Posted on 02/15/2010 7:10:14 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
PORTLAND, Ore. — Like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, David Niklas feels the quickening of spring as the season ramps up at his wholesale nursery in a farming community south of Portland. Niklas and his workers busily package plants for shipment.
These days, his flowers and vegetable seedlings have fewer places to go, as the housing bubble burst and the state and national economies flatlined.
Just three years after reaching a record high of almost $1 billion in sales, Oregon's nursery industry has plummeted into an historic slump. Nurseries are laying off employees, cutting costs and foregoing new buildings and equipment.
A few, like Niklas' Clackamas Greenhouses, have gone bankrupt.
"The family has poured money into it as we tried to restructure it and make new markets," said Niklas, who had to file bankruptcy after losing almost half his sales when his primary retailer was bought out. "Commercial lenders aren't talking to me because I'm coming out of bankruptcy.
"They aren't even talking to GM, so why would they talk to a little nursery?"
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
That’s a great idea! Thanks.
I’ll make a note of it and see what we can come up with over time. I would LOVE to support other Freepers first when it comes to purchases for home, farm, business-to-business, etc.
Even if we work for other companies (like I do) we could support those companies so we can all stay employed for the next few (5? 10?) years, while we weather this man-made disaster of an economy.
Brilliant!
“Bradford pear trees...”
Beautiful to look at, and yet USELESS...much like my first husband, LOL!
There’s a blueberry place around here that I like to pick at and they do what they can to encourage the wild turkeys to hang around. She told me that the turkeys will eat every single blueberry they can find, even the rotten ones off the ground.
What that does is go a long way to preventing worms in the blueberries. Apparently the worms overwinter in the drops and then re-infest the plants the next spring. If you want to have to spray less and have more worm free blueberries, clean up under the bushes meticulously.
Our ‘freebies’ are GREAT this year; a very nice mix of cutting flowers which will do two things: bring Good Bugs to your garden to pollinate and help battle the Bad Bugs, and will provide you with many pretty bouquets for your table this season. :) (I can’t LIVE without cut flowers!)
The ‘Sweet Repeat’ lettuce is a leaf-mix that will keep producing if you keep cutting. Well, until it gets really too hot...but save half the package and plant it again in the cooler fall months for another bunch of FREE salad greens.
I know you’re in one of those lovely hot zones, so...just do the opposite of what it tells you on the package, LOL!
I’ve seen decent sized plants at a nursery around these parts and I think they were only $5.95 or so.
When you think of it though, since it’s a perennial, you’ll always have it and you can grow them organically. When you consider what the herbs cost in the stores, even that cost for a plant isn’t a bad deal in the long run.
Herbs are really pretty easy to grow and sure make whatever food you have taste better.
That’s it!
Look how expensive it is. Such a simple plant. I need to get it and make new starts.
A window box is a great idea.
I like parsley the first year. It works great as a landscaping plant as it is nice and green and leafy. It fills in empty spots nicely.
I’ve wondered about those cherry bushes. That sounded intriguing.
I was trying for YEARS to get my neighbors in Tennessee to incorporate veggies and herbs into their landscaping; but it was like pulling teeth. We used herbs, and some of the more colorful veggies...ornamental peppers, multi-color mini-bell peppers, cherry-style tomatoes, and the like. Pretty AND tasty. Thanks for the link...my wife is into herbs, and she will cull lots of ideas from this...
We have a lot of perennials but only so much room. I’m not buying any more because I don’t have any where left to put them.
What we’re down to buying now is the annuals.
I’m hoping to have a bush cherry hedge. One of the online places had them on sale for about $1.50 each. I got 35 of them LOL. Hubby set them out and claims I was trying to kill him. He’s a good sport with my gardening hobby.
I grow lettuce and radishes in the ground, but I have planted salad greens, herbs, spring onions, edible flowers, etc. in big pots right outside my kitchen door...for convenience.
I’m thinking container gardening is for asthetics, or when you don’t have room to do anthing else, or you have a mature yard with big trees and lots of shade and just patches of sunshine.
I mean, I LIKE the look of raised beds, but for me, since a large chunk of my land is full sun, it just makes sense to plant in the ground. It’s also less work for ME because I can get Husband or Son to till it for me, versus all that hand-digging in raised beds.
If he doesn’t want to build you some raised beds, try containers first and see what your productivity is compared to ‘in the ground’ plantings.
http://containergardening.about.com/
My ‘in the ground with boring rows’ garden is quite pretty. I throw flowers in there like nobody’s business; sunflowers, zinnia, cosmos, etc. Wherever they land, they land. I add height and interest with a tripod of Scarlet Runner Beans which have beautiful (edible) blooms and yummy, tasty beans.
Or, save a row for all cut flowers for yourself to ‘pretty it up’ if that’s what’s what you want. :)
Try googling up the seeds on the internet. You might even find some place that sells them like Wal-Mart, Lowe’s, or a grocery store display.
I’ve found a surprising selection of seeds in different places. Sometimes all it takes is taking the time to go through the display.
Thanks. I’ll look into it. We even have a greenhouse so it could be fun.
I bought three different blueberry bushes that produce at different times. Blueberries are one of those plants you’re supposed to plant different varieties to get a good crop for.
I still don’t know why. Anyway, blueberries are supposed to be beautiful when they bloom in the spring, colorful in the fall, and give you food in the summer. They’re a nice compact full shrub as well. Three was all I could fit across the back of our property. There’s other stuff back there, mostly black walnut trees.
This fall I intend to harvest as many of those suckers as I can. There are at least three trees and the walnuts are there for the taking, if the squirrels don’t get to them first, and black walnuts are supposed to be pretty special for flavor.
I’m actually considering planting another tree for nuts. We have one spot where the sun comes in through the kitchen window in the late afternoon and makes standing at the sink unbearable between the heat of the sun and the glare, and I’ve been wanting to plant a tree in that area. I know it will be years before we see the benefit of it, but the tree might as well do double duty.
So, I’m pinging Diana with this question.....
What would be a good kind of tree for nuts that would be hardly in NY same climate as yours no doubt)? I’m thinking hazlenut or filberts? Or maybe just a white oak? I understand acorns are edible.
Ya, that’s right about blueberries and varieties. IIRC we’ve got 3 and maybe 4 different varieties so far. The leaves on the southern highbush are gorgeous in the fall. I’ve got some in my front yard now. We’ve probably got 20-25 bushes set out thus far.
Can’t answer your nut tree question. Down here we plant pecans and hickory nuts. I love hickory nut pie! (there’s a reason I’m fat, I love food!)
So someone was impersonating you on the Nascar thread yesterday?
Freebies are a big seller. I got freebie seeds from heirloom seeds and have passed them on to many friends.
Looking at it from a consumer, they sent me several excellent varieties, free and they were better than the varieties I chose. I was totally sold on them.
Free seeds cost you nothing and if they are of a good variety that sells....you and your customer benefit in the long term.
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