It’s almost time for our re-opening! Right after Labor day (September 4th) we’ll be open for business during our regular hours (Monday through Saturday 9 to 5 and Sunday from Noon until 5.) We’ll be closed on Labor Day to allow our staff to have one last c
ook out before the Fall season begins.
Bob will be bringing in our first shipment of garden mums in time for the opening. Stop in and say “Hello.”
Posted in General, News, Uncategorized
Tagged fall decorating, Ferda's Garden Center, garden mums, mums
Bob fired up the first of the greenhouses over the weekend, and we’re transplanting today. The pace is still slow, but it’ll pick up soon. Pretty soon we’ll have little growing plants coming out our ears! (Not literally, of course, but you get the idea…)
The seed racks are filled and waiting, and product has started to arrive. Hang on, the ride has begun!
Posted in General, In the Greenhouses, What's New?
Tagged Ferda's Garden Center, greenhouse, greenhouses, spring
We got i
n a shipment of cute statuary today. We haven’t unpacked it yet, since it is so cold out in the greenhouses, but we’re so excited for you to see it all. It’ll all be on display when we reopen in March. Here is a piece, just couldn’t wait to start showing it to you!
Posted in General, In the Gift Shop, In the Greenhouses, What's New?
Tagged bunny, Ferda's Garden Center, gift shop, greenhouse, greenhouses, statuary, statues
The USDA has reevaluated the temperature patterns for the US and come up with a revised version of the Hardiness Zone Map. Check it out here. It’s interesting that, where some of Ohio used to be zone 5A or 5B, it is almost entirely Zone 6A on the new map. What that indicates is that the low temperatures in the winter are about 5 degrees warmer than they used to be.
The web site allows you to look at your state in an enlarged version, and to plug in your zip code if you can’t figure out where on the map you really are. (Don’t feel bad, I’m geographically challenged, too.)
Posted in General, News, Uncategorized, What's New?
Tagged climate, Ferda's Garden Center, hardiness zones, weather
Fresno Chile image courtesy of Ivy Garth Seeds
Do you like jalapenos? Then you’ll like Fresno Chiles, too. They are just about as hot (maybe a bit hotter) and have the thick waxy feel of a jalapeno. You could use them interchangeably in recipes. They are good fresh, added to salsas, roasted (and stuffed as an appetizer if you like that heat), or canned.
They begin green and ripen to red, at which point they are a little sweeter. The plants are vigorous and bear well.
We have some great new vegetable varieties in the pipeline for you this year. Let’s talk about a few, just to whet your appetite for spring.
I don’t know about you, but the reason I like to eat fruits and vegetables I’ve grown myself is that I know they are fresher and healthier than those I can buy in the grocery store that have been picked and shipped across country, or even across countries.
photo courtesy of Ivy Garth Seeds
With that in mind, we are growing a tomato variety this year called Caro Rich. The name derives from the fact that it is higher in beta-carotene (up to 10 times as much as in other tomatoes!) Beta-carotene is an antioxidant that gives orange and yellow fruits and vegetables their color and is converted by the body into a safe form of vitamin A. (This is believed to promote eye health and help with vision—there’s a reason your mother told you to eat your carrots.)
It is an 8-10 oz beefsteak-style tomato in a deep orange color. (That’s about the size of your average Better Boy– a nice size for a slice on a burger.) They are low acid and sweet. They are large plants, probably a better choice for in-ground growing, rather than in a pot. Oh, and did I mention, they’re more healthy?
“If a garden means anything, it is a wish for beauty, for order, and for connectedness with natural things. We are outcasts from the first Genesis garden, after all, trying desperately to be let back in, to find purpose and meaning in our relationship with creation. The garden photograph that becomes art is one that transcends time and place and says something meaningful about what it is to be human with all of our senses awakened.” From an article in Organic Gardener by Matthew Benson.
One of my goals for this “downtime” from the busyness of the Garden Center in the winter is to learn to take better photos, to learn about exposure and lighting and developing my vision where photography is concerned. To help with that I’ve been reading some books about photography, and trying to take photographs and get at least one photo out of the bunch to be good enough that I’m not ashamed to share it.
This time of the year challenges me, though. All is brown or white and seemingly lifeless, and it is a challenge to come up with a view of the garden in this season that is anything other than barren-looking. Meaningful? Hardly.
So I try to be patient and not too anxious for spring. Meanwhile I read, and might add Mr Benson’s book to my list of books to learn from this winter.
Posted in Garden Photography, Gardening Tips, General, Uncategorized, Weather
The ground is snow-covered and the roads are slushy and wet (mostly wet.) It is officially winter now, in my opinion. And more cold wet (and/or frozen) stuff is supposed to be coming our way in the next few days, which probably means the power will go out. Better dig out your Yankee Candles.
We’re here at the shop today tightening our plug orders. Plugs are tiny starter plants that we buy for some of the potted plants we grow to sell to you. Some plants grow easily from seeds, and others are grown from cuttings of existing plants. (Growing plants from cuttings requires equipment and facilities that we don’t have.) The easily-seeded ones we do ourselves, the more difficult-to-seed and the cutting-grown plants we buy as plugs. See, you learned something about us already that you didn’t know…
Anyway… we’re spending some time double-checking the orders to make sure we have enough of each variety, but not too many. It makes me get anxious for spring to come when I think about all the beautiful flowers that will soon be growing in the greenhouses. But first we have to get through some more winter…
Stay warm and drive carefully!
Finally a result of “global warming” that we can like. This month has been quite nice so far, and quite different than the January we expected. We like the fact that we’ve had very little snow and some really mild days.
We’ve finished the inventory and have begun to change the store over to its spring look, even though we aren’t open this month or next. Bob is working on tree and shrub orders, and Anita and Patty are planning the seeds we’ll sow down in February and March to have ready for you in April and May in our colorful greenhouses.
Posted in General, In the Greenhouses
Tagged Ferda's Garden Center, greenhouse, greenhouses, growing vegetables, spring
Well, we’re three days into the new year and I am already remembering to write 2012 on my checks. I think that says that I was ready for 2011 to say, “bye-bye.” We’re finished with our end-of-the-year inventory, and are painting parts of the walls in E
aster egg colors in anticipation of the spring to come.
Bob, Patty and Anita have been poring over catalogs to choose the neatest new plants to include in our mix this year. It will be interesting to see what they come up with!
We’re officially closed for the winter, but we’re in and out all winter doing what needs to be done, so if you need something (and you don’t mind shopping in a disrupted environment) stop in when you see signs of activity, or call ahead to make sure someone will be there to help you.
Posted in General, In the Greenhouses, Weather
Tagged Ferda's Garden Center, gift shop, spring
