LA creates first "public orchard"

Los Angeles has created a public park complete with public orchard. According to a LA Times article county officials, " hope the 'edible art' will encourage more locals to spend time there." Apparently it's the states first public orchard with residents planting "27 fruit trees and eight grapevines in Del Aire Park and 60 additional fruit trees in the surrounding neighborhood."

Three artists calling themselves, "Fallen Fruit" designed the orchard. David Burns, one of the artists said, " This is about creating something that is abundant that has no ownership." The Times say's, "for now, a wooden sign overlooking the trees describes their purpose: 'The fruit trees in this park belong to the public,' it says. 'They're for everyone, including you. Please take care of the fruit trees and when the fruit is ripe, taste it and share it with others.'" They planted "plums, pomegranates, limes, avocados and apricots." One of the residents across the street said, "he loves having fruit trees across from his home."

I am not sure how this is going to work. Will the county or residents maintain these trees? Who will be allowed to harvest the fruit? How much fruit can one community member take? The statement that, "this is about creating something that is abundant that has no ownership," concerns me. When no one "owns" the plot, who will feel the need to maintain it? If one neighbor ends up doing most of the maintenance how will they feel when others swoop in to take limes for their mojito's?" How much fruit is enough for one person to take?

Considering the number of fruit trees in the LA area that already bear fruit on property, and then is left to rot on the ground, I don't hold out much hope for this. Community gardens and farmers markets make it because people feel ownership, whether it's a small allotment or selling the fruit at market. This project has the county to fall back on, so their is no sense of ownership or pride in keeping it up. I hope it works, but I am afraid this has the makings of a "temporary art project".

Fallen Fruit has some interesting ideas however, one of which is "Public Fruit Maps".  According to their website, one of their "core projects is to map neighborhoods to which we are invited, mapping all the fruit trees that grow in or over public space.  The maps are hand-drawn and distributed free from copyright as jpgs and PDFs." This is a great idea, and one which may have more potential than the "public fruit park". They have also created a project titled, "Fruit Tree Adoptions". According to Fallen Fruit they "distribute free bare-root fruit trees in a variety of urban settings.  We encourage the planting of these trees in either public space or on the periphery of private property, in order to create new kinds of communal life based on generosity and sharing.  Each recipient signs an adoption form promising to care for the tree — initiating a relationship with it." I like the adoption form which provides that sense of "ownership", which may encourage the person signing up to adopt the trees to maintain them.

The "Piña Colada Pineapple"

According to The Telegraph scientist from Queensland, Australia have developed a new pineapple that has a "lovely coconut flavor". The Telegraph continues, "The new pineapple, called 'AusFestival', has been dubbed the 'piña colada pineapple' and will potentially – as local media noted – preclude people from having to mix fruits in the famous cocktail."

Apparently the coconut flavor was not the desired result. Rather it was a added benefit of the breeding program looking for a "nice flavoured pineapple...that is sweet, low acid and aromatic."

The power of blue

Blueberries are one of my favorite fruiting plants. They grow great in containers, where they will produce hand fulls of fruit each day during the  summer. The shrub itself is a perennial, which means the same plant produces year after year. Plant them once, and your done!

The secret to growing great blueberries is creating just the right soil, then growing them in the sunshine. During the spring we feed them with cottonseed meal in April, and again in May. This keeps them healthy, and producing loads of plump, juicy berries.

We have the plants for sale in small containers, which can then be transplanted into larger size pot's before spring. Blueberry plants could make the perfect Christmas gift as the recipient will get to harvest the plump little gems their very first summer.

Here is a link to creating the perfect soil for blueberries. The picture above shows Misty, one of four different varieties we carry. One plant will produce berries on it's own. For the most fun plant a couple of  different varieties  near each other, or even in the same container. That way the can pollenize each other, and produce even more berries. Imagine the possibilities.

The decline of the county fair

The El Dorado County Fair has come, and gone. It's turning into the amazing shrinking county fair, and if the trend continues it may just disappear. Why do we have the fair in June? School is out, and they need kids spending money on the rides to make it work. If they wait till late summer, when fairs would normally be held, the kids have already headed back to school.

According the the fairs website, "The purpose of today’s fairs is to promote agricultural and animal husbandry, local resource and industrial promotion, education, entertainment, competition, youth development, and community outreach. Several trends over the years have allowed the fairgrounds to become revenue generating entertainment and exhibition venue that operates on a year round basis." How can you have a "biggest tomato" or " best tasting apple pie" or "plumpest chicken" contest, when the first tomato hasn't even ripened on the vine?

I wish the fair would go back to being what county fairs once where. A place to show off local agricultural wonders, and have some fun.  The fair has turned into a carnival, with a smattering of agricultural displays. Let's hold the fair in the late summer, and emphasize the agricultural side of the show. Since the fair is already struggling, let's have a make over where the interest in growing your own, and competing with others is the main focus. Sure, the kids will have gone back to school. So what? Hold the fair on the weekend. Give us a place to share and compete with others with real agricultural products. The time is "ripe" to re-emphasize the importance of fresh food, agriculture, and seasonality in our lives by bringing back the county fairs of the past.

Guerrilla Grafters

The mantra repeated in the horticultural trade businesses at this time is, if we don't start a national campaign to promote gardening people will spend time doing something else. But, why go through all the expense and time of that when we have a younger generation that is very interested in horticulture already? The concern for us in the gardening business is they're  just not shopping at the garden center like mom and dad use too. Don't think the younger generations are interested in gardening? Your not looking in the right places. The newest expression of urban gardening is "Guerrilla Grafters". Talk about taking matters into your own hands, literally.  According to SFBay.com "Guerrilla Grafters bring fruit to the masses". According to the article, Tara Hui is one of the founders  of "Guerrilla Grafters, a renegade agricultural group that  fruit-bearing branches onto public trees in the Bay Area for locals to enjoy for free."

According to SFBay, "Volunteers in the Bay Area collect branches from the California Rare Fruit Growers association or pick up donated branches from backyard gardeners and regional orchards." This bud stock is then grafted onto existing non-bearing trees like flowering pears.  In the short video above you can learn what they are trying to accomplish.

There are a host of unanswered questions we could think up about this. That's not the point, however. This crazy interest in grafting and gardening is what catches my attention. Grafting is not always an easy process, yet this 100 member volunteer group has learned how to do it, and are doing it. It is even spreading to other cities and countries. Call it "Guerrilla Grafting" if you like, but it's still a form of gardening. If we in the trade are going to capture these peoples interest and enthusiasm it's not through large campaigns, or media blitzes. It will be by providing the tools they need, and helping them spread the word of how cool gardening is via social media.

Why not heirloom fruits?

Spent Sunday pruning our Arkansas Black apple tree. It hadn't been pruned for a couple of years, so it was due. We planted it about 20 years ago when I worked at Gold Hill Nursery. It's an old variety from 19th century Arkansas. Apparently you can keep the apples for up to six months under the right conditions. That would have been an important attribute back in  the day when you didn't know when the next taste of fresh food might be after a long winter.

I brought home two new apples for the garden. The two varieties we are going to plant are antique varieties, "Cox Orange Pippin" and "Snow".  Apparently, Cox Orange Pippin  accounts for up to 50% of all dessert apples planted in The United Kingdom.  It was first planted in 1825 in Colnbrook in Buckinghamshire, England, by the retired brewer and horticulturist Richard Cox.  Wikipedia say's, "The flesh is very aromatic, yellow-white, fine-grained, crisp and very juicy. Cox's flavor is sprightly subacid, with hints of cherry and anise, becoming softer and milder with age. When ripe apples are shaken, the seeds make a rattling sound as they are only loosely held in the apple flesh. One of the best in quality of the English desert apples".

The other apple variety we are planting is "Snow". Snow was introduced to the US from Canada in 1739, but can trace it's heritage back to France and the 1600's. It "is delicious for eating out-of-hand.  Popular in the United States for more than 150 years. Deep crimson, tender, aromatic, juicy, sweet and tart, hardy and long-lived. Snow white flesh." Interestingly it is one of the few apples to reproduce true from seed.

Why don't we plant more of these antique varieties? Why do people come to the nursery asking for "Fuji" , "Pink Lady", or "Red Delicious"? I can go to the store or Apple Hill and pick up those varieties. We should look back to see what we might be missing in flavor and qualities of the forgotten fruit varieties. Did you also know the antique apples are also more healthful than modern hybrids? One of the benefits of heirloom apples is they help control blood sugar levels, which some have found contribute to obesity.

There can be issues growing these trees commercially in North America.  Certain non-fatal diseases  can make it harder to grow than some of the newer bred for disease resistance varieties. Never-the-less heirloom vegetables have many of the same issues when it comes to commercial growing. That doesn't mean the individual gardener cannot have success growing these delicious reminders of summers past.

The health benefits of antique apples

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away". Some apples may outperform others when it comes to the healthy benefits. According to research from The Royal Pharmaceutical Society, modern day apples strip away many of the health benefits of eating apples. Through years of hybridizing we have created more adaptable and sweeter fruit, but fruit that is not as healthy.

One of the benefits of heirloom apples is they help control blood sugar levels, which some have found contribute to obesity. Can it be that the so called "healthy" modern day apple, bred for ever increasing sweetness, is spiking blood sugar levels and contributing to obesity?

Are people ready to embrace growing heirloom apples like they have heirloom vegetables? There are many hybrids that are excellent fruit, and have increased adaptability to differing climatic and soil conditions. However, it's fun to think that these old apple varieties have something going for them that has kept them on the radar all these years.

Do we need to have progressively sweeter and sweeter food to just get people to eat fruit and vegetables? Through breeding  have we sweetened the taste, but lost many of the health benefits of the  fruit our grandparents ate?

Some food for thought.

Growing your own is in, and will be for awhile.

I was asked by a Master Gardener in the Sacramento area for some insight as they are re-modeling their demonstration

garden. They ask, "will vegetable gardening continue to be popular with the general public? I’ve read pros and cons, but most of the cons have been from ornamental-type folks."

My answer is based on where we do business and the economics of our area, the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in northern California. Right now we have an unemployment rate of 12%.  With that kind of rate you can well imagine that ornamental plantings are the last thing on people's minds. Some "well to do" types in The Bay Area and Sacramento may be doing some landscaping, but for all intents and purposes landscaping is dead. Nurseries and garden centers that catered to the landscape trade are suffering, or out of business. I talked to a sales representative who was lamenting who it seems every month brings another nursery closing, and one less customer. This will continue. There are just to many nurseries and garden centers still hanging on. There is not enough business to keep them all afloat.

Right now and for the foreseeable future we are focused on consumables, and smaller container sized perennials and annuals. People still want to dress us their gardens with color, but are looking for less expensive choices that give maximum impact. Container gardening is still poplar and flowers cheer people up. What they are not planting is landscape trees and shrubs. Why go through the expense when you don't even know if you'll be in your overly mortgaged home for long. I know a number of avid gardeners who have had to walk away from their homes and gardens, and are in no mood to replant now.

Once people settle down and get their finances in order they will have a better handle on how to move forward. I just cannot imagine a quick return to fully landscaped outdoor entertainment centers, complete with outdoor rooms, throw pillows, and big screen TV. People will create their own versions of the outdoor living space which more likely will include vegetable plants, medicinal plants, and cool spaces to enjoy them. "Since we cannot afford to eat out let's eat in and invite our neighbors over for a meal constructed from our garden." It' s the combination of growing and eating that will inspire people going forward. There is a wealth of heirloom vegetables that we have not even become familiar with yet. Fruit trees that are just now becoming popular, and fruit varieties many people have forgotten about. Growing, and eating the fruits of our labors excites me, and I believe many others.

For the Master Gardeners wondering how to redesign their demo gardens I would say an emphasis on low water use plants, both natives and Mediterranean plants would be in order. Not just because they make more sense here in our climate, but also they will take less effort to care for as people will be spending more time in the food-producing aspect of the garden. Look back at the old missions of California and you see a landscape based on a lack of summer water, and an emphasis on using that water for growing food. The grow your own consumables is fulled in part by food cost, but more than ever on food safety. You cannot underestimate how concerned people are about what is in, and being put on their food. Want to make sure it's safe? You have to grow your own.

There was a nice post at from Susan Harris at Garden Rant today concerning Thomas Jefferson's garden at Monticello. Jefferson grew all sorts of vegetables and fruits in his garden. Always experimenting and trying something new he kept copious notes of his work. It an interesting read and the way forward for many of us who find ourselves looking for inspiration in the garden. Always experimenting, trying new things, and growing most everything he needed in his garden. From the post, "as an eater, Jefferson chose mainly vegetables, using meats as condiments.  For salads he planted lettuces and radishes every two weeks throughout the growing season.  And get this - to produce a suitable salad oil for all those salads, he grew his own sesame.  His favorite cooked vegetable was the pea, of which he grew 23 varieties." Meat's as condiments, and greens the main course sounds like a diet for modern times as well.

You can feel it

You can feel it.  There is a growing sense that our food supply, while generally safe and the envy of the world, is fraying at the edges. With cost going up, E coli outbreaks, food shortages, etc. it’s enough to make you want to grow your own. It all sound so wonderful. Your garden producing an abundance of organically grown, safe food, harvested fresh for dinner. The problem is the vast majority of people just don’t have the skills necessary to do it themselves.

Where does one gain the skill necessary to grow the families’ food crop? If you have to think of that for awhile, and still cannot come up with an answer here’s what you could do. Start a garden center. Not you typical garden center filled with flowers, shrubs, trees, and lawn seed, but a place where the community can gather to learn the best methods for feeding their families. Every community needs a trusted resource for something this important. If your local Master Gardeners, garden center, or box store are not doing it, I believe you have a business opportunity.

There is a new type of garden center emerging to meet the challenges of feeding our families. It’s something of a hybrid between the old fashioned seed supply or farm supply, and nursery. There tends to be less emphasis on flowers and ornamentals, and more emphasis on edibles. That’s not to say there isn’t a place for nurseries that specialize in flowers or ornamentals. There just won’t be as many going forward. The ones that do make it, like Annie’s Annual’s have built a following for unique plants found at few other places. They have a niche that would be hard to compete with. Since they are the leader in that niche better not to compete with them, but come up with a completely different niche you can excel in.

The niche for us in our area going forward is consumables. Since we are in a rural area having a gorgeous front yard is less important than in other more suburban, or rural areas. It would be a good idea to look in your area of influence and see if the niche for supplying information and supplies for consumables is open. The time is coming when every community will have a trusted resource for this important aspect of our lives. When you are dealing with peoples food supply they tend to become serious gardeners. Serious gardeners listen and learn.

To meet our goal we have started planting fruit trees in our display gardens. We’re dedicating a 25 x 35 area to high density fruit tree gardening. In that small area we will be growing upwards of 20 different fruit trees. Once the fruit orchard is complete we will build a demonstration vegetable garden. We have the space for it and people need to see what it is that we talk about. These demonstration gardens will be used for workshops where you can learn how to feed your family with food you have grown.

There will always be a place for flowers and ornamentals. We are still providing perennials, annuals, shrubs, and trees. We just won’t be carrying the same stuff you get at the box store. Want a bunch of growth-regulated marigolds? Not from us. Need northern California native plant’s, we have them. Need weed and feed? Not from us. Need organic fertilizers that will nourish your plants, we have that. Want to work with an un-interested nursery person who is only working there because they provide medical insurance? Not here. Looking for an enthusiastic expert that really cares about your success, then you have come to the right place. No one else is doing this in our area so we are jumping in. Is anyone doing this in your area? If not, you might be able to build a business around this idea. The “home grown” movement is going to grow exponentially as more and more food chain concerns arise. This is only the beginning.

The gardening market has changed

While I was at The ANLA Clinic earlier this year we listened to a man (can't remember who), who said many

garden centers are too big, and have to much inventory on hand for the current situation. Someone in the audience said that they needed the extra plants so as to be able to make nice displays. Whether they need the plants to  sell or not, they we're going to keep ordering so they could make nice displays. This surprised me as I have over the last couple of years decided that we would only carry what sold. Sounds simple doesn't it?

I wonder how many stores still order based on what they believe a nursery should carry, as opposed to what works these days. Bulbs? Didn't carry them this year. You know what, we didn't have to put the majority on sale before they sprouted in the boxes this year. Sure a few people we're disappointed we didn't carry them, but not that many. Actually we told our locally owned competition we we're not going to carry bulbs this year, and would send people over to them. They ordered extra, and you know what? They are still trying to get rid of them, and they are on sale.

Somehow a balance needs to be achieved between the notion of a garden center, and the reality. I have a friend who was in the nursery business for over a quarter century. He told me you couldn't be a proper nursery and not carry roses.  How many nurseries continue to carry large selections of roses only to put a large portion on sale at the end of the season? The darn deer eat them here, and as such the demand is not great like other more suburban areas. We don't carry roses. Haven't looked back.  I would expect that the Christmas season is like that for many of us. The problem is most of that Christmas stuff never sells, and ends up in the back room waiting to make an appearance the following year. I realize some stores do a bang up Christmas season, but the majority do not.  If Christmas season continues to be a loss, maybe it would be better to just close for a month or two during the winter?  Your nursery may do a great job during the Christmas season. Keep it up!

I have a feeling that this year is going to be another tough one for the trade. Especially here in California where fundamental problems are going to keep the economy shaky. If you waiting around for the economy to "improve" so it can be business as usual, you have a long wait. Better to learn to live and thrive in what we are experiencing now.

There are great opportunities for garden centers who can tap into current concerns.  We are focused on consumables, and the products needed to be successful in your pursuit, such as organic fertilizers and pest controls. Even more important we have the knowledge to help you do it right. Perennials and annuals in smaller sizes are still great sellers.  We keep varieties not usually found at the box stores. Native plants are a niche no one does well in our area, so we now have a great selection of natives from our partner, Lotus Valley Natives. Indoor and hydroponic gardening has been huge for us. Another thing the box stores don't do well, yet. Find your niche and build on that. The traditional garden center market is no longer there.