More about Street Baskets

The Petunias have rooted in and are really starting to add leaves and stems. We'll see the first flowers in about four weeks

Here’s a picture of Taylors Falls street baskets, taken the first week of April 2012.  We planted the small Petunia cuttings into an intermediate pot a few weeks ago, and moved those plants to the hanging basket last week.  Each plant has quadrupled in size since originally planted.  By mid May, they will fill the basket to overflowing and more.

Raspberry Blast is a two-tone Petunia with a lot of show, and is also a very strong growing plant.

And here is the Vista Petunia variety ‘Raspberry Blast’  that was chosen for Taylors Falls, for 2012:

Dave

Street Baskets

We grow the hanging baskets that decorate the main streets of St Croix Falls WI and Taylors Falls MN.   We planted those baskets last week, but the process started a long while ago…

It starts with a commitment from the city, and that is no small matter.  These baskets get hung in late May, and get watered and fertilized every day until mid-October.

Once they decide, then there are plant varieties and colors to choose.

We ordered the small plants (Petunias in this case) last fall.   We also ordered the soil and the pots last fall, and also planned the greenhouse space last fall.

The varieties being used for St Croix Falls for summer 2012 are the Vista series of petunias, and we receive those plants in early March from a propagator greenhouse in Michigan.    Here are their varieties:

This is Vista Bubblegum (and also the variety used by St Croix Falls last summer).

Vista Silverberry is also part of the mix for these baskets.

Vista Fuchsia is being added to the baskets to contrast with the other two colors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We talk about the baskets for Taylors Falls in the next post,

Dave

Is Fertilizer really Food?

To a plant, fertilizer is a source of raw materials.  It isn’t really ‘food’ but it is easy to think in those terms.  The ‘food’ that a plant uses is really made by the plant itself, from sunlight and the raw materials we provide with fertilizer.

We apply fertilizer with our water, so each irrigation provides fertilizer as well.   In very small doses.  The water has about 200 parts nitrogen per million parts of water.  That would compare to 1 playing card out of 100 decks of cards.  But because they get this very small dose with each watering, it is enough and the plants grow well.

The fertilizer itself is a brand called Daniels.  It is a soybean-based fertilizer that is sent to us in 55 gallon drums.   And this is what we use to pump the fertilizer into the irrigation lines:

Water flows through the black pump, and it pumps 1 gallon of liquid fertilizer into each 500 gallons of water.

And this is the result of getting plants and sunlight and water and fertilizer all working together:

Mid-March in our greenhouse. The geranium variety is 'Fantasia Dark Red'

Strange Weather

This picture of a Royal Star Magnolia was taken in Stillwater, MN on March 22, almost a full month ahead of when the Magnolias usually bloom.

The winter and spring here in Minnesota has been strange – very warm, and dry.  Our dry spell stretches back to last fall, and now most of the state is listed as being in a moderate drought by the National Weather Service (http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/).  The warm early spring also means that people  are already itching to get out in their gardens, which makes me a little nervous.  Everything is about a month too early – the magnolias are blooming, the forsythia are blooming, and trees are budding out already.  Usually these things don’t happen at least until the first or second week of April.  I am worried that we will get one last blast of real Minnesota weather – cold, snow, and ice.  After all, the Twin Cities area does average about 2.8” of snow for the month April.  If we do get that last hint of winter, there will probably be some damage to the plants that have started too early. 

So what does this mean to you, the people of Minnesota, you are asking?  Well, try to not get too caught up in this warm spring.  Plant your gardens at the same time as you did last year, that way you know you are safe (last year it snowed on April 20^th!).  The soil temperature is still a bit too cold to plant perennials, trees, and shrubs, so wait another week or two to plant those as well.  Bottom line is, try to give mother nature a little more time to tell us whether she is going to let us have an easy transition into summer, or if she has a few more tricks up her sleeve.

Hanging Baskets

We planted our hanging baskets a few weeks ago, and now they are ready to be hung in the air.

In January the baskets are filled with soil and put on the benches.  We turn the heat on in the greenhouse about February 6, and plant the cuttings into the baskets right after that.

These are baskets on the bench, about 10 days after they were planted.

With heat and sun and water and fertilizer, and with some of the growing tips pinched out so the plants will be bushy, they really start to grow quickly.  In order to use those same benches for other crops, we hang the baskets on pipes, over our heads and out of our way.

The same baskets now hung onto the pipe running the length of the greenhouse. We put about 250 baskets in each greenhouse--1 basket per 10 square feet of floor space.

And we keep the ladder handy so we can watch their progress.  The largest problem is getting water to the plants.  We do that with small plastic tubes that allow water to drip into each basket.

You can see the small plastic tube, under the basket's support pipe. There is a water outlet above each basket. When we need to irrigate the plants, the water drips slowly onto the soil.

Dave

Inventory and Analysis

Last week I talked about my design process, and mentioned the first step should always be inventory and analysis.  I thought I would go into more detail about that part of the process:

Every good design starts with the same step: inventory and analysis of the site.  This can look different for different designers, but it should always lead to good knowledge of the site.  For me, this step usually includes the client.  I will walk around the site with them and talk about their wants and what they think they need in specific areas.  Then, I will do a walk around alone, taking my time to look at items that will affect my design.  This is my list of what I think are the most important items to identify and analyze while doing the initial walk-through. 

1. Slope and topography.  Nothing can cause more problems for homeowners than water, and slope and topography are usually the obvious problem.  When I do a walk around a house, I make sure that the grade is not sloped towards the house and that the water has a way to leave the site without causing problems.  Things like rain gardens, dry creek beds, and swales in the yard are great ways to direct water away from homes and take care of the problem.  Slope also dictates if retaining walls and steps are needed on a site.  
2. Sun exposure.  In order to determine a planting plan, you first must know how much sun an area gets.   It is often necessary to visit the site at different times of day so you know how much sun a specific area gets.  In the early spring or late fall, when there are no leaves on the trees, it is harder to get a sense of how much shade trees will give off, so it is important to reevaluate plant selection during the summer.
3. Views in and out of the site.  It is important to note where a site might need screening and where a view needs to be preserved.  Especially in crowded neighborhoods, it is important to have some privacy and secluded spaces that feel more intimate.  In order to achieve that, screening is needed to block views in and out of the site.  Other times, it is important to not block views from windows, doors, and decks.  It is important to recognize what views are bad and good on a site. 

Other important questions that need to be addressed are:

• Foot traffic – where are people going to walk, and does there need to be an organization of traffic patterns?  Does there need to be a path through a garden or steppers to lead someone from one place to the next?
• What is the architecture like around the site – style from the building/home should influence the style landscaping.  For example, if it is a very modern looking building, the landscape should have strong linear lines.
• Where are the most useable parts of the site – where would a gathering space work best, where would a fire pit work, how big should the lawn be? 
• Where does the site need some shade – decks and patios could use afternoon/evening shade.
• Are there deer in the area – this will greatly affect the plant list.
• What is the soil like – heavy clay or sand, wet or dry, these conditions will also greatly affect your plant choices.

There are many other details that should come out when doing inventory and analysis, but these are the ones that I see as most important on a majority of projects.  Feel free to add your own if you think I have missed some!

Vermiculite

Another product sometimes added to soil is Vermiculite.  It is a little bit like Perlite, in that it will hold both water and air in a soil mix.

However, Vermiculite availability is dropping and it is now expensive.  We don’t use it in our soil mixes.  We DO use it to cover seeds in our germination area.  For some reason, Vermiculite is the perfect covering for new seeding.  It has both water and air holding properties, it is sterile, and it doesn’t harden or inhibit the seedling from emerging.

Vermiculite ore is a natural mineral, a type of mica,  that is mined in Russia, South Africa, China and Brazil.  The U.S. has deposits of this ore but these deposits also contain asbestos.  The U.S. ores haven’t been used for Vermiculite for many years.

Vermiculite ore is heated in furnaces until it expands.  It is then graded by particle size.  Vermiculite is used for insulation, packing material, light-weight cement, in horticulture, fire protection and more.

This is vermiculite ore.

A diagram of a furnace to produce vermiculite. The heat rises from the bottom, and the ore is put in at the top. The vermiculite expands in the heat, and falls out the bottom.

Vermiculite as it is used in soil mixes, after the ore is expanded.