The Daylily Nursery
This is one of our larger projects. Here you see 3.28 acres of
Turnips and weeds, our goal is to turn this into a Commercial Daylily
'Hemerocallis' Hybridizing field. Timing is critical as we only have 3 weeks to build
the beds, install the irrigation system, the well and electricity (the
later two done by contractors).
The first step was to remove all the turnips and pull
the weeds. We moved 28 truck loads of turnips that day, with Barry
& I pulling them and Susie driving the truck.
We then had to measure the beds and walkways, we wanted 4 foot beds and 4 foot walkways.
Raising the beds had to be done by shovel due to the widths of the walkways and beds, machinery just wouldn't work.
We had sprayed all the weeds with round-up two days earlier so they weren't a concern for us.
We then had 20 yards of Pine Bark
dropped on the property to amend the soil. The 3.28 acres had been
farmed since 1922 and the soil was pretty good, but we wanted more
organic matter in the beds.
Our three weeks were just about up
and we were on schedule, we managed to raise six 75 X 4 foot beds,
put in the fence to keep neighbors dogs and real dear out (the deer in
this picture is a statue). We also put in the irrigation system.
We use the woven plastic luminate to help keep the weeds down. This allows us to have one worker for 20 hours per month to maintain the gardens.
We use the woven plastic luminate to help keep the weeds down. This allows us to have one worker for 20 hours per month to maintain the gardens.
The nursery is an ongoing project,
each year we are expanding the hybridizing operation until most of the
3.28 acres are covered in daylilies.
Here we have expanded yet again, loading up with organic material to feed the plants.
The Golf Course
Here we have expanded yet again, loading up with organic material to feed the plants.
The Golf Course
Can you say Canadian Thistle? This
bed was completely over-run with Canadian Thistle in spring, apparently
Thistle loves wet clay soil (well any soil will do). Here the owner of
the Golf Course prefers to have an annual bed as the rock retains heat
from the day and keeps the bed warm in the evening. We completely
weeded, then turned this bed over. We then planted 30+ flats of
annuals. Later in the summer we had a spectacular show of color.
This is one of eight beds that we
maintain on the Golf Course, a huge project this past year as the owner
of the Golf Course recently retired from teaching and thought that she
would be able to maintain them herself. Unfortunately, with all her
other duties at the course this proved futile and the beds were taken
over by weeds the previous year. In we came, a combined effort of
Lesa's Gardening Service and Distinctly Creative Designs and we managed
to get control of the weeds and move plant material around to balance
the gardens out. The long range plan is to eliminate all annuals on the course,
with exception of by the club and the rock bed, yet have a consistant
color show throughout the season.
Here we are pulling small weeds
and planting annuals, you can see by the clothing of our workers that
it was an extemely cold spring in 2010, which didn't help the thousands
of annuals we planted in the beds. With the high winds, lack of
sheltered area and the overnight watering at the golf course, the only
way to go is with hardy perennials.
In the foreground you can see a
mass planting of Evening Primrose 'Oenothera' that puts on a spectacular show of
bright yellow that can be seen from 50 acres away on the other side of
the course. Later in the season the foliage turns a dark red in color
giving a second spectacular show of color! A great plant for early
summer bloom and early fall foliage display.
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