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 ...
This is something that is getting repeated here quit a bit lately. Is there some kind of book like "Not starving, For Dummies" out there. Maybe someone should start a thread of resource material.
The place looks like a ghost town....just like all the unfinished housing tracts.
The variety of elephant ears that I grew years ago had edible roots (bulbs). Also known as taro root, it is a staple in many areas of the world and is the main ingredient in poi. It is my understanding that the root is toxic unless you cook it first.
Good grief, with the number of people trying veggie gardening, you’d think that this wouldn’t be a problem.
I think a lot of nurseries make most of their money off of flower sales. That is the part of their business that is suffering.
Not only that my nursery would have larger cabbages, broccoli, squash in one gallon pots to transplant. That’s how you entice the garden-phobic. Then they come back next year and buy starts and six-packs
A nursery must move from ornamental to edible these day
I could see that. We don’t have a lot of extra money for annuals, so most of the flowers I buy are perennials and I plan out carefully.
I’ll usually buy some zinnias, petunias, marigolds, or salvia to fill in, but beyond that, nothing. But that is not unusual for us.
I'm doing that as well but started some years ago, before it was fashionable.
I have some nice currant bushes started and have ordered some blueberries for the back yard.
Ah! I was not aware that it was taro root.
I have seen a number of news items proclaiming that there will be a shortage of seeds this year. I am wondering if they are accurate? I also am sure that landscaping (I am a contractor), planting ornamentals and upgrading landscapes and such (a luxury good) will take a big hit as money and the economy get even tighter under the tax and spend democrats. We are in survival mode...no investments, no new workers, no new trucks or tools...
I have done my part.
1) You don’t have to stoop so far.
2) You can plant really close together and that cuts down on weeding and fertilizer.
3) Saves space so it’s a smaller area if you need to fence it to keep out deer and rabbits.
Since I started gardening it seems that I plant things the deer eat before I can. :)””
Deer got all my beets, apples, and blueberries. It will not happen a 2nd time. I have a badge and a gun.
Raised beds drain better (but then again, you have to make sure they don’t dry out), the soil warms up faster in the spring, you can fill it with a good soil mix if your native soil is less than ideal, and it’s easier to control weeds.
A good idea might be to emphasize growing an herb garden.
Herbs are so expensive in the store, and God only knows where they come from.
More herbs are cold hardy than a lot of people realize. I just looked into it myself and found that as least half of the spices I use for cooking are cold hardly, so I decided to order some plants and start a small section of the graden as an herb garden.
If I had known that you sold stuff through mail order, I would have ordered from you, but I put the order in some time ago so it’s kind of too late to give you the business now.
Happy to see your shameless plug. Given the option, I would always buy from a FReeper before someone else.
All the info you need on raised bed gardening and its advantages can be found here:
http://www.squarefootgardening.com/
One herb I used just for fun was lemon thyme. Have only found it once since - at a greenhouse but they wanted almost $4 for a tiny start so I didn’t get it. I need to find some seed.
It’s great, you squish a leaf and smell your hand - it smells like lemon. And like other thymes - I’m sure it would grow between stepping stones and smell good as you walk over it.
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