And the fun begins.............

Spring is always a welcome arrival here at the farm! Plant material starts breaking dormancy, new growth begins, a resurrection of sorts. The Lonicera "Lemon Beauty" in the little garden is sporting some tiny buds of new growth and the Lindernia is beginning to bloom which causes the little fairy to kick up her heels at in fine Ozark's fashion to sing "Yeehaw it's Spring" 

The next month will be a frantic one between traveling, vending, speaking, and building gardens. While it seems somewhat overwhelming at the moment it is what we wait and wish for all Winter! I will surround myself with all the flea market finds, newly acquired accessories, and a grand assortment of plant material to pick and piece things together in combinations that I hope will appeal to my customers. I find that some customers just like to have a few gardens displayed to give them ideas on how to put their own gardens together.

Gardening in a small scale while not a new concept is enjoying a rebirth of sorts. Miniature gardens have been a fascination of mine for quite some time and supplying the plant material and accessories has become a good portion of our business.  As a vendor it is a pleasure to see a mother and daughter picking parts and pieces which will allow them to spend some special time together. Many times it is a grandmother who will gather items in anticipation of a special visit from grandchildren so they can garden together. Whether we recognize it or not we are inseparable from our connection to the soil. We all rely on soil for our existence but in this case it is an avenue to a time of recreation. A time of creation, a time of whimsy, a time of fantasy, a time of just plain fun, especially when shared by more than one generation!

Hosta College Vending.......

The third weekend of March each year the Great Lakes Region Hosta Society hosts an event called "Hosta College" in Piqua, Ohio. Five to six hundred avid gardeners gather at the event to socialize, attend a hosta auction, eat, and to listen to volunteer teachers share their area of expertise. One of the main gathering spots during the event is the "Vending Area". This year we had a bumper crop of papercrete containers to sell and sell we did. You can see the results of our sales in the before picture above and the nearly finished picture below. 

 A special thanks to all our customers! We will see you all at the next hosta event somewhere this Summer or next Spring at the 2014 "Hosta College".

A customers Project..........

One of the most satisfying parts of our business is to see or hear about our students or customers experiences with their papercrete creations. This is a picture from Beth & Dave in Northeast Ohio who purchased a tub planter in early Spring 2012 and created this miniature landscape using their plant material and treasures. A nice design using a wide variety of shapes and textures, tasteful accessories, all the while maintaining a standard of scale. I would consider this an absolute success!   It looks like there is a golden retriever lover in both real life and garden accessories.

Beth took the papercrete class this year at the Hosta College in Piqua, Ohio so I expect to see a bevy of 2013 projects to develop as warmer weather arrives.............

Wintertime Gardens...........

Building miniature gardens in the off season (February) is always a struggle for me. The gardens always seemed incomplete or barren since we have little in suitable material here at the nursery for groundcover or a grass substitute. Today I walked by a bucket full of moss chunks my wife had gathered and decided to use the moss as a grass substitute. It will work until I have some perennial plant material breaking dormancy and available for use. The garden was built for a client that needed an eye catcher to add to their Lawn & Garden Show booth. I was truly pleased with the final product built in one of my signature papercrete containers.

Another garden built after the fact!  

Mini Garden Starters........

At almost every event I vend at I hear someone say, "I would love to build a fairy garden but I don't know where to start". It doesn't matter how much advice you can offer some folks just cannot picture the final product. In an attempt to help folks get started I have decided to create what I am going to call "Mini-Garden Starters". These will consist of a container with pre installed rock patios/walkways, trellises, or other hardscape items which will allow first time mini gardeners to be successful. With the addition of some small plants, a bench or other furniture, and a fairy or two a pleasing garden can be created by a complete novice.

 

A simple papercrete container ready for planting!

Christmas Green........

It was a warm day here in Southwest Missouri and just eight days until Christmas. Looking for something green to plant as a decoration for a holiday brunch I walked by an "Autumn Fern" that was still lush, green, and looking prime. The last couple of weeks I have been building mini rock patios in several papercrete containers in anticipation of springtime plantings. As I carried the fern up the hill from the greenhouse I thought of the containers with the patios and it did not take long to match the plant with the planter. While the fern is a little disproportionate in size to a miniature garden it does fill the bill for something eye catching in combination with the smallness of everything else in the combo. I will file this in my bag of ideas for future presentations.

Refilling the Inventory.........

The off season here at the farm is spent building inventory for the beginning of the Spring sales season. Every year brings an increase in sales and we have used our spare time to get ahead of schedule this Fall. Peggy has found several suitable new molds during the Summer and along with some new ideas we tested this year we think we will have an outstanding selection of items to offer.

One item that surprised us this year is what we called "the smalls". When molding larger items our recipe is adjusted to accommodate the size of the project we are working on. When we are finished there is always that glob left at the bottom of the bucket. Being the tightwads that we are we found some small containers to utilize that last bit of leftover mud. When I first began building them I thought maybe give them away as samples. We did plant a few with single succulents for display and soon found they were some of our best sellers. This year I have made it a priority to find some new shapes and sizes to include in our inventory.