties have been passed down for generations, often saved within one family for many years before becoming available to the general public.
Cross pollination is another concern for the seed-saving gardener. Cross pollination often results in seeds which have a different genetic makeup than that of the parent plant. Pumpkins, squash and small gourds may cross pollinate with each other, resulting in seeds that will grow to produce rather picturesque fruit. Sweet corn will cross pollinate with field corn or popcorn, and your 6-inch marigolds will cross with your neighbor’s 18-inch pompon marigolds. However, crossing will only occur within a species. Cucumbers won’t cross with squash, and cosmos won’t cross with pansies.
To avoid cross pollination, keep two varieties of the same species separated by as much space as possible. Some species, such as corn, are wind-pollinated and the pollen can travel great distances. These plants must be pollinated by hand and kept isolated from other varieties of their species. This can be done with corn, for example, by tying a small paper bag over selected ears before the silk emerges, then once the silk has appeared it is hand pollinated with pollen from the same plant or its healthy neighbors.
Seeds should be collected on a dry, sunny day. Frost doesn’t hurt most seed as long as the seed remains dry. Vegetables such as cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes should be allowed to become slightly overripe before their seeds are collected. Flower seeds and vegetable seed such as lettuce should be collected after the seedheads have become dry, but don’t wait too long, as many will shatter, meaning they’ll be dropped from the seedpod or seedhead if they remain on the plant too long.
Cucumber, squash and tomato seeds need an additional step before they are ready for storage. First the seeds must be separated from the pulp, then dried. Scoop the seeds from these vegetables, pulp and all. Place the whole mess in a container of water and give it a good stir, then let it settle a bit. The pulp will rise to the top while the seeds will sink to the bottom. Carefully pour off the pulp, and repeat the process until most of the pulp has been poured off. Then strain out the seeds and set them on newspapers to dry.
Seeds should go into storage as dry as possible. Give all seed a post-harvest drying period of at least a week, just to be sure they’re dry. Spread them out on a paper plate or newspapers in a warm area out of the sun while they dry.
It’s very important to keep the seed dry during storage. Store your dry seeds in tightly sealed jars, metal film containers, or old vitamin bottles. To save space, smaller quantities of several varieties of seeds can be stored in separate envelopes inside a jar. A cool, but never freezing, garage, closed-off spare room or cool basement can all be good places for storing seeds. Or simply keep your sealed jars of seeds in the refrigerator. Temperatures between 32 and 41 degrees Fahrenheit are ideal.
Be sure to label your jars and envelopes so when spring comes around again you’ll know which flower seeds and vegetable seeds you’re planting, and include the date the seeds were collected. Some seeds will remain viable for several years, but most will grow best if planted right away the following spring.
Try saving some vegetable or flower seeds from your garden this year and grow them next season. This endless cycle can allow you to realize the endless joy of gardening through all the seasons and all the stages of a plant’s life.
Kathy Anderson has been an avid gardener for many years and has grown tomatoes by the acre, along with many other vegetables, flowers and landscape plants. Kathy recommends http://www.freeplants.com as a great place to learn more about gardening. Article provided by http://gardening-articles.com.
The Secret of Rooting Cuttings
by Michael J. McGroarty
The secret of rooting cuttings can be summed up in two words.
“Timing and technique”.
When you do your cuttings is every bit as important as how you do them. So if you do the right thing, at the right time of the year, your efforts are sure to bring success. Through this article you will learn both.
"Rooting Hardwood Cuttings of Deciduous Plants"
Hardwood cuttings are much more durable than softwood cuttings which is why hardwoods are the best technique for the home gardener. A deciduous plant is a plant that loses it’s leaves during the winter. All plants go dormant during the winter, but evergreens keep their foliage. Many people don’t consider Rhododendrons, Azaleas, and and Mountain Laurel evergreens, but they are. They are known as broad leaf evergreens. Any plant that completely loses it’s leaves is a deciduous plant.
There are three different techniques for rooting cuttings of deciduous plants. Two methods for hardwood cuttings, and one for softwood cuttings. In this article we are only going to discuss rooting cuttings using the hardwood methods. If you are interested in softwood cuttings, you'll find a very informative article at http://www.freeplants.com
Of the two hardwood techniques is one better than the other? It depends on exactly what you are rooting, what the soil conditions are at your house, and what Mother Nature has up her sleeve for the coming winter.
I have experienced both success and failure using each method. Only experimentation will determine what works best for you. Try some cuttings using each method.
I have experienced both success and failure using each method. Only experimentation will determine what works best for you. Try some cuttings using each method.
When doing hardwood cuttings of deciduous plants, you should wait until the parent plants are completely dormant. This does not happen until you’ve experienced a good hard freeze where the temperature dips down below 32 degrees F. for a period of several hours. Here in northeastern Ohio this usually occurs around mid November.
Unlike softwood cuttings of deciduous plants, where you only take tip cuttings from the ends of the branches, that rule does not apply to hardwood cuttings of deciduous plants. For instance, a plant such as Forsythia can grow as much as four feet in one season. In that case, you can use all of the current year's growth to make hardwood cuttings.
You might be able to get six or eight cuttings from one branch. Grapes are extremely vigorous. A grape vine can grow up to ten feet or more in one season. That entire vine can be used for hardwood cuttings. Of course with grape vines, there is considerable space between the buds, so the cuttings have to be much longer than most other deciduous plants. The average length of a hardwood grape vine cutting is about 12” and still only has 3 or 4 buds. The bud spacing on most other deciduous plants is much closer, so the cuttings only need to be about 6- 8” in length.
Making a deciduous hardwood cutting is quite easy. Just collect some branches (known as canes) from the parent plants. Clip these canes into cuttings about 6” long. Of course these canes will not have any leaves on them because the plant is dormant, but if you examine the canes closely you will see little bumps along the cane. These bumps are bud unions. They are next year’s leaf buds or nodes, as they are often called.
When making a hardwood cutting of a deciduous plant it is best to make the cut at the bottom, or the butt end of the cutting just below a node, and make the cut at the top of the cutting about 3/4” above a node. This technique serves two purposes. One, it makes it easier for you to distinguish the top of the cutting from the bottom of the cutting as you handle them. It also aids the cutting in two different ways. Any time you cut a plant above a node, the section of stem left above that node will die back to the top node. So if you were to leave 1/2” of stem below the bottom node, it would just die back anyway. Having that section of dead wood underground is not a good idea. It is only a place for insects and disease to hide.
It is also helpful to actually injure a plant slightly when trying to force it to develop roots. When a plant is injured, it develops a callous over the wound as protection. This callous build up is necessary before roots will develop. Cutting just below a node on the bottom of a cutting causes the plant to develop callous and eventually, roots.
Making the cut on the top of the cutting 3/4” above the node is done so that the 3/4” section of stem above the node will provide protection for the top node. This keeps the buds from being damaged or knocked off during handling and planting. You can press down on the cutting without harming the buds.
Making the cut on the top of the cutting 3/4” above the node is done so that the 3/4” section of stem above the node will provide protection for the top node. This keeps the buds from being damaged or knocked off during handling and planting. You can press down on the cutting without harming the buds.
When rooting cuttings this way it helps to make the cut at the top of the cutting at an angle. This sheds water away from the cut end of the cutting and helps to reduce the chance of disease. Once you have all of your cuttings made, dip the bottom of the cutting in a rooting compound. Make sure you have the right strength rooting compound (available at most garden stores) for hardwood cuttings. Line them up so the butt ends are even and tie them into bundles.
Select a spot in your garden that is in full sun. Dig a hole about 12” deep and large enough to hold all of the bundles of cuttings. Place the bundles of cuttings in the hole upside down. The butt ends of the cuttings should be up. The butt ends of the cuttings should be about 6” below the surface. Cover the cuttings completely with soil and mark the location with a stake, so you can find them again in the spring.
I know this sounds crazy, but rooting cuttings this way does work. To increase your chances of success you can cover the butt ends of the cuttings with moist peat moss before filling in the hole. Make sure you wet the peat moss thoroughly, then just pack it on the butt ends of the cuttings.
Over the winter the cuttings will develop callous and possibly some roots. Placing them in the hole upside down puts the butt ends closest to the surface, so they can be warmed by the sun, creating favorable conditions for root development. Being upside down also discourages top growth. Leave them alone until about mid spring after the danger of frost has passed.
Over the winter the buds will begin to develop and will be quite tender when you dig them up. Frost could do considerable damage if you dig them and plant them out too early. That’s why it is best to leave them buried until the danger of frost has passed.
Over the winter the buds will begin to develop and will be quite tender when you dig them up. Frost could do considerable damage if you dig them and plant them out too early. That’s why it is best to leave them buried until the danger of frost has passed.
Dig them up very carefully, so as not to damage them. Cut open the bundles and examine the butt ends. Hopefully, you will see some callous build up. Even if there is no callous, plant them out anyway. You don’t need a bed of sand or anything special when you plant the cuttings out. Just put them in a sunny location in your garden. Of course the area you chose should be well drained, with good rich topsoil.
To plant the cuttings, just dig a very narrow trench, or using a spade, make a slice by prying open the ground. Place the cuttings in the trench with the butt ends down. Bury about one half of the cutting leaving a few buds above ground. Back fill around the cuttings with loose soil making sure there are no air pockets. Tamp them in lightly, then water thoroughly to eliminate any air pockets.
Water them on a regular basis, but don’t make the soil so wet that they rot. Within a few weeks the cuttings will start to leaf out. Some will more than likely collapse because there are not enough roots to support the plant. The others will develop roots as they leaf out. By fall, the cuttings that survived should be pretty well rooted. You can transplant them once they are dormant, or you can wait until spring. If you wait until spring, make sure you transplant them before they break dormancy.
There really is no exact science when it comes to rooting cuttings, so now I am going to present you with a variation of the above method. This method still applies to hardwood cuttings of deciduous plants. With this variation you do everything exactly the same as you do with the method you just learned, up to the point where you bury them for the winter.
With method number two you don’t bury them at all. Instead, you plant the cuttings out as soon as you make them in the late fall, or anytime during the winter when the ground is not frozen. In other words, you just completely skip the step where you bury the cuttings underground for the winter. Plant them exactly the same way as described for method number one. As with all cuttings, treating them with a rooting compound prior to planting will help induce root growth.
Hardwood cuttings work fairly well for most of the deciduous shrubs. However, they are not likely to work for some of the more refined varieties of deciduous ornamentals like Weeping Cherries or other ornamental trees. Rooting cuttings of ornamental trees is possible, but only using softwood cutting techniques.
Now let's discuss rooting cuttings of evergreens, using hardwood techniques.
Hardwood cuttings of evergreens are usually done after you have experienced two heavy frosts in the late fall, around mid November or so. However, I have obtained good results with some plants doing them as early as mid September, taking advantage of the warmth of the fall sun. When doing them is early, they need to be watered everyday.
Try some cuttings early and if they do poorly, just do some more in November. Hardwood cuttings of many evergreens can be done at home in a simple frame filled with coarse sand.
To make such a frame, just make a square or rectangular frame using 2” by 6” boards. Nail the four corners together as if to make a large picture frame. This frame should sit on top of the ground in an area that is well drained. An area of partial shade is preferred.
To make such a frame, just make a square or rectangular frame using 2” by 6” boards. Nail the four corners together as if to make a large picture frame. This frame should sit on top of the ground in an area that is well drained. An area of partial shade is preferred.
Once you have the frame constructed remove any weeds or grass inside the frame so this vegetation does not grow up through your propagation bed. Fill this frame with a very coarse grade of sand. The sand used in swimming pool filters usually works. Mason's sand is a little too fine. If you have a sand and gravel yard in your area visit the site and inspect the sand piles. Find a grade that is a little more coarse than masons sand. But keep in mind that most any sand will work, so just pick one that you think is coarse enough. If water runs through it easily, it's coarse enough.
Make sure you place your frame in area where the water can drain through the sand, and out of the frame. In other words, don't select a soggy area for your cutting bed. Standing water is sure to seriously hamper your results.
Making the evergreen cuttings is easy. Just clip a cutting 4-5 inches in length from the parent plant. Make tip cuttings only. (Only one cutting from each branch.) Strip the needles or leaves from the bottom one half to two thirds of the cutting. Wounding evergreen cuttings isn’t usually necessary because removing the leaves or needles causes enough injury for callous build up and root development.
Dip the butt ends of the cuttings in a powder or liquid rooting compound and stick them in the sand about 3/4” to 1” apart. Keep them watered throughout the fall until cool temperatures set in. If you have some warm dry days over the winter, make sure you water your cuttings. Keep in mind that sand in a raised bed will dry out very quickly. Don't worry about snow. Snow covering your cuttings is just fine, it will actually keep them moist, and protect them from harsh winter winds.
Start watering again in the spring and throughout the summer. They don’t need a lot of water, but be careful not to let them dry out, and at the same time making sure they are not soaking wet.
This method of rooting cuttings of evergreens actually works very well, but it does take some time. You should leave them in the frame for a period of twelve months. You can leave them longer if you like. Leaving them until the following spring would be just fine. They should develop more roots over the winter.
Rooting cuttings of the following plants is very easy using this method. variegated Euonymus varieties, Taxus, Juniper, Arborvitae, Japanese Holly, Boxwood, and English Holly. Rhododendrons and Azaleas prefer to have their bottoms warmed before they root.
Michael J. McGroarty is the author of this article. Visit his most interesting website, http://www.freeplants.com and sign up for his excellent gardening newsletter. Article provided by, http://gardening-articles.com.
How to Make Money at Home Growing Small Landscape Plants on 1/20 Acre or Less
by Michael J. McGroarty
Small town, big town, it doesn’t matter, if you have a small area in your backyard that you can use for planting, then you can make money growing small plants at home. Actually you can make pretty good money on 1/40 of one acre. That’s an area about 30 feet by 40 feet.
You will be amazed at how many plants you can fit in an area that small, and at how much money you can make. Even apartment dwellers can do this! If you live in an apartment, just to get a feel for how fun and rewarding a tiny nursery can be, find somebody with a little piece of ground that they will either let you use, let you rent it, or do a joint venture with you.
Is there really a market for small plants? The market is huge, something like 4 billion dollars last year alone, and the demand is tremendous. As a small grower, you have a tremendous advantage over the larger nurseries, their overhead is very high. As a backyard grower yours will be almost nothing.
You might be asking; "I live in a small town in a rural area, how many plants can I really sell?"
Tens of thousands if you want to. Most people don’t realize it, but large wholesale growers are the largest buyers of small plants in the country. They sell so many plants that they just can not produce them fast enough themselves, so they buy them from where ever they can find them. Just pack them up in a cardboard box and ship them anywhere you want.
I routinely buy large quantities of small plants and have them shipped thousands of miles to my house. Why do I buy plants if I know how to grow them myself? There are a lot of reasons, but one is because I am impatient and don’t like to grow Japanese Maples from seed. I can buy Japanese Maple seedlings for as little as 75¢ and all I have to do is pot them up and watch them grow.
I also buy large quantities of flowering shrubs that I would like to start propagating myself. I buy them for 50¢, pot them up, and often sell them the next year for $4.97. But in the mean time I take cuttings from them to propagate for next year’s crop. Then I never have to buy that variety again.
Those are the same reasons that many wholesale nurseries are always looking for great deals on small plants. When they find someone like you, growing in their backyard they are delighted, because they know they can buy what they need for less money from a small backyard grower than they can if they buy from a large nursery.
Those are the same reasons that many wholesale nurseries are always looking for great deals on small plants. When they find someone like you, growing in their backyard they are delighted, because they know they can buy what they need for less money from a small backyard grower than they can if they buy from a large nursery.
It only stands to reason, your overhead is almost nothing, you don’t have to raise the price of your plants to pay for buildings, hundreds of acres of land, trucks, tractors, and dozens of employees.
How much money do you need to get started?
Almost none. All you have to do is root some cuttings, and you’re on your way! There are dozens of easy plant propagation techniques that are so easy to learn that young children can do them, and with great success I might add.
This propagation information is available to you free of charge atwww.freeplants.com
This propagation information is available to you free of charge atwww.freeplants.com
The size of the area you need to get started is really up to you, but an area about the size of a picnic table is a start. I’m serious. I root my cuttings in flats that are about 12” by 15”, and can get between 100 and 150 cuttings per flat. In an area about the size of a picnic table you should be able to root several thousand cuttings at a time.
And guess what? As soon as they are well rooted, they have a value and can be sold immediately! Isn’t that cool? Typically a rooted cutting is worth about 50¢. Let’s see now, 1500 cuttings at 50¢ each, that’s $750.!!! Wow!!! The wheels should be turning now.
And guess what? As soon as they are well rooted, they have a value and can be sold immediately! Isn’t that cool? Typically a rooted cutting is worth about 50¢. Let’s see now, 1500 cuttings at 50¢ each, that’s $750.!!! Wow!!! The wheels should be turning now.
But you don't have to sell 50¢ plants, you can grow them until they’re bigger and get more money for them. That’s what I do, I pot them up in small pots and they sell like crazy right from my driveway at $4.97 each.
This spring we sold over $25,000. worth of $4.97 plants right from our driveway. One the people that bought my Backyard Nursery E-book held a sale this spring and sold $2,800. worth of plants her first weekend. She was ecstatic! Of course we also sold plants for much more than that. I used to grow Japanese Red Maples and we sold those for $45. each, and they sold like hot cakes!
This spring we sold over $25,000. worth of $4.97 plants right from our driveway. One the people that bought my Backyard Nursery E-book held a sale this spring and sold $2,800. worth of plants her first weekend. She was ecstatic! Of course we also sold plants for much more than that. I used to grow Japanese Red Maples and we sold those for $45. each, and they sold like hot cakes!
This is one of the most fun and rewarding home businesses you could ever get involved in. My kids have learned work ethics, the value of a dollar, and skills that will last them a lifetime. Anytime they needed a little extra money all they had to do was step out the back door and earn the money they need.
It costs very little to get started, and the rewards can be quite high.
It’s certainly not a get rich quick plan (because there is no such thing!), but plenty of people have done very well in the nursery business. All it takes is determination and hard work. You can learn it as you go along. It’s much easier than you think.
It’s certainly not a get rich quick plan (because there is no such thing!), but plenty of people have done very well in the nursery business. All it takes is determination and hard work. You can learn it as you go along. It’s much easier than you think.
Michael J. McGroarty is the author of this article. Visit his most interesting website, http://www.freeplants.com and sign up for his excellent gardening newsletter. Article provided by, http://gardening-articles.com.
Cheap Plants
Hunt for marked down plants in garden centres. Most only need some T.L.C to revive them. Another great place for cheap plants are boot sales. Some people sell of their surplus plants at a low price. Don't forget to haggle.
Controlling Insects Organically
By Kathy Anderson
Most gardeners are anxious to get out into their gardens as soon as the weather warms up and the first green sprout appears. Unfortunately, plant-eating insects are just as anxious as we are to get into the garden. They seem to think that our beautiful shrubs and tasty vegetables were planted for their benefit!
There are many fine products available in catalogs and garden centers to control insects. But for health or environmental reasons, some gardeners are hesitant to use chemicals in their garden, especially in a vegetable garden.
So what can you do to avoid sharing your beautiful flowers, shrubs and vegetables with every insect that passes through the neighborhood without using potentially harmful chemicals?
Practicing good garden housekeeping should be your first defense in the battle of gardener versus insects. In other words, keep a clean garden and don’t give the insects a place to hide and reproduce. Rake up any dead leaves from the ground and discard them, or better yet, add them to your compost. Harvest vegetables as soon as they ripen, and don’t leave over-ripe vegetables in the garden. Clear out all dead foliage from your gardens in the fall. Prune out any dead or damaged branches from your trees and shrubs, making clean cuts without ragged edges where insects can hide.
If you find insect damage on your plants, there are a large number of organic products that work in a variety of ways to kill insects or discourage them from eating your garden plants. Because many organic insect controls are used for specific types of insects, it is very important to know what insects you are dealing with before choosing the correct organic insecticide. Carefully examine the damaged plant to find the culprits, looking under the leaves and along the stems where they may be hiding. Your county’s Ag Extension Agent can help identify specific insects, or you can also do an online search for insect identification sites.
Butterflies often lay their eggs on plants, and when those eggs hatch the little caterpillars will stay and feed on the plant as they grow. Caterpillars can be controlled using a common organic insecticide known as Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt. Bt is a naturally occurring bacteria that causes caterpillars to stop eating and die. There are several varieties of Bt that can be used, depending on the type of caterpillar you’re after, including one specific to Colorado potato beetle larvae and another for corn earworms. Bt is also effective against tomato hornworms, the little green worms that like broccoli and cabbage, and bagworms. Bt should be applied at 1-2 week intervals to kill succeeding generations of insects. Gardeners with butterfly gardens should avoid using Bt on their plants because it is harmful to butterfly caterpillars. However, Bt is completely harmless to pets and people.
Diatomaceous earth is another natural insecticide that may be used on a variety of insects. Diatomaceous earth is a fine powder that feels like talc, but it is actually the fossilized skeletal remains of small aquatic critters called diatoms. It is completely harmless to people and pets, but when soft-bodied insects come in contact with it, the tiny sharp edges of the diatoms lacerate the insects, making them dehydrate and perish. Apply diatomaceous earth in the early morning or evening when the plants are wet with dew, which will make the powder stick to the surface of the leaves and doom the insects that walk through it. Diatomaceous earth can be used to control ants, aphids, beetle grubs, box-elder bugs, flea beetles, those nasty little earwigs and many more insects. It’s also safe to use on houseplants, and can even be sprinkled on the ground to control slugs.
Insecticidal soap is another favorite organic insect control. Safe to use around bees, birds, and animals, insecticidal soap is made of fatty acid salts. It can be used in the garden and on houseplants to control aphids, spider mites, whiteflies and some leafhoppers and caterpillars. The drawback to insecticidal soap is that it must be sprayed directly onto the offending insects to be effective. Insects breathe through their shells, and insecticidal soap suffocates insects by coating their shells so they cannot breathe. Insecticidal soap must be applied thoroughly and repeatedly for the best results.
There are also plant-based insecticides available. The seeds of the Neem tree produce an oil that disrupts insects’ reproductive cycle, preventing them from multiplying. The Neem tree is native to Southeast Asia and is also grown now in Australia for its insecticidal properties. Neem works quickly and is effective against a variety of caterpillars, beetles, aphids and borers.
Many insects are actually fussy eaters and they won’t eat plants that are distasteful to them. If you’ve grown garlic you may have noticed that insects leave it alone. You can find insect repellants made with garlic that can be sprayed onto plants to prevent insects from eating them. These garlic-based insect repellents become odorless within five minutes after they’re applied and leave no aftertaste on food crops. The plants actually absorb the garlic and stay distasteful to insects for up to a month. There are also garden insect repellants available that are made with hot peppers. Like the garlic-based repellants, the hot pepper repellants are sprayed on the plants to make them distasteful to insects.
Organic insecticides and insect repellants are becoming available at more garden centers and gardening catalogs every year. It is not difficult to control insects with organic insecticides, but the organic gardener must be diligent with frequent plant inspections and take prompt action to avoid infestations when insect damage is found in the garden.
Kathy Anderson has been an avid gardener for many years and has grown tomatoes by the acre, along with many other vegetables, flowers and landscape plants. Kathy recommends http://www.freeplants.com as a great place to learn more about gardening. Article provided by http://gardening-articles.com.
How to Make Money Growing Rooted Cuttings and Selling them Wholesale
by Michael J. McGroarty
Once you know how to effectively propagate landscape plants, you will soon have more rooted cuttings than you can use. At that time you can decide whether or not you should quit growing cuttings, since you have all you need, or maybe you like to sell some of your cuttings to a wholesale grower.
Let's discuss how easy it is to start a business selling lining out stock. That’s what nurserymen call the little plants that they buy to plant out in the field or in containers. Lining out stock, or liners for short.
“Nurserymen buy plants?” You might be asking.
Yes they do. Nurserymen probably buy more plants than any other group of people in the country. Why would they buy them if they know how to grow them?
Because sometimes they can’t grow them fast enough to keep up with the demand. Or maybe they would like to grow a certain variety of plant, but can’t grow it themselves because they don’t have any place to get several thousand cuttings. So what they do is buy in rooted cuttings, plant them in the field or in containers, and then they either grow them on to sell, or they grow them on and just keep them around a year or two longer so they can take cuttings from them.
Then once they have a supply of their own plants they can sell the ones they bought in, that are now landscape size. Does this make sense?
Let’s say that Mary the nursery owner buys 1,000 Variegated Weigela rooted cuttings @ 50¢ each. She plants them in the field in the early spring and they take off growing like crazy. That summer she goes out and takes 3 cuttings from each plant (They need pruning away, right?).
She sticks those 3,000 cuttings under intermittent mist and in about 5 weeks she has 3,000 rooted cuttings that she can plant out that fall, and she does just that. The following summer she can get about6,000 cuttings from the original 1000 plants that she bought, plus another 9,000 cuttings from the 3,000 she planted out last fall.
That’s a total of 12,000 cuttings.
That’s a total of 12,000 cuttings.
She continues to plant her rooted cuttings out in the field and keeps taking cuttings from them until she has all she wants to grow. From then on she can take as many cuttings as she needs from the plants that she has in the field.
By now the original 1,000 plants that she bought @ 50¢ each are large enough to dig and sell, and they are worth $10.00 to $15.00 each wholesale. That’s $8,000 from a $500 investment, plus she can produce as many variegated weigela as she wants without buying any more cuttings.
By now the original 1,000 plants that she bought @ 50¢ each are large enough to dig and sell, and they are worth $10.00 to $15.00 each wholesale. That’s $8,000 from a $500 investment, plus she can produce as many variegated weigela as she wants without buying any more cuttings.
Does it really happen this way? Yes it does. I was recently talking to a friend who grows and sells all kinds of plants and he told me that he has been buying Dwarf Alberta Spruce cuttings and growing them on and selling them. He doesn’t even root any himself, he just buys 5,000 every year, pots them up and sells them wholesale. How many other nurseryman across the country do you suppose do that?
To get started you can either buy a stock plant or two, or buy several hundred cuttings of the variety that you would like to sell. Instead of planting them out in the field, I would plant them in beds. Make each bed 4’ wide so you can reach the center to weed and take cuttings, and place the plants in the bed 10” apart.
As long as you keep taking cuttings the plants will remain fairly small, and compact. Then after a two or three years dig them up, put them in pots and sell them. By then you will have thousands more coming on that you can take cuttings from. Start out slow until you know what there is a market for.
Michael J. McGroarty is the author of this article. Visit his most interesting website, http://www.freeplants.com and sign up for his excellent gardening newsletter. Article provided by http://gardening-articles.com.
How to Build a Simple Potting Bench
by Michael J. McGroarty
The potting bench that you are about to read about is not fancy, but very functional. It is also very easy to build and use. Except it doesn't have any legs! Don't panic, having a legless potting bench is actually a benefit, I'll get to that a little later.
The potting bench described in this article is actually identical to the potting bench that we have been using for years in our backyard nursery, and it has served us well, potting up tens of thousands of plants. I like it because it is large enough to pot up around ten small plants at a time, and it holds a significant amount of soil.
However, since I originally wrote this article, I designed and built a potting bench for home gardeners that you may like better. There are lots of photos and step by step plans for building it on this page: http://www.freeplants.com/free-potting-bench-plans.htm
On the above page you will also find a photo of one of my other potting bench designs, an outhouse with a flip out potting bench! It's unique, that's for sure.
Okay, back to my legless potting bench.
Here's a short list of what you'll need to build Mike's rugged, but functional potting bench.
Tools: A screwdriver, a small box wrench or crescent wrench, or if you have a 1/4" drive socket set that's even better. A tape measure, a small square, a drill, and a power saw.
Materials: One full sheet (4' by 8') of 3/4" treated plywood. Make sure it is treated so it will last a long time. Untreated plywood does not hold up well at all outdoors.
15 dohickeys (you know, those little metal angle brackets, or corner brackets used to connect two boards together at a right angle. These metal brackets are bent in a 90 degree angle and have two holes drilled in them).
30 bolts with nuts 1-¼" long, and the correct size to fit the angle brackets you buy.
60 flat washers that fit the bolts
Notice in the above photo that one end of the bench is resting on the potting soil pile, and the other on concrete blocks. Not having legs is really an advantage because you can get the potting bench much closer to your potting soil pile.
Before you start, draw this out on paper so you know exactly what each piece of wood is supposed to look like before make any cuts. This way you won't make a mistake that will ruin your piece of plywood.
Lay the plywood on a flat surface, like your garage floor. From one end measure in 16" and draw a line across the sheet of plywood. With your saw, cut along this line. The piece that you are cutting off is 16" by 48".
Now draw a diagonal line across the smaller piece of plywood. (The one you just removed from the sheet.) Cut along this line. You should now have two triangular pieces that measure 48" on one side and 16" on one side.
These pieces should be in the shape of a right triangle. Now you are going to remove a small piece from the pointed end of the triangular pieces. To do this, measure 24" from the right angle, along the 48" side and make a mark. Using a small square draw a line from this mark across the pointed end of the plywood. This line should be at a right angle to the 48" side of the board. This line should only be about 4" long. Cut along this line, removing the small piece from the pointed end. Discard the small piece you cut off. The piece you have left should be 16" on one end, 24" on one side, and about 4" where you made the cut to remove the pointed end.
The two smaller boards you have left should be identical. These are the sides for your potting bench.
Now back to the larger piece of wood. This piece should now measure 80" by 48". From the long side measure over 16" and draw a line from one end to the other. Cut along this line. The piece you are removing should be 16" by 80", leaving a piece 32" by 80".
These two pieces will serve as the bottom and the back of your potting bench. Take the back piece and stand it on edge, on top of the piece that will serve as the bottom of the bench to get an idea of how your potting bench is going to fit together. Make five marks where you will mount the angle brackets that will hold these two pieces together. Just space the five brackets along the two boards, making sure not to put any too close to the end so they don't interfere when you install the two end pieces. Just keep the brackets about 1-½" from each end.
Note: Once you have the brackets installed and the bolts all tight you might want to cut off the ends of the bolts and file them smooth if they are sticking out so far as to be a hazard when you are handling the potting bench.
Once you have all five brackets installed and the back of the potting bench mounted to the bottom, you can then install the two side pieces. With the two side pieces installed you are now the proud owner of a legless potting bench. You can install legs if you'd like to, but I like mine without legs because I can get it much closer to my pile of potting soil.
What I do is rest one end of the bench right on the pile of potting soil, and then support the other end with a saw horse, concrete blocks, or milk crates. By placing one end right on the soil pile, it is very easy to shovel the soil onto the bench. Not having legs also makes the bench easier to store and move around.
When I want to use it as a table for making cuttings, I just put a saw horse under each end.
There you have it. Mike's famous legless potting bench. It ain't pretty, but it's very functional.
Michael J. McGroarty is the author of this article. Visit his most interesting website, http://www.freeplants.com and sign up for his excellent gardening newsletter. Article provided by http://gardening-articles.com.
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