Vegetable Garden

Over the weekend Jeff went off to the Master Gardener's Incredible Edibles sale and bought a few plants. We're doing a much smaller garden this year because we tended to be pretty unreliable about caring for them in earlier years. The chard and kale will also survive over the winter.

Jeff got them in the ground, but he didn't redig the whole garden so there are still a few herbs leftover from earlier years. It's kind of hard to see the new plants.

As usual, I'm just going to cut and paste the list into the post so I have a record (for next year):
Rainbow Chard, Kale, Lettuce (Merlot and Red Sails), Slicing Tomatoes (Early Girl, Black Zebra, Indigo Rose and Purple Bumblebe) and Basil.

We also picked up a squash plant for the backyard to help shade the dirt to help prevent weeds.

I also ordered a number of seeds for the front planting strip. I learned from my earlier lessons not to buy plants, but I have not been totally cured of online shopping. But now I start with the lists of 30 good companies at Dave's Garden and only shop at those. At least seeds are much cheaper if it doesn't go well.

I'm not sure if I should post the list of seeds as I receive them, or as I plant them. :)

We'll probably do the major planting in fall when we receive all the bulbs. Jeff is considering double digging and amending the soil before we plant everything.

Spring Plantings

We have had so much rain this year. We are definitely ready for some sunny days.  On the bright side, our ferns are ecstatic about the weather. We got a bunch of bareroot ferns from a friend last year and they're looking great.

Earlier this week we bought 20 bareroot ferns from Bosky Dell Natives and they are huge and beautiful, unlike the mostly dead ones we got a couple weeks ago. They filled up a large burlap bag. Jeff got them in the ground today but I haven't taken a picture yet.

Oh, and look who's awake!

Shed Framing Started

I forgot to post this on Friday. More progress on the coop/shed.

We're hoping for nice weather next week so they can make more progress. They can't work on this when it's raining because ladders are slippery.

I think I just found a localish nursery, Bosky Dell Natives, that has some bareroot ferns and we're going to try and get some. I'll report back.

Finally, Shed Started

We had a beautiful sunny day last Thursday so Jeff, Eric and Aaron got started on our chicken coop/garden shed. They spent about half a day and got the base built. It has started raining again, so who knows when they'll get back to it. This is all pressure treated lumber so it should be fine exposed to the rain until we get more good weather.

After the busy day working out in the yard, Bailey found herself a nice spot to rest up.

Do NOT order from Wholesale Nursery Co.

The plant order arrived today from Wholesale Nursery Co. and sadly, as predicted, we received a bunch of basically dead plants. I'm making a separate post so hopefully if other folks are bright enough to do a Google search before they order from this company they may pick up this post.

This is how they claim to package the plants before they ship them.

But this is actually what I received. A paper wrapping taped on, with holes punctured in it by the stems.

Frankly, I'm at a loss why they bother to ship dead plants. Do they think this is a good business practice?

The twigs look like they have some green, but they are dry, and break easily with practically dry roots. We have popped them in a pail of water, hoping we can tempt some of them back to life. I debated just taping the box back shut and returning it; I probably should have, but I refuse to eat the cost of shipping this back. I would have refused the delivery if I had the opportunity, but the delivery guy just left it on our front porch.

The 100 ferns and 100 bleeding heart were stuffed dry in gallon bags.

Again, we tossed them in a bowl of water to see if we can get any of them to live.

I plan to dispute this charge, which was actually posted under the name TN Nursery. This company is really unethical. It seems like they harvest these bareroot plants then leave them sitting around for weeks while they wait for orders. This is just sad.

It appears they also do business at the following websites:
Quick Growing Trees
Tennessee Wholesale Nursery
Garden Delights

There are even more names listed at the Better Business Bureau site. Why do they need so many websites? It looks like once they rack up enough bad reviews on one website, they just start a new one. Wholesale Nursery appears to be one of their newest ones because there are not negative reviews for it. Perhaps I can help with that.

There is an excellent series of reviews on this company at Dave's Garden. I wish I had seen it before I ordered. And there are another few reviews at Judy's Book, including one that lists several of their numerous websites they operate under.

Their Better Business Bureau rating is F (as in the worst rating they could get).

Honestly, I don't think I'll ever order from another online nursery in Tennesse because of the risk it is one of theirs. Though, perhaps, at some point they'll start fabricating a new location because they can no longer get away with their petty crime.

Update in May: As expected, every single plant died.

Bulk Plant Order

UPDATE AFTER THE FACT: DO NOT ORDER FROM THESE PEOPLE. THEY SHIP DEAD PLANTS.

THEY HAVE A BUNCH OF WEBSITES WHERE THEY TAKE ORDERS AND THEY SHIP DEAD PLANTS AND THEY LEAVE FABRICATED REVIEWS. I WOULD NOT BELIEVE ANY REVIEWS PRAISING THIS COMPANY. GO AND CHECK THEIR BETTER BUSINESS REVIEWS.

I DID A LENGTHY POST ABOUT THIS SCAM COMPANY.

I did a possibly crazy thing. I ordered 225 plant starts from an online wholesale nursery.

I found Wholesale Nursery Co. online and they offered fern starts for 76¢ a piece. The main downside: the minimum order was 100! Now, we didn't actually need 100 fern starts, but I couldn't find bareroot ferns around here that were competitive. Most nurseries sell them in one-gallon pots and are five to ten times more expensive. Even if we give away half the ferns, we'll still be getting a good deal.

Because of their tolerance to full sun or shade exposure, I chose sword ferns. I would have liked to get some other varieties to mix it up, but with a minimum order of 100 for each variety, I couldn't justify buying that many ferns. (I tried to.) :)

I also found they carried bleeding heart. They were 78¢ a piece. Again, the minimum order was 100 plants, but is it possible to have too much bleeding heart in your yard? lol

One last plant I ordered was their Blueray Blueberry Bush. They were $1.40 each for 1'-2' twigs. The minimum order was 25. I doubt we'll plant all 25 in our yard, but we may plant the extras in pots and give them away to our friends.

The order is due next week, so we'll see how it goes. We're not real good at watering over the summer, but we can hope at least a decent portion of these plants will survive. We'll try and report back after we receive the order.

Beautiful Day

Our spring weather finally arrived, and the guys got the mulch spread out in the yard. Yeah!! We got our driveway back.

The front planting strip.

We're starting to have a little problem in the backyard with a new invasive, Lesser Celandine.

It's pretty but also, apparently, evil. It will take over the whole yard even worse than the mint we battled last year. So, today, the guys removed it the best they could and mulched over the area. We need to find a source for a TON of cheap ferns. They should keep the ground shaded in spring. Or, hopefully, the chickens will take care of it for us.