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What if...

18 years ago

soomebody was starting a native plant program for garden centers? What plants would you put in it...?

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Comments (8)

Iris GW
18 years ago
Plants that benefit wildlife: evergreen natives (conifers and broadleaf), berry producing plants (viburnums, hollies, elderberry, etc.), nectar rich plants for native insects. I think if you can tie the benefits of natives to benefits to wildlife you increase your audience.

For example, I turned my neighbors on to natives because they are into birding.
ScottReil_GD
Original Author
18 years ago
Done and done. Birding is hot and I agree that habitat is where it's at; what about other concerns? Garden issues that need addressing (using natives, obviously)?
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Comments (30)
Bahia - do give Jekyll another chance :-) She's an absoltutely fascinating person. A good book to get is 'The Gardener's Essential Gertrude Jekyll' which is sort of a cross between a biography and a collection of some of her writings. She was indeed very plant focused in a way that, as you say, isn't perhaps approprite to your climate or style. But there's more to her than that. She was remarkably skilled in a wide range of arts and crafts - the very epitome of the Arts and Crafts movement! She had extremely bad eyesight (natural focal distance was apparently 2"!) so what she achieved in her time, and her lasting impact on gardening is pretty amazing. She didn't really switch her focus to gardening from other arts until middle age, but still was involved in designing something like 350 gardens and wrote more than a dozen books before she died at 89. The book conveys her unique 'voice' and you get a very clear impression of a strong, opinionated, class conscious, somewhat snobbish garden-obsessed perfectionist. She was both a woman of her times and a woman ahead of her time - many of her opinions reflect the Victorian class system and her training as an artist e.g. 'And when one hears the common chatter about 'artistic colors', one receives an unpleasant impression about the education and good taste of the speaker.' Highly unusual for her time, she was an unmarried woman who was independent, financially successful, famous and respected in her lifetime for her own skills and knowledge. Even if you don't like her approach to gardening, she's one of those characters that is well worth 'meeting'. :-) Yard - can you work on growing a thicker skin please? :-) It can be difficult/jarring to see ourselves as others see us - I have certainly had that sort experience both here and elsewhere. But I have come to see that one can't argue others into seeing you more like you see yourself. You just have to continue to contribute your views when you feel they might have value and let people get to know you better that way. Of course, the occasional 'meltdown' happens from time to time for various reasons (some of which may be unrelated to the specific trigger on the Forum...) but regularly repeated meltdowns do get a bit tiresome :-) You have become a recognizable 'voice'/character on the forum but it would be nicer if you could learn to ignore most of the perceived slights.... Here is a link that might be useful: The Gardener's Essential Gertrude Jekyll
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What if...the lights go out...for weeks?
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Comments (2)
I've had power outages in winter of up to a week. As long as there's enough warmth (through propane heaters, space heaters run by a generator etc.), absence of much light for that length of time doesn't cause lasting problems. Several weeks, and you'd have leggy plants and other difficulties without moving plants to windows or using a supplemental power source.
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Correction: Spec'ing a 'What If' item for bidders?
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Comments (5)
Hi all, thanks for your comments! I apologize for the delay in getting back here (last week was a crazy one at work). brickeyee, thanks for those words about bidding to unknowns and that anecdote about the Virginia job. It's a good illustration. It also helped me put myself in the bidder's shoes, and think of course, I'd overestimate the size of the unknown, just to cover my bases. Renovator8, thank you for that "alternate" term. That's good advice about using them wisely! I think in my case, I am making it too complicated. juliekcmo, I think you hit the nail on the head about my anxiety about covering all contingencies. So thanks for your pragmatic comments, they made me feel a lot better about not trying too hard. :-) My real life job demands me to be detail-oriented (well, downright picky), and I'm consciously trying not to let my habits at work creep into this project and potentially drive away good workers. All of your comments helped me see that most of these "what ifs" are things that are probably out of both my and the GC's control and unknown until they happen. I was thinking of them as "change orders", but really, they'd come external to either of us. I mean, whether the inspector says something has to be done--that's up to the inspector. So, it does sound like the best would be as juliekcmo wrote, bid the known scope and have my contingency fund in reserve. Thanks for bringing clarity to that!
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I know its too wet to rototill but, what if.............
Q
Comments (7)
We only got 1/2 inch from this week's drizzle and expect the well drained clay areas will be dry enough to till to 3 or 4 inches after 2 days of sun; though with more rain in forecast, who knows when the shady spots will be ready. You'll probably have to wait longer if you already have your amendments on top of the clay. Key point is that "damp" is different than "wet". We've been tilling parts of our blacklands prairie clay lot for the past several years. I use klem1's observation: if clay sticks badly to the tiller, it's "wet", otherwise it's just "damp". Another rule of thumb I've heard and seems right to me is that glazing when clay is turned with a shovel indicates it's still "wet". I defer to experts, but my impression is that the concerns about soil compaction from tilling wet clay largely come out of the repetitive tilling done in agriculture; so more a concern for someone who tills a vegetable garden or annual border once or twice a year, but less so for a one time pre-planting till. It's cumulative as a function of the soil exposed to the pressures on the working edges of the tines and under the wheels and feet. The more common issue we've had with single tills has been the crusting that can occur when disturbing the soil structure while wet. One countermeasure for both compaction and crusting is to add organics, which you are fortunately already doing anyway.
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gottagarden
18 years ago
Wildflowers and good shade natives. Everyone loves flowers, and I'm sure they would sell well if people knew what they were and when they bloomed, what their requirements were. People look for something different and wildflowers are often unknown. Not everyone wants big, gaudy hybrids, many appreciate the subtle charms of daintier wildflowers. Make sure there are photos of the plants in bloom.
paalexan
18 years ago
Seems to me the shade plants are a good thing to look at. What with everyone thinking hostas are the only shade plants, giving them a bunch of alternatives might be a good way of taking advantage of the gardening industry's extremely narrow focus...

I'd also point out that many evergreen trees are notable for providing far less habitat than deciduous trees.

Patrick Alexander
radagast
18 years ago
Sell high quality native trees, especially good hardwoods - oaks, hickories, etc. Offer good variety to prevent threats created by diseases (Sudden Oak Death, etc), and encourage folks to use these trees instead of the ghastly common stuff that one finds. I'd love to see a world where things like Bradford Pears (and all their cursed ilk), Norway Maples, and other short-lived and/or invasive trees were not sold.
leftwood
18 years ago
And of course, try to get natives from local seed sources.
Iris GW
18 years ago
Patrick, I'm interested in learning more about what you mean in this statement:

I'd also point out that many evergreen trees are notable for providing far less habitat than deciduous trees.
ellen_s
18 years ago
Interesting thread!
I would choose outstanding cultivars of native shrubs, such as Ilex verticillata (Winterberry Holly), Cornus florida (Flowering Dogwood), Ilex glabra (Inkberry Holly), Clethra (Summersweet), Viburnums, Vacciniums (blueberry plants).

Those are samples of the "eye candy" that could attract people to native shrubs...many with gorgeous flowers!!!
the foliage of the viburnums and vacciniums can provide the blazing red fall color that people are looking for when they buy Burning Bush (Euonymous alatus) which is on the list of invasives in our area but continues to be sold locally.

Most of them are also highly attractive to beneficial insects and native birds with their early nectar, berries, seeds etc...

Similar for perennials. There are wonderful selections of New England Aster (Alma Potschke, Purple Dome), Goldenrod (Solidago "Fireworks") is a nice one that works well in perennial borders., Lobelia cardinalis and syphillitica (Cardinal Flower). Asclepias (butterfly weed, milkweed...) All of these are fairly widely available so they must be good sellers

Groundcovers...there is a native pachysandra (I think it's called Allegheny Spurge??) that is slower growing but I think more attractive. I think its native range is further south than New England, but it's an alternative for those who would like something more interesting than pachysandra :-)

There are many out there...look at New England Wildflower Society's book on growing native plants, it's written by William Cullina of NEWFS and I'm sure it would give you a lot of ideas..

Ellen

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