Organic Nurseries

[Fragilityh14]

My first question is are there any Porc owned Nurseries/porcs who know a lot about horticulture looking to open nurseries? I find myself very interested in horticulture in general, though am in no position to start anything myself. i do think that a huge part of self dependence is trying to produce a good amount of food.

Is anyone working on such things and/or are there people with high levels of interest. Are there large levels of gardeners here?

[error]

You should talk to beth221. But she decided to boycott this forum, and she's over on my forum.

[Kat Kanning]

John and Rosalie Babiarz have a nursury/greenhouse now.

[Fragilityh14]

a commercial greenhouse nursery (I guess even if they just sold starts to other porcs i would count that as commercial  )or just a greenhouse at their house? (Both are super cool!)

I should really look up what the growing season is like in NH etc...actually I just looked it up and a lot of it is in the same climate zone as where i a from in Washington.

Right now I live in Western washington which is a really good place to grow plants because there's a fall growing season, you just cant grow some hot weather plants that great (tomatos, corn). Whereas, where I am from in Eastern Washington stuff like that will get gigantic. I think i am actually intending on living in the small town I'm from for the year or so before I am able to move to NH, even near my mom's house which is something that I thought I would never want to do. But, the garden space and the greenhouse available are just unreal. Essentially, I would have the materials for and necessary guidance (my mom's bachelors degree is in something plant science related I dont remember what)

and there are just rows and rows of beds fallow right now because she is too busy, and a great greenhouse. I've recently been thinking about making jams. My mom can make an extraordinary amount in a day, and generally never harvests all of the fruit, which she has cut back. Good jam sells for like $4  for a medium-small jar here (Olympia). I dont know what that would sell for in a more rural area, probably less. But you have to figure there are places with great wild berries, some universities (at least WSU) have orchards for research purposes and you can pick cherries and I think apples for free (so they dont go to waste, they arent using them for a product). Or other people who just have too many damn berries.

I'm really not that experienced of a gardener, this is really the only season that I've done it myself outside of having grown up around gardens, but I have set up multiple gardens this years. My main concern is that I lose interest in things pretty easily...but the thing is I am interested in gardens philosophically, it isnt just a diversion or a money making plan. Whereas, with IT Services (which is the , student job I have right now) the main appeal is that IT Services pays a lot more than it's worth, but I don't really find it that interesting as a career. (almost everyone else I work with has or is getting a computer related degree and I have never taken a computer related class and am not at any disadvantage.)

So, I hope to get tons of gardening experience, and do great things to further set up even better gardening at my moms house like great large mushrooms growing on the compost, worm composting bins, etc, etc. There's this guy in Olympia who has a worm farm and sells red worms and worm tea all over in the area (worm tea is essentially tea made of worm castings which plants love)


The thing is, I pick up knowledge about things really quickly, so though I am certainly not as experienced of a gardener as one might find when seeking nursery employees, but I pick up knowledge really quickly.

Another idea, is that there is a guy here who makes great organic fertilizers (Called "Black Lake Organic Nursery" if anyone is interested), and he mixes and packages amazing mineral balanced organic fertilizers with multiple types of beneficial bacteria, etc and makes some damn fine organic products. They also sell it at the food coop but I am not sure if it is sold anywhere else (I mean, one can order it, but I dont think it is sold in bulk). I really think one can do pretty good business selling amazing organic fertilizer.

I'd love stories about becoming acclimated to gardening in NH though ^_^

[Kat Kanning]

Commercial.  I don't know if it's organic.

[Fragilityh14]

generally any sort of authentic nursery has at the very least a high volume of organic products, and generally grow plants in a much better manner than what you would find at a grocery store, that is why one goes to nurseries ^_^

thats so cool...what city are they in, and are they Porcs or just freedom loving NH Natives?

[Kat Kanning]

The greenhouse is in Canaan.  They were here before the vote, but I think they joined the FSP.

[MaineShark]

Denise and I will eventually be building a greenhouse.  We've already planted several fruit (apple and pear) trees, and will probably put in some walnuts.  Our goal isn't so much the "grow enough to survive on," as we don't plan to do much more than hobby levels of vegetables, but we'd like to grow some herbs and spices that are useful, which we could trade for veggies and such as needed.  A lot of the herbs will be medicinal, as well, which is useful in general, and doubly useful in case of natural disaster or other calamity in which medicines become hard/expensive/impossible to obtain.

Joe

[Fragilityh14]

I'm really thinking about the jam business, I am telling you, who doesn't love preserves?

what types of berries do really well in that area....I know there are low bush blueberries...

[dawn]

Blueberries grow very well as do raspberries and strawberries.

[Lloyd Danforth]

I made some Rose Hip preserves once.  Very unusual flavor. Lots of vitamin C!

[dawn]

Five greenhouses??? Wow - I'm so jealous! Are they used? How big, etc, etc? I would love to get one to extend my growing season.

[Fragilityh14]

I may be able let go of one aluminum 50'  which could be reduced in size if necessary.  Will get you a pic. Will be dissassembled and labelled with pics. to reassemble.

Would be ideal if you had a level area to place it.

NH victory (freedom over fascism) gardens could become the vogue.

lets hope so