The mild fall and winter has been a busy one in several areas of the nursery.
In order to continually close-in on our goal of making the nursery more and more “green”, we’ve installed the final phase of our ebb and flow benches in the perennial house and annual flower house so that almost no run-off water leaves the property to pollute creeks and streams. A “passive” system of ventilation in our greenhouses is in line with our belief that one of the best ways to cut down on pollution and “create” more energy is from the energy no longer used that would normally power energy-hungry exhaust fans. Instead, roll-up sides will be doing the ventilation which use no energy.
Another energy-saving “growing system” we are incorporating into our production methods is for growing annuals “cold” so that we can continue to reduce our use of natural gas.
For many annuals that are grown in a 4″, 6″ or larger pot for sales in late May and summer, the annual flowers may be heated in March and early April for only two to three weeks and then placed outside to finish “cold”. The plant quality is better with a more compact hardened-off plant that our customers should love as they will be able to plant this group in mid to late May without the worry of a late frost or light freeze because varieties of cold-tolerant plants will be able to withstand temperatures as low as 28º F without damage.
The last ventilation project completed this year is the replacement of 3ft wide ridge vents with 7ft ridge vents in the perennial house as during warm spring and hot summer days the perennial house would be a full 5º – 10º F warmer than the outside air that makes for an uncomfortable atmosphere for customers and plants alike!
The new larger vents not only will remedy the problem of “extra” heat but should result in better plant quality as well.
Water quality for water that is used for irrigation, outside and inside the greenhouses has been an ongoing concern especially since we recycle our water. Very simply, many plant diseases may be “recycled” along with the water as well as leachates of fertilizer that are in the water that create a prolific bloom of unwanted algae species.
In 2006 we installed a gas chlorinator in our outside irrigation system which is working very well to eliminate algae and certain diseases which can build up in recycled water. The well water that is used in the greenhouse is now treated with chlorine to kill algae and many pathogens that would lower plant quality for our customers.
Many problems had to be overcome such as large storage tanks to hold the chlorinated water for a time so that a chemical reaction between the chlorine gas and minerals in the water such as iron could occur and then the resulting precipitate could settle to the bottom of the storage tanks before the water is used. The final stage in filtration is removing any remaining iron in the water in order that it does not stain pots or greenhouse self watering benches. Therefore, the remaining iron is removed from the water by means of an extremely fine 5 micron filter.
For better and faster customer service many of our sales will be performed on a handheld scanner that will enable a plant tag to be scanned outside even 500 ft away from the store. The hand-held device will enable a preliminary invoice to be transferred to the software systems server via radio signal which will result in less waiting for customers and more accuracy since nothing has to be hand written. The hand-held device will also result in less waiting for customers when lines are backed up in spring as one of the nursery staff will be able to pre-scan material on customer wagons and give the customer a numbered code that will bring up a pre-entered invoice that was again relayed to the computer by a radio signal!
The final fall and winter effort has been the ongoing endeavor at Wolf Creek Gardens that will be a showcase for much of the plant types we offer when the first phase is open in the spring of 2008.
The garden has had roads installed for maintenance and customer viewing paths, boulder walls to contain steep hillsides, water lines extended for irrigation and plantings of European Beech varieties, Eastern Redbud, Dogwoods, Viburnum and of course, Dayton Nursery’s specialty of Rhododendrons and Azaleas in an open shade area in the eastern part of the garden.
We have a lot of catching up to do in 2007 in order to open the garden in spring 2008. Plans for 2007 include the addition of a “sunken” parking lot to keep vehicles hidden from the garden view and the filling of some low wet areas to accommodate the planned plantings of perennial gardens, rose gardens and spring flowering bulb gardens.
Keep an eye on the progress as our vision of Wolf Creek Gardens is beginning to “bloom and grow”.
Happy Spring
Thomas Dayton