A Grower Perspective

In our effort to interact/network with other businesses, Josh and I traveled south to Cottage Grove to visit Sustainable Agricultural Technologies, Inc.  They specialize in vermicomposting (worm compost) and compost tea systems.  Our friend, Michelle, works there and invited us down to see what was going on and see how we could use this in our business. The owner Bruce Elliott used to build destruction proof mailboxes.  He grew tired of all the angry people calling to complain about the people who were smashing mailboxes and moved on to something new.  Interested in vermicomposting, (worm composting) he called a guy in the San Juan Islands who built a worm bin called a worm wigwam

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 Today is Friday and every Friday on the way to work I stop at the café and get my Friday treats to take to work. I know the two baristas who work the counter at the café and we talk about plants and what they did the night before (played Scattagories and drank blueberry beer). They are young and I love to hear

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Today is the 28th of April, midway through an unpredictable month of spring coming and then reverting back to winter. We actually had hail today. At the nursery we are creating a crazy quilt of wonder. The quilt is what we call GroundWorks. GroundWorks is front and center in the nursery, it is the ‘see what we have' spot, the place where gardeners and landscapers can walk around and play pick. It is part of my job to create it but the more I try to do it the more it seems like it is a place of everyone's input and creation. We line the aisles with flowering trees, we stitch in smaller evergreens, we patch together the grasses and daylilies. What won't fit here will be lovely there and so on. It sounds like a mess but it carefully and naturally comes together and looks unbelievable. String is laid out so every plant is placed in a very orderly way. As we sell plants others must fill in and it doesn't always go in a planned way.  That's what makes it crazy and unpredictable and gorgeous, especially looking out the second story window. A lot of flexibility is required laying out plants, some give and take between the ‘designers', and an observation of what is ‘looking good'. Come look, all the Rhodendrons are just starting to bloom now and soon we will be glowing in living color.

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Yes Ma’am, No Sir, How may I help you Ma’am? These are all niceties in everyday life that make our lives more pleasant and comfortable. Josh (my ‘Boss’ here at Pleasant Hill Nursery) was raised in Kentucky to address others in this lovely southern style. Being from the Pacific Northwest I wasn’t used to this ‘formal’ way of speaking and often thought of it as a little off putting, a tiny bit sarcastic. It’s not, nor is the intention any of that. It is this kind of polite training that enables us to continue our work with others in a kind and hospitable way even if we don’t always feel like it or want to say something else. If it is automatic for us to speak and behave kindly and with consideration it will always be our fallback position when we are in a difficult situation.

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Where I grew up in western Washington we had a saying if you couldn’t see the mountain it was raining and if you could see the mountain it was going to rain. The mountain referred to here was Mount Rainier (14,411’ high). Because it rains a lot in the great Pacific Northwest this was a fairly accurate evaluation of the weather. Where I live and work now there are no high magnificent mountains. But there is great beauty and our landmarks and gauges are a bit subtler. I look out from the nursery and am surrounded on all sides by natural beauty. Papenfus Creek marks the south and east border. I don’t see the creek but I do see all of the deciduous trees bordering it. To the west are brittle cottonwoods that are snapping off as I write and the Friends of Buford Park Natural area. And to the north is the grand Mount Pisgah (1,531’ high), my weather gauge for my life here. As I drive to work I head toward the mountain and check it out and see if it is fog covered, misted over or even topped with a bit of snow. And then I think about my weather day. This is the first indoor winter job I’ve had in 30 years so the relative weather is not so important to my personal comfort as it used to be. It is important to the nursery. Dave Daniel, the nursery owner and our leader, uses a much more sophisticated weather analysis. He has many weather web sites he checks often. He knows where the reservoirs are and how to find out when the water is held in and when it is let go. He checks state weather maps and can see what is predicted and what is happening right now. He intimately knows the lay of his land, how the creek and river run and where the water collects. He makes notes where more gravel needs to go to prevent puddles and where more drains need to go for more efficient drainage. This is good land and nursery management and adds to the quality of the plants produced here.

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