The Greenery Nursery & Garden Shop


Pulling Weeds versus preventing them!


Aug 29

Today I was pulling a few weeds (at home) that I am tired of walking through during my daily chores and thinking about them. Why do I let them get so big and out of control every year? There are always excuses, and I am good at making them too, but weeds are so simple to prevent yet I rarely do. Why?

One reason I think I don’t prevent these growing nuisances is that I take great pleasure in ripping them out by their roots! There is something so gritty and rewarding about yanking weeds right out of the soil where they are thriving. Once I am done cleaning an area there is something so rewarding about stepping back and enjoying all the hard work I have put into it.

This year my excuse is that I had my twin girls in January so all my time is spent taking care of my son, the girls and all the daily chores. I really wanted to do what little work it took to prevent weeds this year since I am home most of the time to enjoy my yard. Well, that didn’t happen. I think I sprayed a few weeds once and weeds thrive on procrastination!

So I should have been faithful with the Amaze to prevent weeds and a little weed killer here and there to get any strays but now I get to complain and take my frustrations on those weeds!

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Changes and links to the UC Extension Services


Aug 08

Well, if you haven’t yet heard, Ed Perry, our local UC Extension Advisor has retired. We at The Greenery are very sorry to see him go. He has been a wealth of knowledge to us and the residents of our community. Whenever we were stumped about a plant, insect or disease he was there to guide us (yes we do get stumped from time to time!). Unfortunately due to budget constraints there is no person or service there to fill his place. There are still online resources that we will use and you can use too. I am going to provide the links below, some of these I was not even aware of!

Integrated Pest Management - MY longtime favorite resource
http://ipm.ucdavis.edu

Stanislaus County UC Extension Gardening Publications
http://cestanislaus.ucdavis.edu/Gardening/Gardening_Publications.htm

California Gardening by The UC Extension
http://cagardenweb.ucdavis.edu/

California Backyard Orchard
http://homeorchard.ucdavis.edu/

UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Publications
http://www.anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/

Environmental Horticulture Research & Info Center
http://groups.ucanr.org/EHRIC/index.cfm

Since I am providing links to websites I wanted to talk a little about information found online. First, yes there is more information online than anyone could ever read. You can search Google, Yahoo or Bing (whichever search engine suits you) and find information to do just about anything, including gardening. However, please be aware of the source of your information when researching online. When it comes to gardening, information from another country or even another state can be different when it comes to gardening in the Central Valley. Anyone can publish something online (just look at all the forwarded emails and texts we typically get) and it doesn’t mean it is real. The above links are full of information specific to California and the Central Valley. If you use any of these links, let me know what you think.

So just to reaffirm my point, the staff at The Greenery is here to help you with whatever gardening question or problem you may have. We are your local experts. We have enjoyed serving you for the past 4 decades and look forward to many more.

-Adria

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Failure = Success


May 05

This post is for all those who are wary of gardening or need a little confidence. Gardening seems like a large unknown and can be daunting for people who have had little to no experience gardening. As with anything, the fear of failure tends to keep us from trying something new. I want to share a story of how I began gardening…

When I was about 12 I began growing vegetables and was so successful that I created a small business of providing homegrown veggies to friends and family. I didn’t grow anything other than vegetables because I didn’t have any appreciation for trees, shrubs, flowers, etc. I thought why grow a flower and only get a flower when I can grow vegetables and have something to take inside and eat? Well, when my parents built a new house and we had a whole landscape to develop from scratch, the rest of the gardening world won me over. Now you are saying, what does this have to do with failure? Well, when I started growing shrubs and flowers and tried to design the yard at the same time I did not have any schooling in Horticulture. I learned by trial and error. I did lots of reading and research but still had my own theories about growing plants and stubbornly tried things that I only laugh at now. For instance I tried growing a hydrangea in full sun. Now any semi-experienced gardener knows that hydrangeas need part to full shade in our climate. Well my theory was that if I kept it watered, it wouldn’t wilt or burn. Ha! I trickled water at the base of the plant all day long. It still wilted. Eventually it stressed out so bad that I decided it needed to be in the shade. The poor thing died shortly after. It was just too much.

The moral of the story? Gardening is partly trial and error. It is not rocket science and is not cut and dried either. If you kill a plant, consider it a learning experience. Why did it die? What can I do to ensure success next time? I can’t tell you how many plants I have killed in my gardening years. The other thing to keep in mind is that our yards are man made and plants aren’t. We are growing things that naturally don’t grow here. So yeah, we won’t always be successful. My hope is that we can share our experiences and learn from each other so we become that much more successful in our gardening endeavors. As gardening professionals, The Greenery staff has experienced many common gardening challenges but are always willing to learn, and we do learn new things everyday!

Do you have any gardening successes or failures that you would like to share? Click on comment and share your story. I look forward to hearing from you.

-Adria

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A Special Surprise from Winter birds


Jan 12

For those who enjoy birding but don’t always get a chance to do it, I observed something the other day that may be consoling.

Since my pregnancy with twins began, I became increasingly unable to do things, even simple ones like refill my birdfeeder. I was also unable to do any fall cleanup in my yard but had already planted all my summer flowers and vegetables before I had to retreat to the house. Last week I was sitting in my dining room and happened to notice lots of sparrows hopping around in the weeds in my backyard. I sat there and watched them a minute and realized that they were enjoying the seeds from the weeds that I hadn’t pulled. Oh, that made me feel so much better knowing that my laziness resulted in some food for my feathered friends.

Well, a few days later I heard the goldfinches in my backyard. Knowing I didn’t have anything out there for them I watched them to see where they were and what they were doing. Well, much to my surprise, they were flitting around in my neglected herb bed eating the seeds from my dead and overgrown basil! Ah, another triumph in the name of laziness!! It was interesting that the finches wanted nothing to do with the weed seeds and the sparrows wanted nothing to do with the basil seeds. Hmmm, the wonder of nature. This week the sparrows are still working on the weed seeds and I have seen the finches come in a few times but they are never both there at the same time.

I wanted to share this with you so hopefully for those who were too busy this winter or were unable, like me, to conciously feed the birds take solace in knowing that neglect isn’t always a bad thing! I definitely will remember this next fall when my twin girls keep me so busy that I bet I won’t be able to do any fall clean up again!

-Adria

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Prevent work, Use pre-emergent


Jan 27

Please note, whenever you read this, it is applicable. Pre-emergent can be used every 3 months or so all year long. Now that warm weather is here to stay we are getting our yards primed for summer fun. Using pre-emergent will ensure that your yard stays as free of weeds as it was when you first planted.

-Adria on 5/14/09

Now that we are on the downhill slide to spring, I have a few tips to share to prevent extra work later this season when we could be enjoying our yards. As you clean up the yard from winter, make sure to use pre-emergent to prevent new weeds from coming up. Anytime you expose fresh soil weeds will grow, especially now since it is warm enough for weeds like Annual Rye to germinate. I like to use Greenlight’s Amaze. It is an easy to use granule that you sprinkle out once you are done and then sprinkle with water, or rain, to activate. Done right, this will prevent seeds from germinating for 3 to 4 months. Just make sure to reapply if your turn the soil over and when the control period is up.

If you prefer to go organic, you can use Concern. It consists of corn gluten that tests have shown, prevent germination. Now I have learned that this must be used regularly and will take a few applications before it becomes the most effective. Another organic alternative is mulch. Applied thick enough, usually at least 2 inches thick, mulch will prevent weeds from germinating. Personally, I like the MulchBlock that we carry at The Greenery. I used it last summer around my veggies. It seemed to stop the local cats from using that area for a toilet, it didn’t wash away, stopped the weeds, held in soil moisture and it has barely faded! MulchBlock is chopped coconut hulls so it is very coarse. Make sure to wear gloves when handling it, because it tore up my hands. Also, it has to be soaked thoroughly before you can spread it. I am very satisfied with it and plan on using more of it.

So now that I have put in my two cents, do you have any suggestions or favorites you use to prevent work in your yard? It doesn’t have to be about weeds. Lets share ideas!

Adria

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