Milewide website remake

Take a look at our Milewide Nursery website revision. Just uploaded the change in the beginning of March. Basically, got it down to just about one page. Dropped Paypal (as I recommend you do) since they started politically picking and choosing whose account they would honor and I have set up Google Checkout instead. Picked two of our favorite nursery products to offer – japanese maples and artichoke seeds. We are going to get back to website design and expand the site as soon as we can find the time. We have a great many more plants we would like to offer. I do the web design myself and between the nursery, the homestead and a little time off, I just can’t make things happen as quickly as I would like. Let us know what you think of the basic design – we are trying to make it clear cut and modern. Thanks.
steve

Bonsai!!

My father has been tossing around the idea of creating Bonsai as one of our items for sale, but he has never taken any real steps to begin the process.  The first time he mentioned it I thought it sounded like a very cool idea.

It’s the time of year we begin planning for Spring Sales.  We’ve been discussing what products we want to focus on and make available to our customers by March.  And I got interested in taking the first steps to begin our Bonsai product.

Steve gave me two books on Bonsai.  The big one is a little daunting so I started flipping through the smaller of the two books.  I read the first few pages then flipped to the section about different types of plants which are ideal for making Bonsai.  And we already have a few.  I pulled three Wysteria, three Magnolia and three Oregon White Oaks to begin experimenting on.

Although the book lays the process out step by step, I am a little nervous to begin.  The first step is to basically butcher the tree.  You cut off the branches to increase branch formation closer to the trunk.  You trim off a large section of the roots to increase new root production and incourage the tree to grow without gaining much in height.  Once I have this step done I can begin wiring the branches into place.  It seems easy enough on paper, but I think it’s going to be harder then it looks.

The nine Bonsai candidates.

Unfortunately we won’t have any Bonsai ready by this March.  But within two years, if all goes well, we should be able to put them up for sale!  And I believe our long awaited efforts will be well worth it.

How To: Not Suck at Succulent Care

Succulents are tough.  Not only can they live in some of the worst conditions on the planet, they are easy to kill.  Figure that one out.  They naturally grow in deserts, places where everything else withers and dies, they thrive.  Yet when you bring them home and give them water and nutrients they die.  I guess they are trying to tell us something.  Don’t Water Me!

These matching little beauties are planted in a copper tray. Very pretty display actually.

And any gardener knows, Not watering isn’t as easy as it seems.  When I see a dry pot, my first instinct is to water it.  When we first got our succulents from my Pa, we put them up in the hothouse and treated ‘em like all the other plants.  And they started to show their displeasure almost immediately.  But my dad quickly figured out what he was doing wrong, moved them to the back of the room, and stopped watering.  And now they are Glor-Ious!  Growing like mad!

These all started about 2" high with a few leaves, now they are 6-8" tall.

I was looking around for more information on caring for succulents and the consensus is only water once a week during peak season (mainly Spring and early Summer), and only water once a month during the Winter months.  Be careful though, some cacti and succulents are from the southern hemisphere and they consider our Spring/Summer their Winter, so adjust your watering schedule accordingly.  Another good tip for the unsure gardener, only water when the soil is dry completely through.  And when in doubt, Don’t Water!

One of the coolest things I read I found on CactusLands.  They said you can cover the topsoil of your succulent with pea gravel or crushed granite to help the soil dry at an even rate (helps keep the topsoil moist along with the rest).  It also helps the water distribute evenly.  Very cool.  And I think I’m gonna try it out on a few of ours.

See the little baby in the bottom left corner?

Along with the important lack of water, succulents also don’t particularly care for nutrients.  We planted our succulents in Black Gold (it received the National Home Garden Club Seal of Approval) which is a peat and perlite mixture with no fertilizers, and as I said, they are doing just great.  No matter what brand of soil you use, be sure it has good aeration to allow water and air to the roots.  If you do add nutrients to the soil (they like a little nitrogen) do so sparingly.

Don't water often, but enjoy the beauty when you do. I just love the droplets!

Our Newest Addition

Ever since my Grandpa gave us our first tray of succulents we’ve been hooked.  Last week Steve ordered some succulents for us to play with.  We hope to propagate them so we can sell them to you!  Some of them look to be a challenge, but neither my father or I have ever shyed away from a challenge.  So bring it on succulents, we want Millions (ok, hold on a sec’, maybe not Millions, but a LOT will do just fine).  And aren’t they the cutest things you’ve ever seen??

We got a wide variety to play with.

These are all in the family Echiveria.

Commonly called "Flippin Flapjacks" (Kalanchoe luciae)

This is my favorite one. Called a "Split Rock" or "Living Rock" (Pleiospilos Nelii)

How To: Importance of a Pot

It’s so hard to keep a plant alive once it’s in a pot. Plants didn’t start out in pots, that’s for sure.  Not understanding the limitations of pot planting can lead to some very frustrating growing experiences. But you can take some precautions -

• Watch your choice of pot – they aren’t all created equal. The best are not smooth sided, but instead have breaks in the plastic that obstruct the roots and help keep them from circling.

• Remember that every time you water your potted plant, you are, in effect, flushing the fertilizers out. Be sure to fertilize regularly to help with this.

• Don’t over water. Your plants want air in their soil. You might even poke some holes in the pot soil. Push right down to the bottom with a narrow stick.

• Keep the pot weeded and moss free. These unwanted plants can be quite greedy. But, look over that moss carefully before you remove it – you might want to leave it there to provide a pleasing effect.

• Once your plant has filled its pot with roots, you must re-pot the poor thing – either cut back some roots and replant in the original pot (with some extra soil) or just pot up into a larger pot. If you don’t, your plant’s vigor will gradually decrease.

• In a matter of minutes, your typical plastic pot can literally fry your plant’s roots if the plastic is exposed to some good hot spring sun. To see for yourself, pop out a plant from some pot that has had both a shady side and a hot side – note there is less root growth on the “hot” side. Clay pots handle this better, but the clay is porous and dries out quickly.

• You might consider a fabric pot (like the SmartPot you see around in retail stores) – fabric pots air-prune the plant roots and increase root formation.

This lemon tree, along with many others, was recently relocated from my parents old house to their new one. They are doing Just Fine.

Once you have your potted plant alive and healthy, think about what you might do with it. You could, you know, plant your new plant in the ground. Potted plants are always ready, anytime of the year, to be planted in your landscape. But, potted plants let you be much more creative. You can choose a more intimate location such as the deck next to your hot tub or a “surprise” location such as my sunken greenhouse at home – there I have several citrus trees and jasmine plants. Throughout the spring, they fill the space with their wonderful scent. I plan to take these with me when I move to my new place – another advantage of potted plants. For the urban dweller, potted plants offer the potential to make a garden of every balcony in the city.

Author: Steve (Dad)

White Trumpets

This morning my father and I stopped to drop off our weed whacker for it’s regular maintenance and I notice these beautiful trumpet flowers growing in a window box next to where we parked. So I hopped out and took a few photos. I used my new Canon EOS RebelXS with a Sigma 50mm Macro Lens. Each picture has been resized and cropped for use on the web. This is the first time I’ve played around with making a montage of photos. I think it turned out pretty good, hope you like it too.

Five varied photos of white trumpet flowers.