The Backyard Plant Sale

8th Annual Backyard Plant Sale

The critical sale information got lost in the beginning of the blog so I am posting it again here:

The dates this year will be (rain or shine -- if it's thundering we wait it out on the porch):

Friday, May 2 from 4:00 pm - dark
Saturday, May 3 from 9:00 am - 1:00 pm

The location is my backyard at 203 Howard Street in Ashland.

For those who donate plants, there are excellent PERKS! There will be a PREVIEW sale just for plant donors on Thursday, May 3 from 4pm-dark. On this day, plant donors may purchase up to the number of plants donated by that person. Some items actually sell out on this day. So the more plants you donate, the more purchasing power you have. It is permissible to bring a friend and share your “credits” with your friend. Saturday at 1:00, all leftover plants are given to ANY plant donor in ANY quantity. Those who are not plant donors can still purchase plants at this time until they are gone.

The procedure for the sale is this: If you have plants to donate, you can leave them on my front porch any time during the week before the sale (please leave your name so I know who donated what). If you can label them, that’s great, but most people (like myself) are lucky to get them in the pots in time. No invasive alien plants will be sold and we love to see Virginia native plants at the sale. Then, if you are a donor, show up at the preview or any of the sale times if you would like to purchase plants. Donors who would like free leftover plants can show up at 1:00 or later after the sale is over (there’s always good stuff left). And, of course, you don’t have to donate plants to shop on Friday and Saturday.

15 Apr, 2008 | Julie | Leave comment - 0 -

First 2008 plant sale plants!

I started digging today. I dug some Veronica Georgia Blue, Artemisia (not sure of the variety), some of that Orange Chinese Lantern, Helianthus and Korean Bellflower. I also picked up another load of daffodils from Lewis Ginter -- this will be the 4th truck load. I think I will be getting one more just before the sale. Some of the varieties I have are "Flower Dream" (gorgeous!), "Minnow", "Tete-a-tete", "Replete", "Dick Wilden", "Dutch Master" (tons of these -- I'll be selling them cheap!), "Mt. Hood". I also have Grape Hyacinth from Lewis Ginter. I have other varieties of daffodils also, just can't remember them now -- and I'll have a large basket of miscellaneous daffodils that you can pick through and bag yourself (these will be cheap too!).

Tomorrow I will try to dig a bunch more plants -- stuff like Pink Yarrow, Shasta Daisy, Mullein Pink, Sedum, Egyptian Walking Onion, Strawberries.

For those of you who want to donate, I am happy to start receiving plants any time it is convenient for you and through the sale. You can leave them on my front porch with a note.

So I have 18 plants I dug and a couple thousand bulbs from Lewis Ginter -- I'm hoping for another 1000 plants from you all!

12 Apr, 2008 | Julie | Leave comment - 0 -

Busy in my garden today

I was looking at my yucca thinking it was way too big and should be subdivided for the plant sale when I noticed this wasp busy working on a nest. So I grabbed my camera...

12 Apr, 2008 | Julie | Leave comment - 0 -

Some Virginia Natives blooming today:

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)


Grandma's Yellow Primrose -- not sure if this is a native but has been in Virginia, I believe, since the days of Patrick Henry at Scotchtown...


Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica)


A pink scilla (a native I believe) amongst the (not a native) Stinking Rose (helleborus foetidus)

10 Apr, 2008 | Julie | Leave comment - 2 -

New load of bulbs

About every 2 weeks I get an email from Lewis Ginter saying "come pick up bulbs!" Here's a picture of a couple of invaluable volunteers helping me unload bulbs from my truck back at the house. This time we got a number of varieties including grape hyacinth and daffodils: "replete", "minnow", "dutch master", "mount hood", etc.

05 Apr, 2008 | Julie | Leave comment - 0 -

Commenting on Peat Moss

A comment I received for my first blog entry (March 26 from SLAVIN - see archive) referred to peat moss which encouraged me to do a little web research. This article from SIERRA seemed to sum up the things I was reading nicely:

Gather no moss? - peat moss and the environment
Sierra, May-June, 1993 by Marc Lecard

The bale of peat moss my father used on our lawn always stood in a corner of the garden like a burlap refrigerator, holding a rich, dark substance smelling of the swamp. The sharp, vinegary reek of decaying vegetable matter seemed to me an essential part of gardening. But as wetlands around the world have been drained and filled and cut away, some environmentally minded gardeners have begun to wonder if they are building up their lawns and flowerbeds at the expense of fragile ecosystems elsewhere.

Peat moss is the partially decomposed remains of sphagnum moss, a plant that defines the bogland ecosystems where it is found. As it grows, the lower parts of sphagnum die and are buried beneath the new growth; eventually, the dead moss is compacted and deprived of oxygen by the weight above it and forms peat, a dense vegetable mud. This mat of dead and living sphagnum literally supports the plant life of the bog. If sphagnum moss is not cut out completely, it will slowly grow back. But since it is the keystone of bog ecosystems, cutting it results in the destruction of many other plants as well as wildlife habitat.

In Ireland and Great Britain, peat bogs are in danger of disappearing. The problem is exacerbated by the relatively small acreage of peatlands, and by development, agricultural use, and the commercial harvesting of peat for fuel. Many conservationists, gardeners, and wetlands scientists in these countries have recommended a boycott of horticultural peat.

In the United States, peat moss is harvested in Indiana, Florida, Maine, Michigan, and Minnesota, but most of the peat Americans use comes from Canada, which boasts 270 million acres of peatlands. Canada harvests some 40,000 acres of sphagnum and exports 90 percent of it to the United States for lawn and garden use.

Producers in both Canada and the United States maintain that they never cut sphagnum faster than it grows, and leave behind enough peat to ensure regeneration. "Harvesting peat bogs actually helps preserve them," says Gerry Hood of the Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association, who claims that peat-moss operations keep the bogs from being drained for development. Five to ten years after harvesting, Hood says, the bog will be a "functioning wetland" again. He admits that it will take up to 25 years for a bog to return to its preharvested state, but says that 90 percent of the original flora will eventually grow back.

Some wetlands scientists, however, point out that a managed bog bears little resemblance to a natural one. Like tree farms, these peatlands tend toward monoculture, lacking the biodiversity of an unharvested bog.

Though gardeners may have a nostalgic attachment to peat moss, there's no real need to use it. Fallen leaves and grass clippings make a better mulch; though it won't last as long as peat moss, compost from yard clippings is a suitable soil conditioner. Leaf mulch in particular will help soil hold water.
Lawns are big absorbers of peat moss and other resources as well: perhaps we should reconsider the whole concept of putting-green perfection and allow distant ecosystems - such as peat bogs - to flourish unmolested.

COPYRIGHT 1993 Sierra Magazine
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

04 Apr, 2008 | Julie | Leave comment - 0 -