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 ...
Keeps slugs and snails out...
/Salute
Jung sells them. :)
I’ve seen them on other seed supply company sites too. Amazon has them listed but they’re currently unavailable. Search for “Potmaker” on Google (or the search engine of your choice.)
Probably at my tender age I am not going to hang around for the years needed for fruit trees to produce. Added to the fact I have moved from an acre to a lot—life adjusts. For some valid reasons nobody in my family will be moving to this small town to live on the home place. So-—I succession garden, winter garden, can, freeze, dry- and enjoy life in the yard.
Did you buy motherboard yet? I have a good one that I paired with AMD Regor 240 a few months ago
Are you with Jung. I have noticed them for years due to the unusual name
Awwwww! Do all the illegal gardners have to go back to Mexico now?
You should have a ton of help from your local county extension office. And in many states a Master Gardener program. The whole focus is to help people get started, to learn so you can help others get started. The program is very worthwhile.
You are busier than me at growing edible things so I salute you. Any fruit tree can be kept pruned to keep it smaller plus you don’t plant fruit trees just for yourself
I have been in two cities with a lot of municipally planted fruit trees. Oroville had oranges+tangerines and San Antonio had pecan trees. Planted on city property such as near curbs and on medians
Is that pronounced “jung” or “yoong?”
You got one w ddr2. I did the same around Christmas. I’m aggravated at the high memory prices. Other than that computer components are cheaper and better every year. I like GigaByte motherboards
The family name is ‘Yoong’ but we all pronounce it with a hard ‘J’ so people can find us in the phone book and aren’t looking for us under ‘Y’.
No relation to Carl. People named Jung were a dime a dozen ‘back in the day’ of free and easy immigration to America. ;)
I know you did. Thank you! :)
“I do believe your sales will suffer when the coming glaciers cover your parking lot...”
Hey! How do you think we got all of our gorgeous lakes to begin with? :)
I think sales might suffer this season when Newbie Gardeners from LAST season see that producing food can be a LOT of hard work...they now prefer to just stock up on canned beans and call it a day, LOL!
All of southern WI was hit with that awful Late Blight on tomatoes for the first time in a DECADE, so those Newbie Gardeners have reason to be upset; but I have a spray for that, LOL!
What’s your Zone down there? 6? 7?
The problem most likely is that it doesn’t get cold enough for your strawberries to go sufficiently dormant each fall/winter to spring back to life the next season.
If you can’t grow apples or pears in your zone, (because they NEED a long, cold dormant period) then strawberries would be a problem, too.
If so, you CAN grow strawberries as an annual; I would recommend ‘Fort Laramie’ or ‘Seascape’ for growing in pots, bags or hanging baskets. We have this cool ‘bag’ that you can grow strawberries in, or herbs, etc. I’m going to try one out this season, as well as our potato bag. Supposedly, you can get 20 lbs. of taters from each bag.
We’ll just see about that! I’m going for 30 lbs. per bag, LOL!
People are really into edible landscaping, as well as prairie and/or native plants. It’s really a smart way to go. It makes total sense. I LOVE how an AZ desert looks, but really...it’s not gonna work in Wisconsin...and neither will an English Cottage-style garden work in AZ.
And don’t even get me started on ‘Rain Gardens’ which mean the OPPOSITE of what they’re called. *Rolleyes*
Have you discovered Rosalind Creasy? She rocks! Her books are informative, but are total Eye Candy, too. :)
http://www.rosalindcreasy.com/edible-landscaping-basics/
I love, love, LOVE Shallots. I have a small patch of them for now...
Last year ‘the project’ was putting in a 40’ row of asparagus. This fall it’s going to be a 40’ row of garlic, and I’ll add some shallots in there each spring, for sure!
Little by little I’m making our ‘farmette’ functional, beautiful and am growing plenty extra to sell, so she can continue to be functional and beautiful. :)
You don’t live that far from me and our Daffodils will be in full bloom by the end of the week. What’s up with that?
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