Volume 13 Issue 2
May 2015
Growing With Us
June 13-Save the Date! June 13th we’ll present our first annual GoodSeed Garden Expo at Hilltop Event Center (adjacent to our garden center) to offer a learning experience for our customers and showcase our favorite products. We’ll have an indoor “mini-trade show”, product seminars, giveaway merchandise, and garden center specials, plus delicious barbecue, and admission is free. We are inviting some key suppliers to display, educate and mingle with our customers. So far we’re expecting Rusty Storrer of Monrovia Nurseries, Jessey Chaboudy of High Caliper Growing, Amar Grewal from DeerGone.com, and Greg Cooper from Pavestone. Adding to the roster are some local organizations like the Brown County Master gardeners (including weekly columnist Faye Mahaffey), Southern Ohio Forestland Association and Brown County Beekeepers. We’ll also have Estel Newberry’s Big “E” BBQ serving grilled specialties, and Buckeye Confections with their exceptional sweet treats. We have a full schedule of informative seminars, including sessions on hardscaping, tree care, woody plant grooming, new plant introductions, raised bed gardening and other hot topics. Our suppliers will be bringing plenty of free samples, plus prizes you’ll have a chance to win. Anyone bringing an empty bucket can get a free sample of GoodSeed Garden Mix, our revolutionary bulk soil for raised beds. In future years we’ll have our Garden Expo on the FIRST Saturday of June; this year the hall was already booked for June 6th so we’re going one week later for this year only. It would be a pleasure to see you on June 13th. Spend the day with us or just stop in for a few hours; we can assure Bring an empty bucket to our Garden Expo for you that you’ll learn a lot and have a good time! a free sample of GoodSeed Garden Mix
GoodSeed Nursery Hours:
It’s SPRING! Gorgeous Roses
Monday through Friday, rain or shine ................................ 10 AM to 7 PM HGTV Home Plants Saturday, rain or shine ............................................................ 9 AM to 6 PM Sunday ............................................................................................ Noon to 5PM Sweet Potato Starts
Maps, Directions & Schedules at www.goodseedfarm.com
Soils, Mulch & Stone
Growing With Us
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“Steve’s Soapbox”
“Steve-isms” I stumbled across a nugget of wisdom recently: “Plants allow you to eat sunlight!” What a great thought! In other words, plants convert sunlight into edible food. It really made me think. It made me look at nature in a different way. Those of you who have taken my classes already know I love simple ideas like this. I take delight in pruning wordy concepts down to simple, easily understood phrases with as few words “The best time to plant a tree is ten years as possible. It just helps get the point across, to ago. The next best time is today.” people of all ages and backgrounds. So, with apologies in advance to those who just love to make simple things complicated, let me share some of my favorite sayings: “Plants breathe through their roots.” Fluffy dirt (dirt mixed with air) is the secret that separates “green thumbs” from everyone else. Green thumbs are people who just seem to know how to make plants happy. They understand about fluffy dirt. Fluffy dirt is dirt mixed with air. Ingredients like peat moss help soils stay fluffy. They trap air. “The best weed control is complete darkness.” Without sunlight, most weed seeds can’t sprout. This is why we mulch generously, three inches thick. That’s how much mulch it takes to block out the sun. Skimpy mulch beats no mulch at all, but it takes three inches of mulch to really control weeds. “Whatever you spread on your gardens year after year, that’s what your soil will become.” If you mulch with nutritious pine bark or composted mulches, your soil will improve every year. Cover your soil with black plastic and dyed raw wood chips, or non-nutritious mulches like cypress, it’ll turn to cardboard or brick. “The best time to plant a tree is ten years ago. The next best time is today.” Trees are like compound interest; if you invest wisely they improve with time. If you keep putting it off, you’ll never catch up even if you plant mailorder hybrid poplars. The best trees grow slowly and live long. The worst trees grow the fastest and live the shortest. “Paint with the big brush first.” In design, the backbone or structure should come first. You can fill in the fussy details later. Bold is good. Good design is about simplicity. “Form should follow function”. “Less is more.” “Simplicate and then add lightness.” These nuggets of wisdom were made famous by great designers. “The best food for a dog is another dog.” Any living thing thrives on food that contains the same nutrients that living thing is made of. Forest floor topsoil is made of dead trees and fallen tree leaves. The reason compost is so good for plants is that compost is mostly made up of dead plants. That’s why Espoma Tone fertilizers are so much better for plants than 10-10-10 or Miracle Gro. They’re made of ground-up dead stuff, not petrochemicals. “Dig a hole, make a bowl.” If you plant in a hole in clay, you’ll just trap water around your plant’s roots. Most plants want to dry out between waterings, and if the water can’t drain it just sits there and drowns your plant. That’s why raised beds work so well. There needs to be a way for excess water to get away by gravity. As it exits, it pulls in air behind it. Plant need air in the soil because plants breathe through their roots. But I repeat myself... Perhaps I over-simplify. So, sue me. Or worse, write and correct me. Once you weed out all the technical jargon and exceptions to the rule, gardening is actually very simple and easily understood. It’s foster care for plants.
PULVERIZED TOPSOIL, COMPOST, SOIL BLENDS, MULCH, SAND & GRAVEL
..for pickup or “next business day” delivery: call 937-587-7021
Growing With Us
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Marjorie’s
Perennial Pick “Blanket Flower” If you're looking for a perennial with a long season of bloom, blanket flower (Gaillardia) is a great choice. The daisy-like flowers are produced from early summer to early fall in shades of orange, red and yellow, adding sizzle to the garden and attracting nectar-seeking butterflies. Blanket flowers love full sun and hot, dry weather. Established plants are quite drought tolerant, but newly installed blanket flowers should be watered often. They prefer loose, welldrained soil that’s not too fertile, with a pH near neutral or slightly alkaline. Cut the spent blooms off your blanket flowers regularly to encourage more flowering. Cutting back clumps to 6 inches in late summer helps insulate them for winter survival. Blanket flowers are a bright, cheerful addition to any sunny garden!
Grandma’s Apron The principal use of Grandma’s apron was to protect the dress underneath, but it also served as a holder for hot pans from the oven. It was wonderful for drying children’s tears, and on occasion even used for cleaning out dirty ears. From the chicken coop the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven. When company came those aprons were ideal places for shy kids, and when the weather was cold grandma wrapped it around her arms. Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over a hot wood stove. Chips and kindling were brought into the kitchen in that apron. From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After peas had been shelled it out the hulls to the compost pile. In the fall the apron was used to bring in windfall apples. When unexpected company drove up the lane, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds. When dinner was ready, grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields for dinner. It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that “old time apron” that served so many purposes… (This story reprinted from our Early Spring 2005 newsletter)
Growing With Us
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Mother’s Day Party! ...MORE THAN JUST FOOD & FLOWERS We’ve invited a few artists to our three day Mother’s Day Party! It’s time again for the annual gathering of mothers and daughters, grandmothers and grandkids, mothers-in-law and mothers-to-be, at GoodSeed Nursery for our 17th annual Country Garden Mothers Day Party. After seventeen years it’s an annual ritual, with a FREE gift plant for every mom. This year it’s Butterfly Bush! There’s one for you. This is our third Mother’s Day in our new, more convenient Winchester locaEvery mother gets a FREE Butterfly Bush! tion, with more parking and less walking! We’ve expanded and improved our garden center in many ways, to offer more selection and make shopping easier! COME HUNGRY! Our breakfast menu includes sausage & egg sandwiches, hot ham & egg sandwiches, coffee and donuts. New for this year is Estel Newberry’s “Big E BBQ”, serving succulent ribeye sandwiches, half-pound steak burgers, pulled chicken sandwiches, and an affordable kids menu. All day long we’ll have Papa’s Kettle Korn. Jo Hall’s Hilltop Event Center next door will be offering Mother’s Day Buffet dinner on Mother’s Day Sunday, by reservation, at 1:30PM. A great way to avoid lines and crowds! We’ll be giving away 1800 cute little Butterfly Bushes, one for every mother, no strings attached, and the Brown County Master Gardeners will be manning the plant giveaway table. We’ll have plenty of unadvertised specials on plants at their peak, perfect for Mom! We’re featuring the new HGTV Home Plant Collection, with specials on their stunning combination planters and baskets. Special guests include caricaturist Galen Bailey “the Scribbler”, Ken’s Unique Birdhouses, specialty jams, jellies and honey from the Queen’s Blessing Farm, and the Mill Branch Bar Soap Company with upscale soaps and fragrance items. Our party starts Friday morning May 8th at 10AM, 10AM to 7PM all three days. If you’re new We love Mill Branch soaps! They’ll be at continuing to the GoodSeed Farm community, it can be the start of the nursery all three days! a wonderful family Mother’s Day tradition for you and your family. Otherwise, welcome back!
Growing With Us
Ken Wagner’s whimsical birdhouses are made from found objects...affordable, too.
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Estel Newberry will be serving breakfast sandwiches and mouthwatering BBQ meat dishes all weekend!
Mother’s Day Dinner “Out”, No Waiting! Reserve a Table Now for a Sumptuous Mother’s Day Feast, The Hilltop Ballroom Mother’s Day Buffet has become one of Southern Ohio’s premiere Mother’s Day events. Why wait in long lines when you can dine in style with clothed tables, fine china and linen napkins in an elegant ballroom? Enjoy mouth-watering carved pork tenderloin and gravy, boneless chicken breasts, fresh vegetable blend, fresh cut fruit salad, spring mix salad and veggie tray with dip. Top it off with a baked potato bar with fresh toppings of chives, bacon bits, broccoli, diced onions, butter, cheese and sour cream. Hot rolls with butter are also included. Quench your thirst with delicious sweet tea or lemonade. Top it off with a freshly brewed cup of coffee and scrumptious dessert. The Hilltop Ballroom Mother’s Day Buffet is May 10, 2015 with seating at 1:30 pm. Reservations are highly recommended. For details see hilltopdesigns.org or call 937-695-5545.
Growing With Us
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Deer and rabbit damage to plants is such a problem for some of us that we’ve almost given up trying to plant home gardens, landscapes and orchards. Short of surrounding our yards with tenfoot fences, no deer deterrent seems to work for long. According to the U.S. government, "... there is no single product or device that will provide consistent long term plant protection from animal browsing damage.” Sadly, we’ve found this to be true. But the key word here is “single product”. Happily, there’s a game changer in the war with hungry deer and rabbits. It’s a combination of two products: “Step One” and then “Step Two”. Together, these steps are revolutionary. Let’s start with Step Two, a plant food tablet containing 6-8-8 fertilizer, a wide array of soil mycorrhizae, and one percent Denatonium. Called PlantSaver, this small pill can be easily pressed two inches deep in the root zone of any ornamental plant. The key ingredient is Denatonium, also called Bitrix, and the supplements just help the plant absorb it. As the tablet dissolves, it feeds the plant while at the same time giving it a terrible bitter taste. Denatonium is the most bitter substance known. It is widely used to prevent accidental poisoning by products such as rat poison, anti-freeze, rubbing alcohol and nail polish remover. It isn’t poison, but even trace amounts are unbearably bitter to eat. When it is absorbed by plants, it has a long-lasting effect. Deer and rabbits simply won’t eat more than the first nibble. Which brings us to Step One. Installing PlantSaver with new plants or adding it to existing plants will only work once the Bitrix is absorbed and travels up into your plants. In the meantime, you need to spray your plants with an effective deer & rabbit repellent, perhaps several times. We have had very good results with “Liquid Fence” and with Bonide “Repels-All”, both of which come in ready-to-use pump spray bottles or in cost-effective concentrates you mix yourself. Both of these sprays are effective for a month or so, however if your plants are actively growing there will be lots of new untreated foliage so, to be sure, you should spray every week or two during spring. By the time the spray-on repellent loses its effect, Bitrix from the tablets will be all throughout your plants and will stay there for the rest of the season and beyond. Protecting edible plants and garden vegetables is an entirely different challenge. Obviously you would not want to flavor your edible plants with Bitrix, or spray them with a noxious-smelling deterrent spray like Liquid Fence. These products are for ORNAMENTALS ONLY. For edibles, you can sprinkle powdered repellents like Deer Scram on the ground around the perimeter of your garden, or spray the plants themselves with a product designed for edible plants, like Bonide “Go Away”. We believe that the battle to protect ornamental plants from deer and rabbit browsing is winnable. It will take just two steps, and we have them both at our nursery. We’ve tried them ourselves in landscapes with extreme deer pressure, and they work.
Discourage Deer & Rabbits in Two Easy Steps
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Growing With Us
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Are Your Plants SICK of Fast Food? Modern gardeners are hungry for a return to traditional gardening methods, like building garden soil with organic compost and fertilizers. Petrochemical based fertilizers actually weaken soils over time, defeating the natural process of renewal that makes good garden soils and healthy plants. For one thing, petrochemicals don’t do anything to improve soil texture. Good soil needs “looseners” like compost and peat moss, and turning the soil to mix it with air. Well-rounded nutrition depends on living organisms and trace mineral elements, neither of which can be found in a bag of 12-12-12 or a bottle of Miracle-Gro. In our own gardens we use organic powdered plant foods like Holly Tone, Plant Tone, Rose Tone and Bulb Tone by Espoma Organics. These are balanced meals containing lots of wholesome natural ingredients like gypsum, greensand and bone meal to help break up clay soil. They also contain Micorrhizae, soil micro-organisms that help your plants digest fertilizer and trace minerals. Espoma Organics is a modern version of the old-fashioned fertilizer mill; a factory where ground-up natural ingredients like bone meal, cottonseed meal and other components are blended into powdered fertilizers that build and replenish tired soils. We call Espoma fertilizers the “magic dust”. The best way to fertilize is to mix the fertilizer with the soil when you plant. This has a “timed-release” effect because the roots find the food as the plant grows. It helps the roots spread quickly. For established plantings you should sprinkle powdered fertilizers generously around your plants before mulching. This way the fertilizer doesn’t have to find its way through the mulch to get to the roots. Timed-release powdered fertilizers work better than liquids because plant feeding is affected by soil temperature. They are stable and will remain in the soil until the plant uses them, while liquid fertilizers are washed away. Some people ask us for “Miracle Gro” and we sell it in our garden center. But when we sell it we always think of those I.V. drip bags in the hospital, “feeding” you through a tube into your arm. It will keep you alive but it’s NOT a balanced diet. For a real-life demonstration of this compare a hothouse tomato with one from an organic garden. Hydroponic tomatoes get a liquid diet similar to Miracle-Gro. Liquid fertilizers are useful for fertilizing hanging baskets, window boxes and planters where potting soil is used and roots are confined in a small pot. Professional growers use a weak solution of fertilizer in their irrigation water to encourage rapid growth. Another good use of liquid formulas is force-feeding distressed plants, such as Azaleas that aren’t well established and can’t absorb enough food from the soil. Rather than using Miracle Gro, we prefer liquid fish emulsions like Neptune’s Harvest, made just for this. You can water it in or spray it on the leaves, and it will perk plants up quickly. Think twice before you put your plants on a fast food petrochemical diet. You probably wouldn’t like it for yourself!
Our Vegetable Flats Are Only $12.99 for 36 Plants!
9736 Tri-County Highway Winchester, Ohio 45697 937-587-7021 www.goodseedfarm.com
PRSTD STD US POSTAGE PAID PERMIT 5400 CINCINNATI OH
MOTHER’S DAY PARTY!
CALENDAR
GARDEN CENTER & LANDSCAPING
GoodSeed Nursery
It’s time for our 17th annual Country Garden Mothers Day Party. After seventeen years it’s an annual ritual, with a FREE gift plant for every mom. This year it’s Butterfly Bush! There’s one for you. Our party starts Friday morning May 8th at 10AM, continuing 10AM to 7PM all three days. So, load your mothers and daughters, grandmothers and grandkids, mothers-in-law and mothers-to-be, into your car and head for GoodSeed Nursery sometime between Friday morning and Mother’s Day Sunday. We’ll miss you if you don’t come!
PLAN TO VISIT GOODSEED FARM OFTEN THIS SPRING! Mark your calendar so you can enjoy our special events, take advantage of special savings, bring your family or friends for special times!
May 8-9-10 Country Garden Mother’s Day Party! FREE Butterfly Bush for every mother. Specials, food and fun 10AM-7PM Friday, Saturday, and Mother’s Day Sunday June 13 GoodSeed Garden Expo! Spend the day with experts on gardening, plants, hardscaping and soils! Meet master gardeners, plant experts, representatives from premier nurseries and garden supply manufacturers. Seminars, workshops, exhibits, door prizes, specials, FREE samples. An indoor-outdoor event tailored for home landscapers, vegetable gardeners, lovers of plants & flowers. Rain or shine! Delicious food by Big “E” BBQ and “Buckeye Confections”. 10AM-6PM Rain or shine! August 8 Mum Season Begins! Gorgeous mums, fall décor, late vegetables. October 17-18 Clearance Sale! Everything discounted 50% or more! Come early for the best selection. (Bulk items and RR ties not included). October 19-31 Fall Hours: Open weekdays 12-5, Saturday 10-4, Closed Sunday. October 31 CLOSED FOR THE SEASON! Bulk Mulch, Soil & Stone Delivery, Landscaping still available by calling 937-587-7021
Hours: Monday-Friday 10 AM to 7 PM Saturday 9 AM to 6 PM Sunday Noon to 5PM