Sunday, August 31, 2008

Top 10 Reasons for Having a Nursery Bed

From Carol Eichler, chair:

  1. Evaluate a new plant; what is its growing habit? will it be invasive?

  2. Provide extra attention for an ailing plant

  3. Serve as a placeholder until a more permanent spot can be prepared

  4. Propagate cuttings or divisions (for our plant sales)

  5. Tend young seedlings

  6. Hold divisions until our plant sales

  7. Overwinter late acquisitions

  8. Carol recommends it.

OK, I lied. I only came up with 8, but maybe someone else can suggest some other reasons to make it 10.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Carol,
Overwintering my late acquisitions sounds like a grand idea! Do you have any good resources about how to make one? A neighbor has bed nestled into the ground behind a stump and covered with a glass lid (an old window in a frame) where he roots cuttings and such. How deep does it need to be and with what kind of sun and protection?
Thanks from a new member! ~Lynn

Anonymous said...

Lynn, It sounds like what your neighbor has is a cold frame - they provide more protection than what I have. Folks often use them to extend the season or to set aside seed flats until germination occurs. My nursery bed is technically not that although quite by coincidence it is in a protected spot. Rather it is simply a bed that I consider more functional than beautiful, since I use for the kind of purposes I listed. Mine is a raised bed filled with compost so it does provide a better growing medium than ordinary garden soil but I don't see that as a requirement.