Celia and I were members of the Friends of Buford Park & Mt. Pisgah when we lived in Cottage Grove from 2000 to 2006. We spent many weekend hours as volunteers working in the native plant nursery. Volunteers were assigned seed plots to maintain, involving weeding, thinning and harvesting the seeds. Water was provided by a drip irrigation system on a timer. Seeds were planted in pots and after a year or more these plants were transplanted throughout the park. The nursery grew a variety of grass seeds, shrubs and trees that were native to the park. The fringe benefit of this was learning how to propagate the different plant species. Once a year excess plants were sold to the public during an open house.
In 2002 we bought 10 acres in Douglas County to try our hand at starting a native plant nursery under our business name of C&M Gardening. Water was an issue and we set up storage tanks as we tried to grow a variety of plants native to our property, including madrone, manzanita, snow berry, oak trees and a few others with a moderate success, but nothing like the BP Nursery. This 10 acres is the property below our upper 10 acres where we moved to in 2006 after retiring from the gardening and landscaping business.
Thanks for sharing this helpful information and thanks for returning native plants to our earth. Are you involved with the Elkton Community Education Center and their plants?
ReplyDeleteI married the daughter of an Ohio farmer so I leave all the gardening and plant propagation to her. She doesn't do vegetables but does very well with shrubs, trees, flowers and ground covers. I handle the cutting, wacking, brushing, sawing, chopping, burning ... and very rarely, a little spraying. Carry on!
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