We grow the plants we sell in an environmentally responsible manner and strive to market them in a way that supports conscientious landscape design and usage. We encourage the proper placement of plants to minimize the requirement of unnecessary maintenance, water usage, pesticide usage and excessive soil amendments. We encourage recycling natural materials in the form of compost and mulch, as well the recycling of expendables to keep these items out of landfills and waterways.
Trees
Fruit and ornamental trees are brought in year round from many outside sources. When the trees are brought in they are either put into a 7 or 15 gallon pot with a tree bark growing medium. Lime is mixed in with the growing medium to adjust the ph according to a plants specific need. Once potted, the trees are either sent to beds with over head irrigation or to a pot in pot system.
Our pot-in-pot system consists of pots that have been permanently placed into the ground as a sleeve at predetermined intervals. This allows for the newly potted plant to slide into the in ground pot almost as if you were planting it. Around the pots is a plastic weed barrier to help keep weed presence at a minimum. Once the trees are put into the pot in pot system they then have a spray stake inserted into the growing medium. The spray stake evenly distributes water directly to the growing medium and from there trickles down to the root system. This allows for virtually no run off and no excessive watering because the spray stakes are computer controlled.
The trees that go to the over head irrigation beds are spaced evenly through out the beds. The beds are all graded towards the center of the bed as well as pitched towards a ditch. The excess water travels down the center of the bed and into this ditch which leads back to an irrigation pond where it can be used again. This allows us to capture our run off and re use our water instead of having it run back to the bay.
Now that the trees have been placed it is time to fertilize them. Plants need essential nutrients in order to grow and they get that through fertilizer. We use a slow release granular fertilizer which releases its nutrients slowly over a certain amount of time. Between the slow release fertilizer as well as capturing our runoff and recycling it we have virtually no nutrient runoff to the watershed.
Shrubs
Our shrubs are also brought in throughout the year and are planted in 1,2,3,5 and 7 gallons pots. They are planted with the same tree bark growing medium into which fertilizer has been incorporated. This allows the plants to have nutrients readily available for optimum growth. While the trees are generally here for one year some of our shrubs stay with us for up to 4 years. Over the course of their time here they will be ‘top dressed’ with more fertilizer. Top dressing involves placing the correct amount of slow release fertilizer at the soil level of the plant to ensure proper growth.
All of our shrubs are irrigated from over head sprinklers in hoop houses. The same drainage system is used to unsure runoff is redirected back to the irrigation pond for later use. These houses are covered in the winter to protect the plants from the element and are watered only when needed.
