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Exbury Deciduous Azalea

Exbury Deciduous Azaleas are obviously not an evergreen, they do lose their leaves during the winter, but they are striking when in bloom!   And . . . they are colorful in ways that evergreen Azaleas are not because many of them are brilliant orange and yellow.  They grow taller than an evergreen azalea and can be used where you normally might use something like a Rhododendron or Viburnum.

Exbury Deciduous Azaleas are hard to find!

Why?  Because they are difficult to grow from cuttings so few growers do them.  But they are relatively easy to grow from seed and you should be growing them from seed and selling them as small potted seedlings.

Exbury Deciduous Azalea

Growing Exbury Deciduous Azaleas from Seed.

After Azaleas bloom they start to form a seed pod that stays on the plant all summer as the seeds inside the pod develop and then mature.  In the fall these seed pods dry out and as they do they crack open and release up to 500 seeds per pod in the open air.  However, in a natural setting the conditions are usually not what is needed for the seeds to germinate so most if not all of the seeds go to waste.

So what you need to do is watch the seed pods and when they start to darken and dry out, usually September into October, clip off the seed pods and put them in an envelope or paper bag where they can finish drying, open up and release the seeds where you can capture them.

Once the seed pods have fully opened empty the contents into a tray of some kind and separate the seeds from the husks from the pod.  The seeds can be stored in a cool dry place until later in the winter when you can sow them.  If you sow them in the fall you’ll have to get creative trying to make sure the new seedlings receive enough light.  If you wait and sow them in February you’ll be keeping them inside for a shorter period of time.

Fill a flat with a good seed starting mixed and wet the medium really well.  Sow the seeds on top of the soil mix and press them down into the mix lightly.  Sprinkle a small amount of soil, really, really thin amount of soil over the seeds and water.  Allow the soil mix to dry out between waterings.  You don’t want the soil mix wet all the time for two reasons.

1.  You don’t want the seeds to rot.

2.  You want the soil mix to be nice and warm so the seeds germinate quickly.

So water, let the soil dry and warm up, then water again.

When growing seeds inside during the winter months it’s always a good idea to place a small fan near your seedling to keep the air circulating and fresh.  That helps a great deal in preventing damping off which is a fungal condition that attacks small seedlings.

After the seedlings sprout wait for them to produce their second set of leaves which are the true leaves.  Then you can transplant them into another flat spacing them about 1″ apart for one full growing season.

Questions?  Comments?  Post them below.

At the nursery I decided to dig out an area where we could set our small pots.  Great idea, but that left me with a mountain of dirt that you can see in this video.  Amber made me climb the pile to do the video!

Backyard Landscaping Design Ideas

Because we need to do something with the huge pile of soil, and because we need a nice big bed in the nursery where we plant things that we’d like to take cuttings from, we rummaged through the rock pile, re-arranged the dirt pile a bit, and turned it into this landscape planting.  I’ll walk you through some of the landscape design ideas and strategies that went into this thought process.

Broken rocks, bricks, patio stones and bones can be pretty doggone attractive.

Backyard Landscaping Design Ideas

When I first started clearly this property for the nursery I started finding all kinds of rocks, patio blocks, bricks, broken concrete blocks, chunks of concrete etc., so I just started a rock pile over in the poison ivy patch.  Shudda given that more thought!

So Amber, Cathy and I started digging through the rock pile and with a sledge hammer we broke up any piece that looked to much like it was supposed to.  At we first this seemed like a crazy idea and we started fishing out broken clay tiles, pieces of concrete that had been painted, just about every kind of random thing you can think of, including a bone!  Yes, we found a big ole bone and decided that it too would go into this wall.

I’m not sure, but it could be Jimmy Hoffa’s hip bone.  Don’t tell the feds, they’ll be out here digging up my nursery!  If this is Jimmy Hoffa’s resting place then he’s a lucky guy in my book.  Okay, so he wasn’t all that lucky but you know what I mean.

So armed with a pile of debris I turned Amber and Cathy loose on the wall and wished them well.  They did an awesome job and I love the randomness of things that went into this little wall.

Backyard Landscaping Design Ideas

If you look closely you can see how many different kinds of things we found in that rock pile.  No, we did not mortar, cement or glue the rocks into place, we just stacked them up making a wall.   My Backyard Growers know that my motto is keep it simple, and by all means don’t over complicate a simple thing.  If a rock or a hip bone comes loose we can just place back into the wall in a new spot.

The little tree is an Orangeola Japanese Maple.  It is in the weeping laceleaf family of Japanese maples but this one changes colors and at different times of the year turns really, really orange.  This little tree will be awesome in a few years.  By the way, I think I have four Japanese maples in this planting and knowing me as I do, I’ll probably add more.

Backyard Landscaping Design Ideas

If you were looking at the little stone wall this area of the bed is to the left of that.  In this photo there are two different kinds of Sprirea and notice that they are planted together in groups, not scattered all over the bed helter skelter.  They are more effective and more striking when grouped together.  The little  orange tree off to the left is the Orange Dream Japanese maple.  Orange Dream is an upright Japanese maple.  I just planted a little bigger one in my landscape at home.  I love the color of this little tree!

Orange Dream Japanese Maple

Backyard Landscaping Design Ideas

This is the right side of the planting.  The little green tree right in the center of the photo is a Lion’s Head Japanese maple.  The evergreen off to the right is a Weeping Nootka Cypress tree.  The blue Junipers at the bottom of the photo are Blue Star Juniper, and the ones off to the left are Blue Rug Juniper.  The Blue Rug Juniper actually go all across the top of the wall and down the other side.  It won’t be long before they are cascading over the stone wall which should look great!

You need to know this.  It’s Important.

I looked all over for those Blue Rug Juniper in a one gallon.  Nobody had them.  Everybody wanted to sell me 3 gallon plants for almost $20.00 each!  The time has never been better for us backyard growers.  And I’ll tell you this, if right now today, you had 500 Blue Rug Juniper liners that were about one year old, I’d buy them from you in a heart beat!  Looking for those plants made realize that I need to get some in my nursery right now!   Not to mention a lot of other things.  What are you waiting for.  Start Small and Make Some Money!

Weeping Nootka Cypress

Lion’s Head Japanese Maple Tree

Up on top of the hill we have a number of Purple Sandcherry, Some Red Rose of Sharon, a few Burning Bush and a couple of Snow Mound Spirea with are more upright.  The gold plants to the right of this picture are Gold Flame Spirea which is different than the Gold Mound Spirea planted on the opposite side.

If you look closely you’ll realize that the plants are strategically placed, taller plants near the top of the mound, medium height plants in front of those, then lower plants near the bottom of the mound, and of course the Blue Rug Juniper placed in such a way that it can creep over the stone wall.

Backyard Landscaping Design Ideas

Wow!  This planting has more going on than I remembered and we just did it a week ago.  If you look closely to the bottom right of the photo there is a single Stem Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick.  This is a plant that got the top broken off so I put it in the landscape.  Remind me.  By the end of the summer you won’t recognize some of these plants they will have changed so much.

On the other side of the stone wall there is another little tiny Weeping Japanese Maple that is called Nishiki Orida.  It has variegated leaves!

As time goes on I’m sure that we will add a lot more to this planting.

Interesting enough you can see all the nursery stuff behind this planting which doesn’t do much for the planting itself, but the planting does wonder for the aesthetics of the nursery!

This planting so far has six specimen plants.  The four Japanese maples, the Weeping Nootka Cypress and a Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick.  No, no that’s not right.  Seven.  There’s also a Weeping Pussy Willow right top dead center.  Almost missed that.

Start Small and Make Some Money!

Whaddya think?  It was just a big pile of dirt two weeks ago.

Okay, questions, comments, concerns?  Post em below.

What is the number one thing that many people do wrong?

Landscaping Ideas

The secret to an attractive landscape design is you have to be bold and daring.  Take off your “conservative” hat and toss it in the fire pit!

What do most people do wrong?

1.  They don’t make the planting beds large enough.  Be bold, make those beds big.  Look at some landscape designs you like, get out of your car and step off the bed.  I think you’ll find that the nicest landscapes you see are beds are much wider than what you are thinking.

Wanted!  Somebody just like you who lives in your town who can grow
and sell small plants to the folks who live in your town.

My advice is always the same, take all the money you have allocated for the project and build the beds.  You can always add more plants later, but it’s much more difficult to add soil to the beds or make the beds bigger later on.

2.  People don’t raise the beds high enough.  You don’t have to make the beds 24″ high, but you do need to make them at least 10″ to 12″ high.  The plants will do better, and the landscaping will show off more.

Landscape Bed Design Idea

3.  Design your beds in such a way that you can mow your entire lawn without the use of a weed whacker or a trimming mower.  Pam does most of the mowing at our house because she likes our yard to look nice and she likes mowing the grass.  (I think)  I bought her one of those zero turn mowers and she’s a wiz on that thing.  She gets it out the garage, rides around the yard for about 20 minutes and puts it back in the garage.  That’s it, she’s done.  Now trimming and absolutely no weed whacking.  Or string trimming as some would say.

The above photo is a bed design that was laid out by me so I can maneuver around this house at the nursery with ease and quickly cut the grass.  Nice gentle curves that are manageable with a riding mower.

Know the Potential of the Plants that You are Using.

Look at the above photo.  Does that look ridiculous or what?  The Emerald and Gold Euonymus that are supposed to be accent plants around the Dappled Willow are bigger than the plant that is placed in the center as a specimen plant.  Why would I do that???  Because I know what the potential of the willow is, and trust me, it will catch up and do it’s job here in a matter of weeks.

And the reason it is so tiny is because I pretty much butchered it last fall just to get a few cuttings from it.  More about that in another post.  So if you want to say something really mean about me doing that, go ahead.  I know what I’m doing.

Every Landscape Planting has a Focal Point.

The Landscaping Focal Point

The focal point is the point of view from where most people visiting the home will see the landscaping.  So each bed is likely to be viewed from a different focal point.  Know what it is before you start and keep that in mind not only as you design the landscape, but also as you place the plants and which way you turn them as you plant them.

I took the above photo from the focal point.  This is the old house at the nursery and this is what you see as you turn into the driveway.  With that in mind I heavily weighted the landscaping to this side of the house.  Is it out of balance?  Yes, and I don’t care, few people see the other side of the house, the next door neighbor on that side is a field of nursery stock.   The house sits really close to a busy highway so anybody that sees the house from the front view will be traveling at 50 mph.  Pretty much a blurr.  But they will see it nicely from this focal point.

Check out the “Before” photos of this old house.  Last year I did a post about Weed Barrier Cloth and took photos of the old house and many of you asked me to show the completed project.

I know this landscaping looks lame right now, and to a degree it is.  It’s a rental house, and it’s on nursery property.  Many of the plants that you see in this photo you probably can’t really see because they are just now coming out of dormancy.  Remind me and I’ll publish updated photos later in the season.

As the landscaping matures it will come into it’s own.  In this photo there are two specimen plants that just need a little time.  A beautiful Laceleaf Weeping Japanese Maple and a Single Stem Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick.  Hard to see, but they are there.  There are also about 16 Peaches and Cream Japanese maple in this photo, you just can’t see them.  (I’m using this side bed as a growing area!)

Orange Dream Japanese Maple

I never grow bored of admiring beautiful plants in a well done landscape planting.

Think of Your Landscape Design as the Stairway to Your Home.

A good landscape design will stair step from low to high, starting with the very front bed.  Actually your lawn is step one, then the bed, then low growing shrubs, then medium high shrubs, then the taller plants in the back.  In a bed that isn’t against a wall it should stair step from all sides with the middle of the bed being the high point.

Specimen plants are the exception to the stair stepping effect.  A specimen plant like a Lavender Twist Redbud Tree or a beautiful Japanese maple are planted in the center of a bed, and accented with lower growing plants that sort of act like the picture frame for the specimen plants.

Break Some Landscape Design Rules!  It’s Your House.

Ya know, back in the day I used to be really adamant that a landscape design had to be exactly right.  But as I started acquiring more and more beautiful plants for my own landscape, it became impossible to stick to those strict landscape design rules and I started planting what should have been specimen plants somewhat helter skelter in my landscape with only minor consideration of good landscape design.  I loved the out come!

Now I put as many specimen plants in my landscape as I desire.  It looks great, I love it and we get tons of compliments about it.  For instance . . .

Landscaping Ideas

In this photo of my house you can see five beautiful Japanese maples and that’s just from this view.  As I took this photo I was standing next to a Lavender Twist Redbud tree in full bloom and a Crimson Queen Laceleaf Japanese maple beaming with red color.

Crimson Queen Japanese Maple-Lavender Twist Weeping Redbud Tree

Lavender Twist Redbud Blooms

Crimson Queen Laceleaf Japanese Maple Tree Foliage

No Landscape is Complete without a Couple of Rubber Chickens.

Rubber Chickens Really Make this Landscape Planting

This is living proof that I am not right.  I put these posts in the ground to hang a sign for the nursery.  The township told me that I had to landscape the sign, so I did.  But I was waiting on the sign and I said to my friend that was helping me;  “Gee I wish I had a rubber chicken.”  He was a little perplexed so I explained;  “If I had a rubber chicken I’d hang it from this post until I get my sign, you know, just to mess with people that are paying too attention to what I’m doing here.”

Next day my friend Blair shows up with two rubber chickens!  I didn’t have a choice, I had to hang them up after he ran all over to find them for me.  I promise they are coming down soon!  If the signs ever show up.

Okay, sorry about the rubber chickens, but I hope this helped you a little with some landscaping ideas.  I have more for you in this area, probably next week.

Wanted!  Somebody just like you who lives in your town who can grow
and sell small plants to the folks who live in your town.

Questions, comments, post them below.  -Mike McGroarty

Lynnwood Gold Forsythia

Lynnwood Gold Forsythia.

A lot of people don’t like Forsythia, but they are one of the first plants in the spring to flower and they are tough as nails.  Some people keep them trimmed tight, others plant them out in the yard where they have enough room to just open up and spray.

PJM Dwarf Rhododendron

PJM Dwarf Rhododendron

PJM Dwarf Rhododendron bloom about a week or 10 days after Forsythia so they too are very early spring and they bloom prolifically.   They are hardy, easy to grow and care for and do well in colder zones, zone 5 for sure.  A lot of people confuse this plant with Azalea because it looks more like an Azalea than a Rhododendron.  But it’s in the Rhododendron family and is considered a dwarf Rhododendron.  Right now I have a few of these at Mike’s Plant Farm, but my neighbor Richard has a lot of them and his are bigger.

PJM Dwarf Rhododendron

Orange Dream Japanese Maple

Orange Dream Japanese Maple

Wow!  That’s all I can say about this Orange Dream Japanese Maple.  The spring color is spectacular.  We had this big pile of dirt at the nursery that we decided to turn into a landscape planting and I ended putting four Japanese maples in the planting because I couldn’t decide.  But Orange Dream was one of the first to make the cut!  We have these at Mike’s Plant Farm but we will not be open to sell anything at all until May 17, 2013.  Please do not come before then, we will not be able to help you at all, we are crazy busy getting ready for our grand opening.  The address is 4850 North Ridge Road, Perry, Ohio 44081

Lavender Twist Weeping Redbud Tree

Lavender Twist Weeping Redbud Tree

It would be completely negligent of me to leave out the Lavender Twist Weeping Redbud tree.  The one in the photo is in my front yard and I am completely taken back by this beautiful tree every time it blooms.  I have a lot of these available right now at Mike’s Plant Farm.  Again, we will not be open until May 17th, 2013.

Waterfall Japanese Maple

Waterfall Japanese Maple

I thought I was done with this post and I looked out the dining room window and thought; “How can I leave out the Waterfall Japanese Maple?”  Right now the lime green foliage is spectacular.

Waterfall Japanese Maple

In this photo the lacy leaves are just starting to open and they look so delicate.  So . . . with that in mind, how cold hardy is this tree?  It’s this cold hardy . . .

Waterfall Japanese Maple

Freezing ice, deep snow, hot sun.  Nothing seems to bother this trooper.  Waterfall Laceleaf Weeping Japanese Maple is one tough cookie and beautiful at that!

All of the plants that I’ve shown you here will do fine in zones 5 through 8.  Zones 3 and 4?  You’ll have to research each plant to be sure.

I’ll have more really interesting plants to show you soon!  Questions or comments?  Post them below.

Let me tell you something.  I’m in the greatest business in the world!  Can you imagine being able to bring plants like these into the lives of others.  Get started right now!

I started doing these videos for my Backyard Growers, but realized that a lot of other people will like them as well.  This is a bit of a documentary of what we we have going on at Mike’s Plant Farm here in wonderful Perry, Ohio.

Mondays with Mike, May 13, 2013

I’ll make this quick today.  Getting ready for our plants sale, plants lined up everywhere, building is packed full of Rhododendrons!

Mondays with Mike, May 6, 2013.

Wha, wha, wow!  What a week!  We got the old house landscaped, we’ve got our sign posts up, no sign so we hung up some rubber chickens (long story), the landscaping around the sign is done and the pile of dirt from last week’s video is now a beautiful landscape planting.  I found a new home (temporarily) for my Peaches and Cream Japanese maples.   On one landscaped mound I managed to work in four Japanese maples and a Weeping Noota Cypress tree, one of my favorite plants.

Mondays with Mike, April 29, 2013.

Mike climbs a dirt pile as Amber giggles while holding the camera.  A secret about dividing daylilies.   Something that I learned about rooting hardwood cuttings of Purple Sandcherry, prunus cistena, Mike showing off the thousands of plants that he has purchased from his customers, those that started out with his system Backyard Growing System.  Single stem Harry Lauder’s walking sticks and Small Japanese Red Maples for $4.97 each,

Mondays with Mike, April 22, 2013. 

Right after we dug a bunch of Harry Lauder’s Walking Sticks and Lavender Twist Redbud trees for spring sales.  Mike goes whacko (his words) at a wholesale nursery stock auction in Madison, Ohio,

Homemade Sprinkler Stand Pipe

So I got to thinking.  Usually not a good thing, but I have a lot of used nursery pots and a big rock pile that we keep adding more and more rocks to.  So I combined all of those ingredients, added a little concrete and some PVC piping and my problem was solved.

Step 1.  Put some rocks, bricks etc. into the bottom of an old nursery container.

Homemade Sprinkler Stand Pipe

Step 2.  Put a hole or two in the side of the nursery container.  I just made a slit with my knife then using a small torch I softened the plastic and pushed the PVC pipe through the plastic container.  I probably didn’t need to warm or melt the plastic but it was a good reason to play with fire.

I made three sprinkler stands.  This one I put a Tee in the middle of the pot so I could actually hook a hose to each end so I could run two sprinklers on the same hose connection.  Usually a garden hose will only supply two of these oscillating, impact sprinklers.

Homemade Sprinkler Stand Pipe

Homemade Sprinkler Stand Pipe

Step 3.   After I had the PVC pipes in place I put more rocks or brick pieces on top of the pipes filling up  buckets almost to the top.  Then I added some ready mix concrete to hold the whole shebang together.

Homemade Sprinkler Stand Pipe

As you can see here after I put the holes in the pot I decided to put an elbow on two of these instead of a tee so I’d only have one hose connection.  But these are for the nursery so a little cement dripping out the hole just gives it character.  And yes, I do know this is crooked.  After I got the photo (for you folks!) we moved these inside where the floor was level and make sure they were nice an straight before the concrete set up.

Homemade Sprinkler Stand Pipe

On top of these sprinkler stands I can change out the sprinkler head if I want.  This is an impact type sprinkler head but I’ve also got Wiz Heads and Wobbler heads if I want a 360 degree pattern.  On the ends of these PVC pipes you have to glue on a fitting that converts the PVC to a pipe thread, then onto that you have to thread on an adapter that converts the pipe thread to a garden hose type fitting.  So you’ll have a few bucks tied up in brass fittings.  Your hardware store has the fittings.  Tell em Mike sent ya.  They don’t know me but it will get them to wonderin.

So . . . what did I do wrong?  Okay, I’ll tell ya.

I wish I had put one of those $4.00 fence posts in the pot next to PVC pipe.  That would have supported the PVC pipe and protected it when you move it around.  Had I put the fence post in, then I could just grab the fence post and carry these were ever I want them.  But without it, it would be pretty easy to snap off the PVC pipe because that concrete is heavy.

In the nursery I use the fence posts driven into the ground, then I just tape the stand pipe to fence post and it works great.

But that’s how we learn things.  I did it wrong, now you get to do it right.

I’m wondering, do y’all know how to work with PVC pipe?  You know cutting the pipe, removing burrs and ruff edges, cleaning the PVC and gluing it?  Do you know how to do all of that?  Do you need a video about how to do that?

Well, is this helpful?  Post your questions and comments below.

So anyway, they often make structures out of PVC pipe or cattle panels bent over in a hoop shape.  All of that is fine, but those who live in snow country like I do have no idea what it really takes to keep snow from crushing your greenhouse, hoop house, or high tunnel structure.

Snow Damaged Hoop House

Wanted!  People who would like to Get Paid for Growing and
Selling Small Plants at Home. (without a greenhouse!)

Recently I was visiting  nursery here in Ohio when this sight caught my eye.  I’ve seen situations like this before but never had  photos to show people.  The owner of the nursery gave me permission to share these photos online.  this hoop house was covered with plastic and Heated when this collapse happened.  Yes, it was heated!

Snow Damaged Hoop House

The pipes that this house was made off are one inch in diameter, steel pipe.  Most people think that snow can’t possibly bring them down like this.

I’ve seen this happen before and usually when it happens dozens of houses all collapse on the same night.  And they always look like this.  What often happens is the plastic will usually stay pretty clear of snow, the snow slides right off.  But if you get an unusual combination of winter weather events like freezing rain that clings to the plastic, then more snow that won’t slide off because the rain frozen to the plastic creates a rough surface that keeps the snow from sliding, then more snow or rain and all of a sudden it all comes crashing down.

Snow Damaged Hoop House

If you have house like this that you are using as a greenhouse and have it heated and full of valuable plants that are leafed out and actively growing, not only do you lose your hoop house.  But you can also loose tens of thousands of dollars worth of plants because the plastic tears and everything inside freezes.

That’s just one of the reasons that I don’t have a greenhouse.  One less thing for me to worry about.

So anyway, if you live in snow country, don’t underestimate the power of Mother Nature.

Wanted!  People who would like to Get Paid for Growing and
Selling Small Plants at Home. (without a greenhouse!)

There are a number of different fragrant Viburnums but two old time favorites, and the two that are still the best no matter what the ads say, are Viburnum Carlesi and Viburnum Carldephalum.

This is a hot, hot item that you should be growing in your
backyard and selling rooted cuttings of.  I’m serious!

The easiest way to propagate fragrant viburnums is with softwood cuttings during the summer.  Late spring and into the summer really depending upon where you are.  Here in Ohio zone 6 we start doing them around June 1st, absolutely no earlier.  If you try and do them earlier they are likely to fail.

Viburnum Carlesi

When you propagate plants via softwood cuttings you are using new growth.  Growth from the current growing season.  That’s why you have to wait until at least June 1st.  You have to give that new growth a chance to harden off just enough that they cuttings will stand on their own and not wilt over.

Viburnum Carlesi

All of the details that you need about propagating via softwood cuttings here on my Homemade Plant Propagation System Page.  And . . . we made a little movie about it here.

I know you don’t believe me, but I can promise you, if you had rooted cuttings of just about any plant to sell right now, there are people that would love to buy them from you.  And I explain all of that in my system.

Details about that here!  You Really Can Make Money at Home Doing This!

Questions?  Comments?  Post them below!    Have a great day!  -Mike McGroarty

Where can I get Free Mulch?

For the most part the only mulch that you are likely to get free of charge is a mulch that somebody desperately wants to get rid of.  Off the top of my head I can only think of two sources for free mulch.

Wanted!  People who would like to make up to $93.60 in
One Square Foot of their Backyard.  Check this out!

1.  Your local composting center.

Today many small towns and large cities have composting yards where the city and or residents bring organic materials they need to get rid off.  Leaves, tree branches etc.  They often grind or chip the tree branches and give away the mulch this creates free of charge.  Sometimes they mix it all together with rotting leaves etc. and give it away as compost.  Our little town does this and the material is free of charge, but you have to load it onto your truck by hand.  They won’t load it for you.

2.  Tree Trimming and Tree Removal Companies.

Tree removal companies pretty much do the same thing day in and day out.  They trim or cut down trees, haul away the bigger logs and grind up the smaller branches.  This creates a great deal of wood chips that they must get rid of.  Often times they have to empty their chipper truck several times per day and therefore they are happy to give this free mulch to anybody nearby that will accept it.

I lied to you already and I just started this article!

There are more than two sources of free mulch.  I need more coffee, it’s early.  Lots of businesses generate organic material that pretty much is in their way.  Mushroom farms have used organic compost they want to get rid off.  Feed mills and other mills have by products of ground corn or rice hulls they need to get rid off.  So depending on where you live, there could be all kinds of sources of good organic mulch that is either free, or low cost.

I’m giving you homework to do.

At the bottom of this article I’d love it if you would tell me and others of all the places that you know of that generic second hand organic matter that can be used for gardening.  This should be fun!  Brace yourself.

What’s the difference between Free Mulch and Mulch you have to pay for?

Mulch that you pay for is of much higher quality and is a great source of organic material for your yard or garden.   Free mulch is usually the freshest mulch you can get, and in the world of mulching that’s not a good thing.

The best mulch you can use is mulch that has been around for several years and has decomposed a great deal.  If you let mulch decompose long enough it turns into rich, black soil that plants thrive in.  Basically that’s how nature makes topsoil.  Topsoil is nothing more than decomposed organic matter.  So the more time that mulch is allowed to decompose, the better it is for your garden and plants.

When buying mulch the best mulch you can buy is mulch that is made from tree bark, not the wood of the tree.  When logs are processed at the saw mill one of the first processes is to debark the logs before they are sawed into lumber.  The tree bark that is removed is an excellent source of garden mulch because it’s 100% tree bark, no wood from the tree.  Tree bark actually has some nutritional value.

Wood is not a good thing in a mulch.  As wood decomposes it requires a great deal of nitrogen in order to break down and when you apply a mulch that is heavy in wood chips to your flower beds, landscape or other garden areas it will actually pull valuable nitrogen from the soil.  Your plants need that nitrogen and they are not going to be happy if they have to share it with the mulch that you apply to the bed.

Free mulch is usually ground up wood chips, branches, twigs and leaves.  All fresh.  All starving for nitrogen to use for decomposition.  Think of these free wood chips as nitrogen sucking machines that you are applying to your garden.  But they do have value and I’ll get to that.

Don’t let the mulch making entrepreneurs trick you.

Entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs and I am one of them.  So I am not bashing the entrepreneurial spirit, I am just making you aware of an opportunity that they have seized up, solved a problem, made a lot of people happy, created some jobs etc.  What they are doing is taking used pallets, a by product of industry, and grinding them up into mulch, then dying the mulch to make it pretty.  Is the dye harmful to your plants?  Not that I know of and I’m pretty sure it’s fine.  But the wood is not great for your plants.

Is it harmful to use dyed mulch?

No, not that I know of.  Not if you use it around mature plants.   But it’s not all that beneficial to the soil.  It’s okay as a mulch, but it really doesn’t do much for the soil.  Like I said, mulches that are made of bark, pine bark or hardwood bark are the best mulches for your soil and your plants.

What can I use free mulch for?

Free mulch, ground up wood chips are great for mulching walkways in your garden to keep the weeds down, maybe dry up a muddy area, or to mulch around mature plants only.  If you have lots of room and can stock pile free mulch you can just spread it out in a wide low pile and let it decompose.  It’s not  a fast process, can easily take three to five years, but after five years you will have some really, really good mulch.

Do I really have to wait five years to use it?

No.  Think about this way.  The day that it arrives on your property is when it is the least valuable to your plants and soil.  A week later it has already started the decomposition process, and I’m not scientist (you knew that about me didn’t you?) but I’m pretty sure that mulch decomposes rapidly at first and the longer it stays around the decomposition process slows down.  So most of the necessary decomposition happens early on and the longer you have it the more beneficial it becomes.  So day by day it increases in value.  Unlike your money in the bank!

I made a movie about mulch.  Crazy huh?  But it is informative.

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Don’t forget to do your homework.  Comment below on sources of organic material that you are aware of.

Great question.  Here’s the deal.  I am doing everything in my power to get people involved in the business of growing and selling small plants at home with as little financial commitment on their part as possible.  The plant growing, plant loving world needs more small growers even if they only specialize in one, two or five different kinds of plants.  You don’t have to have a full blown nursery to successfully sell small plants from home.

Gee Mike, what kind of plant could I grow and sell?

I get that question a lot and it’s a fair and important question and I’ll answer that with a little story.  Yesterday, and it doesn’t matter when you are reading this, but as a point of reference yesterday was April 17th, 2013, I went to a nursery stock auction.  I go to this auction every year, and every year I watch this local nursery sell over $100,000 worth of plants in just a few hours.  It’s amazing!

So last week we were dividing some daylily that I bought at the auction last year and I wished I had a few more varieties, so yesterday I bought a bunch of daylilies that we will divide and sell.  However, it would have been a whole lot easier for me to just buy a bunch of daylily divisions from a person like you.

Yeah, I can buy from big wholesale nurseries but they don’t make it easy.  I love buying from my customers because they just post what they have for sale and a whole bunch of people start responding with messages like;  “Hey Mary, I’ll take 20 of this and 40 of that.”   Bam!  Buying from my customers is that easy.

If I go to a wholesale nursery I have to go through their extensive catalog, find the item that I want, then find other items in case that one is sold out, then I have to order at least $500 worth of stuff or they really aren’t interested in selling to me and it goes on and on.

I love buying from my customers and they love buying from each other.

So to answer that question of what should I grow?  You can pick one or two items and do nothing but those.  Grow a bunch of them, see how well they sell, grow more, sell more.  It really is that easy.  What I needed and bought yesterday was Stella D’ Oro Daylily.  Super easy plant to grow and sell and extremely popular with landscapers.  I didn’t have any and I would have bought them in a heartbeat from you.

You need to know.  I love buying from my customers and I do it all the time.

Which is better?  This $7.00 Report or your $47.00 Backyard Growing System?

Both are better for different reasons.  Both will take you to the same place in life.  The $7.00 report is new, and later on you can get all of the products and information that come with the Backyard Growing System.  I am offering this report to get you started easier and faster.  If you have the money to spend and want to get up to speed super fast, then invest in the $47.00 product.  If you don’t have a lot of money and want to take things slower, get the $7.00 report and the Ecourse that comes with it.  I am working hard on that Ecourse!

But you need to know this.

There are people near you, and across the country that want to buy plants from you.  Shipping plants is as easy as pie.  Most of my customers ship their plants via priority mail and it works perfectly and it’s super easy.  Trust me on this, I completely dislike buying plants from big nurseries and I really dislike going to auctions and spending all day bidding on the things I want.  I sooooo much more like just reading a post from you that says;  “Raspberry Candy Daylily, 90 cents per fan.”  Then all I have to do is say;  “I’ll take 250, how would like to be paid?”  In a few days the plants show up on my door step.  That’s awesome and it’s a great and easy way to do business.

It really is that simple.

I know you don’t believe me and there’s really not much I can do about that.  I watch plants being sold like this day in and day out and the demand for them never seems to diminish.  And that’s really why I am making this crazy low offer.  I am lowering the bar of entry for those who are on the fence about this.

How long will the $7.00 Report be available?

Wow.  I wish I knew the answer to that.  Honestly?  This is something that we are testing.  So I will say this.  I am fairly confident that  one or the other of these two offers will go away.  It could be the $7.00 report, or it could be the $47.00 product and that’s the truth.  That’s what we are testing.  But what will not change is your chance at success.  Both of these products are designed to make you successful and I’ve got a track record of creating successful plant sellers.  I’ve been doing it online since 1999 and the list of success stories is endless.

Sorry, this report is no longer available, we had more people interested in the full product.