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Articles / Information / Listing Page Planting Flowers, Shrubs, and Trees ~ The Gardener ~ In this Issue: Publishers Notes
Daily Chuckle
Article: Planting Tips Internet Tip: Email Etiquette Useful Links ~ Publisher's Notes ~ Wha' happened??? We were doing spring clean-ups, and wham,
blizzard city, and below zero last
night! The cold has settle to the
Ohio River Valley. That'll learn
us.
It's just as well, we've plenty of work to do in the maintenance
garage, anyway. We've
ordered lots of parts to rebuild equipment
for spring. Dad, (our designer)
is drawing tons of plans, and
this should be a busy year,
Speaking of ordering, we've ordered
100 copies of LandDesigner to
offer on our website.
We'll let you know when they come in. I love
having so many pictures of nursery
stock and plants on file and ready
to print! (LandDesigner has a
great plant encyclopedia.)
Spring/Summer 2002 Catalogs ship out
April 1st-7th. Sorry we
ran out of 2001 catalogs
about January 15th... Everything
is listed at the site, if you don't
want to wait for the catalog!
Yes, we are still shipping our bare root flowers/perennials all over
the nation. Cold does not slow
that down. If it's warm where
you are, now is the best time to
plant. Today's letter is a hodge-
podge of planting tips for plants,
shrubs, and trees. But first:
~ Moron Driving Rules ~
When there's traffic behind you,
always drive 8-20 MPH below
the posted limit.
When driving at a slower speed, stay
in the left-most lane.
Whenever possible, cut off other
drivers and slow down.
You always have the right of way.
Slow down drastically for every little
bump in the road.
Whenever you see a police car, even
parked, slam on the brakes
and drive 15-20 MPH slower than the
speed limit.
While traveling down residential
streets, drive 2 MPH and look at all
the houses and landscaping. In fact,
look everywhere except out the
front windshield.
Swerve into the opposite lanes to
avoid hitting roadside obstacles...
like Styrofoam cups and Twinkie
wrappers.
Make sure you have at least one of the
following bumper stickers:
"I may be slow but I'm ahead of you"
"If you don't like my driving, get
off the sidewalk"
"If you can read this, you're too
close"
"I'd rather be skiing"
"I brake for no apparent reason"
If for some reason you had to pull
over on the shoulder,
wait until a car is approaching to
pull back onto the road.
If you get lost while driving, the
best place to stop and get your
bearings is at a green light.
If another driver is courteous
enough to let you in front of him/her,
show your appreciation by letting
the entire world in front of you,
including tractor trailers and
construction vehicles.
The more expensive of a car you
drive, the more you have the right of way.
When parking on a residential street
without curbs, always make
sure that you park partially on
someone's lawn.
And finally ~
After you cut off a vehicle, give a
"Thanks-for-letting-me-in" wave
and nod to the other driver.
~ Planting Tips / Techniques ~
Even if you have fairly good soil in
your flower beds,
work up a generous area where you
will be planting
your flowers. The soften dirt
makes a HUGE difference
the first year. Add some extra
humus, too. For example:
If planting a small potted plant,
dig your hole working up
the soil at least 6-10" larger than
the pot. This will allow
the moisture to really get down to
the plant roots instead
of just running off. Also the
soil will take about a year to
re-compact, giving the new feeder
roots time to get well
established. This is a
good rule for ALL plants/shrubs/trees.
Be carefull when planting potted and
balled and burlapped
items to not dig below the depth of
the pot or ball. Having
loosened soil UNDER the plant will
cause it to settle all
year, breaking new roots, and
possibly leaving it too deep,
resulting in death. (ouch).
Most plants cannot tolerate
soil over the stalks of the plants,
and will girdle and rot
at the trunks.
Use bark mulch at a depth of 4-6"
after planting most trees
and shrubs, but be very careful
about mulching perennials.
Flowers tend to not like the acidity
that comes from bark
mulch. A better mulch for
flowers is some pure humus from
your compost pile, or none at all.
I know most flowers tend to have a
recommended spacing.
Ignore what they tell you!
Annuals should be planted close
enough together to offer each other
a little shade. Feed them
to make up for any crowding
problems, and your blooms
will be spectacular when you have
crowded them at planting.
Perennials should also be crowded at
first, then spaced apart
in later years, so leave some areas
around your grouping
for expansion. You'll have
better color when they begin to
bloom. Un-crowd (space) your
perennials as your "color
show" allows. Some gardeners
might space out perennials
after one year, others it might be
three or four years before
they are really crowded. It
would depend on a lot of things...
Balled and burlapped shrubs will
always perform better
then potted shrubs. B & B
items were actually grown
in the field. Most
potted shrubs have never been in the ground.
Trees are often very slow to get
started. When planting add a
good mineral mix that will encourage
root growth. We use
bone meal. Remove ALL of
the sand below the top soil
when digging the hole (this goes for
shrubs, too). Use the sand
you excavate to fill the kids
sandbox, or fill low spots in your
yard. Use pure clean bagged
topsoil from your garden center
mixed 50/50 with your compost pile
(or bagged compost) to
refill your hole as you plant your
tree or shrub. Water well,
and you will have excellent growth,
even the first year. If you
really want to get daring, throw a
couple of handfulls of 12-12-12
into the mix, too. It will
really get things started quick.
Our bare root woodland flowers and
perennials should be planted
shallow, with the bud or stem up.
You can pretty much tell the depth
they were when they were growing.
Smaller roots will be just below
the surface! Keep them moist
the first year. Most like humus.
Don't bark mulch wildflowers or
perennials after the first year, and
even the first year, use a shallow
mulch - about an inch.
Most of our perennials are pretty
well know. Some of our
wildflowers will be lesser known.
If you are not sure how well
they will do in your area, do a
little research. They are a fun
hobby! Our rule of
thumb- We always plant wildflowers in at
least 4 varieties of 100 ea. at a
given home, in groups of 30 or
40, so we have lots of groupings all
over the place. No matter
how hard we try, it always seems
that one of the varieties decides
it isn't going to do very well.
The same plant might be thriving
just a mile down the road under the
same conditions... That's
the way wildflowers are.
Start with some of the easier ones,
like May Apples or Cinnamon Ferns,
before moving on to the
tougher ones.
~ Internet Tip: E-mail Etiquette ~
1. PLEASE DON'T TYPE IN ALL CAPS.
IT'S HARD TO READ
AND IS THE EQUIVALENT OF SHOUTING. I
know, some of
you think it's easier to read, but I
don't make the rules, I'm just
tellin' ya about them.
2 use punctuation its hard to read stuff that doesnt have any commas capital letters periods or apostrophes 3. Usee yur spall chacker. Its annyang to try to reede constent spalling misstakes. 4. When forwarding an e-mail to someone, copy and paste what you
want to send into a new e-mail, then
send it off. This is especially
true if you had to dig through tons
of "layers" to actually get to the
message of the e-mail.
5. Avoid embedding sounds and "stationary" in your messages. You
may think they're "cute" but they
take longer to download and can be
annoying to your recipient.
Additionally, when your recipient responds
to your e-mail, they may have to
re-format their text (especially color)
in order for it to be readable.
6. Re-read your e-mail message before you send it out. I don't know
how many times I thought I had
everything just right then found
something that was way out of place
when I re-read the document.
Hey, sometimes I miss stuff even
after I re-read (and re-read again :-).
7. Finally, don't use short hand. Stuff like "r u going to stp by ltr" can be hard to read. ~ Useful Links ~ Useful links at Great Lakes where you can get spring supplies: Water Garden Supplies, comlete kits, bacteria, filter media, lights, shipped next day: http://www.greatlakeslandscaping.net/watergardens.htm Wholesale Bare Root Plants, (TIP: Plant wildflower, perennial, ground covers just below surface, about an inch, water well.) Ships on Mondays for orders through the Thursday before. Occasional delays from wet fields: http://www.greatlakeslandscaping.net/plants.htm OASE Fountains, order EARLY, as they take about a month to ship, each being custom built by OASE to order, per nozzle, HP, lighting: http://www.greatlakeslandscaping.net/fountains.htm Vista Outdoor Lighting Kits and Supplies, ship next day, most items, some lights take a few days to get here first, it's hard to stock every item, but we try: http://www.greatlakeslandscaping.net/nite.htm Irrigation Supplies, sprinklers, controllers, NEW this year- DRIP IRRIGATION KITS and misc.drip supplies to irrigate your shrub beds and landscaping: http://www.greatlakeslandscaping.net/irrigation.htm See you in a few weeks, Spike
Contact me here ~
I enjoy hearing from you! Web Site: http://www.greatlakeslandscaping.net
* Water Garden Kits *
Vista Outdoor Lighting *
* OASE Fountains * Wholesale Plant Center * * Hunter * Rainbird * Catalog and Brochure * |
