Archive for September, 2006

Patio landscaping can be redone every year if you like. If you are planning a new landscape for a brand new patio or making over an old patio, it is important to start with fresh clean concrete, stone, or brick. The foundation for your patio is the most important factor and one that will make your patio landscaping a place for your whole family to enjoy.

Hard scaping your patio

When it comes to the materials that you use for your patio, the decision is entirely up to you. Any hard material will do, it just depends on your preference. You can choose from stone, rock, concrete, brick or even get fancy with tile. Choose a material that best describes your space and suits your family’s style and needs. All of the above materials make a great looking and durable patio for any family to relax in.

Keywords: Greenhouse Gardening, Landscaping, Plants, Pool, Gardener, Landscape, Trees

Maintaining your trees

If you are planting a tree you should choose a tree with a burlap-covered root ball that is equal to the roundness of the trunk and the size of the crown. If you are looking for a tree make sure that there are no cuts in the bark. Dig the hole the same as the diameter of the tree trunk.

Borders

Trees serve as great borders to any property or home. They deliver not only beauty but they also provide a number of extra features. They add privacy to a home that is in the open. Line up pine or maple trees and you will block out unwanted intruders from peaking in on you. Trees also protect your home from wind and sun. They provide shade in the summer and block the wind to provide warmth in the winter.

Keywords: Greenhouse Gardening, Landscaping, Plants, Pool, Gardener, Landscape, Trees

How close to your house should you plant?

You will want to consider how close you plant your trees. You will want to think about factors like if there any of the branches fall off or when leaves fall if they are going to cause a problem with your house. You do not want heavy limbs falling on your house and destroying your roof. You do not want your tree landscaping to interfere with power lines.

Make sure your tree gets plenty of sun

Many types of trees need to have lots of sunlight. There are however trees that do better in the shade. One tree is the dogwood. They do very well in partial to mostly shade.

Conditions of your soil and location

Trees need to have well drained soil. You need to make sure that the area that you planting has good drainage. One important part of picking your location for your tree is to make sure that it is not going to cause problems with a walkway or entrance. Fruit trees have leaves that fall and could make a sidewalk slippery and cause a problem.

Keywords: Greenhouse Gardening, Landscaping, Plants, Pool, Gardener, Landscape, Trees

Special Service to Indoor Gardeners:

If you don’t see the plant you want on my list, write to me (enclosing a stamped, self-addressed envelope) and I will try to find a source for you.

You’ll find that having a policy of NO CREDIT TO INDIVIDUAL BUYERS will be best for you. However, wholesale firms do not normally send money or checks with their orders. They expect to be billed for their merchandise, paying for it usually by the tenth of the month following receipt of plants.

Postage is a big overhead in mail-order business. As you noted on my sample price list, I specified extra postage charges for many types of orders, and I charge another 25 cents if special handling is requested.

Restrictions-Quarantines

A few states have mailing restrictions on plants, as well as requirements for plant inspection. In Minnesota, such inspection is not required on greenhouse-grown ornamentals. You can obtain the regulations of your particular state by writing to the Department of Agriculture at the state capital. Do not forget this chore or even postpone it. You can cause yourself untold grief if you violate plant quarantine laws in your state and in the states to which you ship plants. A listing of all state regulatory offices is given in the Appendix for your convenience.

Keywords: Greenhouse Gardening, Landscaping, Plants, Pool, Gardener, Landscape, Trees

Mail-Order Business

Perhaps, like many greenhouse operators, you would prefer to sell by mail. With such a sales setup, you will not have to travel or interview people or have customers coming to your home. To carry on a successful mail-order business, you must grow something in general demand like geraniums, roses, iris, tender foliage plants, or daylilies, or specialize in collectors’ plants, such as the newer or species types of African violets and other gesneriads, the cacti and succulents, fuchsias, amaryllis (hippeastrum), and other amaryllids, bromeliads, or orchids.

In fact, the specialist grower will find the mail-order business perfect for him. Buying by mail-order often permits customers to obtain plants that their local greenhouses do not carry. The average retail greenhouse owner-operator in a small town usually is dependent for the bulk of his business on seasonal sales of popular plants and flowers. Seldom does he grow collectors’ items. For example, he may carry half a dozen varieties of African violets while you, the specialist, list 75 to 100; or he may grow only one or two kinds of geraniums, while you can list 25 to 50 varieties. And, of course, gardeners living in large cities also are prospects for your unusual and extensive line of plants.

When you sell mail-order you will obtain many customers who do not have time to go to a greenhouse. They will appreciate being able to shop from an easy chair.

Mail-Order Plant-Price Lists

It is a good idea to post a list of all plants and prices in your greenhouse or sales area. However, a descriptive list, including terms of sale and prices, is absolutely-and obviously-an essential in mail-order selling. This mailing piece doesn’t have to be elaborate-mimeographed sheets are all right-as long as it is neat and legible. Stick to the facts in your plant descriptions. Use abbreviations of terms only if they can be readily understood; or use a simple key system to get a lot of information into a little space. Here is a list similar to what I have used in my mail-order business. Here I have used fls. for flowers; lvs. for leaves.

Keywords: Greenhouse Gardening, Landscaping, Plants, Pool, Gardener, Landscape, Trees

On Consignment

You may find consignment selling is more agreeable to some potential customers. It is quite a common practice in the florist trade. In a consignment setup, unlike direct selling, you merely leave the plants with the store owner or dealer, promising to pick up leftovers at a specified time. The consignee does not pay you for all the plants delivered only those he actually sells. He gets a percentage of the sale price for providing a “show window” for your plants. It occurs to me that a pet shop might be an ideal place to try a few plants on consignment. And incidentally, thanks to the moisture escaping from the aquariums, your plants should remain in excellent condition.

Roadside Markets

In a roadside market you have another really excellent prospect. Here is sold everything from dairy products to plants and vegetables. Usually on the outskirts of a city, the roadside stands attract the Sunday drivers, people returning from vacations, and those who feel they obtain fresher produce in such places. In our area, we have a number of such markets. In early spring, they sell annuals in pots or small flats (Plant-Paks) of one dozen plants and large flats of 100 each, featuring pan-sies, bachelor buttons, marigolds, petunias, bedding begonias, coleus and various other well-started or blooming-sized plants. Later on this space is given over to potted green plants ivy, dracaena, dieffenbachia, and sansevieria-and flowering plants, such as fuchsias, abutilon, African violets, and even potted roses.

Make your contact with these potential customers by carrying with you a box or two of the type of plants you sell. These people have to buy from someone; and if your plants are well grown, nicely potted, and priced so that the market can resell them at profit-why, you’re elected.

If local zoning rules allow you to have a stand on your property, and you are near enough to a highway, you may be able to dispose of your plants yourself. Friends of ours have a very attractive redwood roadside stand where plants and garden supplies are sold exclusively. Their greenhouse, 20 by 18 feet, is attached to the stand, and on the land adjacent they grow roses, shrubs, and some perennials to sell.

In their greenhouse-which they close down in winter and do not operate again until February they raise all the annuals they sell. They also purchase geraniums and other plants like calceolaria, hydrangea, and fuchsia as unfinished stock for “growing on” (an old trade term for taking young plants and growing them for a period of weeks or months until they are mature specimens). Thus by Mother’s Day my friends have gift plants large enough to sell for a good profit. Both husband and wife work in this shop and greenhouse which yields them a comfortable living plus a lengthy winter vacation.

Other friends raise annuals and tomatoes in their greenhouses and sell flats of them at a farmer’s market. In their greenhouses the temperature is kept at a minimum of 60 degrees F. One woman with a lean-to greenhouse, 6 by 12 feet, grows tomatoes and annuals which she transfers to a cold frame when the weather warms up usually in March. The tomato space is then taken over by hundreds of pots of Jerusalem cherries and ornamental peppers. From March on, the greenhouse needs but an occasional warm-up, and the heat goes off entirely around May first. The peppers are started in flats and transplanted to 3-inch pots in which they grow until August, when the proprietor starts taking them to the farmer’s market. Purchased singly, they sell for 59 to 69 cents per plant; in lots of ten or more at half that price. This woman’s little greenhouse is a homemade affair, the initial cost of which was under $100.00. It brings in an annual revenue of approximately $500.00.

Keywords: Greenhouse Gardening, Landscaping, Plants, Pool, Gardener, Landscape, Trees