Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Now I lay me down to sleep...

My oh my, what do you do with all these plants?... a question I hear repeated throughout the season, and a question I have probably answered 1000 times. It seems to me that our human nature is to be inquisitive, to relate and understand how things work, even in the ever "so cool" nursery business.
Here goes....we first have to inventory all the plants in the nursery--every single one!!! Then we carefully turn all the plants in containers on their sides, close together and stack them up to 3 pots high. When all the plants are grouped, packed and stacked, we cover the piles with large pieces of overwintering fabric. This fabric is essentially a large woven blanket that is maybe 1/8" thick and helps insulate the plants. After the fabric goes down the pile is then covered with a layer of white plastic. The plastic mustbe white since it reflects the sun...clear or black plastic absorbs the sunlight and heats up the plants too much during the winter. Once layered, the fabric and plastic is secured with small pea stone and tires so that the winter winds and snow does not get inside and blow everything away. All of this takes us about a month...one painstaking month!
After all the plants are "snug as a bug in a rug" under their warm environment...our much needed layoff begins. Our bodies and minds are ready for a 4 month re-energizing so that in the spring we can start up all over again.
The end is in site...only a couple more weeks of this "phun" to be had then off to the slopes for me!!!
See ya in the spring.   **** KELLY***

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