There’s Always Time For Wine!
My wife and I got away for a little vacation recently.
It was actually a combination of some vacation, a little bit of work, and a trip to see our son. Our son, Cooper, recently started a stint as a traveling nurse. His first contract landed him in Spokane, Washington, and that got the whole idea of a trip started.
Next came the need to head to Oregon for a little bit of work.
We partner with quite a few growers out in the Willamette Valley south of Portland, and I frequently travel out there to visit those growers and check out their crops. With the fall shipping season getting ready to kick off, August was good timing for a visit.
Lastly, there also happen to be a lot of vineyards out in that same area...and their wine is really good! Kim and I visited quite a few of them last year during an anniversary trip to Oregon ...and we were both looking for an excuse to go back.
Well...we found the excuse!
I planned my work trip, and we threw a little time on the front end to visit the coast and hit some wineries, tacked on some extra time pm the back end to visit Cooper, and threw a little work in there in the middle.
And we had a blast!
Getting a chance to see Cooper and explore Spokane was the highlight. He showed us around to lots of the local highlights. One of those was the river park downtown, where Kim discovered a “little” Red Rider wagon...just like the ones we used to use out here at the garden center...only a little bigger. That was a fun surprise.
It was a great trip, but now we’re back home and back to reality.
I’m really glad to see cooler weather has replaced the heat and humidity we’ve been suffering through the past number of weeks. I’m not a big fan of that stuff! I know it’s too early to think all the warm weather is behind us, but I still think it’s safe to say fall is getting started.
Cameron Rees, General Manager
That’s the direction we’re heading in out here at the garden center. We’ve been shipping a lot of new plants in for the new season, and little by little, the open spaces are filling in. Our fall season is underway!
If you’re ready to get your fall started, too, come on by. We’d like to help you kick it off to a great start!
—Cameron
“Thymely” Advice... It’s Time for the Orange Bag!
Summer is almost over, and boy, has it been a hot one this year. Fall should start rolling through in the next month or so, and so it is time for our next installment for your lawn, Fertilome Lawn Food + Iron.
Fertilome Lawn Food + Iron...or the Orange Bag, as we like to call it...can be applied with a drop or broadcast spreader. Make sure to spread it evenly over your lawn and water it in when you are done if rain isn’t in the forecast. Also, make sure to keep fertilizer on your lawn. Sweep or blow any product that lands on driveways, sidewalks, or the street back into the lawn. Not only does this keep things where you need them, but it also keeps stormwater runoff cleaner and prevents staining on hard surfaces.
If you are a member of our Skinner 3-Step Lawn Program, you have probably received the reminder to stop in and pick up your Orange Bag. This is the second application of the year and should go down around Labor Day. If you haven’t gotten in to get yours yet, now would be the time to come by
As always, our staff is knowledgeable and eager to help with any questions you may have!
—Melissa Anderson, Store Manager
Weekend plans? we’ve got a great idea!
Pumpkins are in stock and just in time for our Fall Kick-Off Party this weekend! We'll also have truckloads of fall nursery and flower arrivals. To top it off, Saturday (11 am-3 pm), we've invited Cities Edge BBQ food truck and Oasis Mobile Bar cocktail truck (11 am-3 pm). Then on Sunday, we'll be grilling up hot dogs with other snacks and drinks. So bring the family on over!
Come see all our new arrivals - trees, shrubs, grasses, evergreens, perennials, mums, asters, other flowering plants, grass seed, and lawn fertilizer for revitalizing lawns...Fertilome New Lawn Starter and Fertilome Lawn Food Plus Iron, aka, the Orange Bag...it’s time!
WHAT MAKES “GOOd” SEED?
When it comes to working on the lawn, it’s important to make sure you are working with good grass seed...but what does that mean?
Good seed is more than just a name on a bag. It’s making sure the stuff on the inside is going to give you what you are ultimately looking for...a nice lawn.
It’s important to take some time to look at the seed label and read the fine print.
Cheap seed is typically just that...cheap seed. The old adage, you get what you pay for, comes into play here. Lower quality seed means the wrong types of grass seed, bad varieties, weed seed contamination, and poor seed viability.
I’m always encouraging people to read the label. All bags of grass seed should have a detailed label on them. It’s the law. If you can’t find a label, don’t buy it.
When you look at the label, you’ll find important information. It will tell you not only what kind of grass seed it is, like tall fescue, for example, but it will also tell you percentages of each variety in the bag, as well as germination percentages of all the components. It will tell you how much of the bag you are purchasing is just random “stuff” - things like dirt and chaff - that will be labeled as “Inert Material”, and all bags will have some of that.
The last two things you want to pay real close attention to...” Weed Seed” and “Other Crop Seed”. These can ruin a bag.
Weed Seed is just that, seeds of various weeds that were harvested with grass seed and weren’t cleaned out before bagging. They will germinate and grow right there along with your grass seed and create weed crops that will have to be dealt with later. You can do it, but that doesn’t really make much sense...planting weeds so you can kill them later.
Other Crop Seed is the seed of other grass crops that make their way into the harvested seed. These can be a real problem because they often look significantly different, creating patchy lawns and disappointing results. And because they are grass plants, there isn’t a way to selectively kill them out later. You’re either stuck with them or you have to kill everything off and start all over.
Not good.
And the thing is, it doesn’t take much to be a problem. Here’s a quote from a Kansas State University Extension article...
“A homeowner has no easy way of knowing what the other crop is. If it is something bad, less than one-half of 1% can ruin a bag of seed. For example, if a bag of tall fescue seed contained 0.5% orchardgrass, the buyer would end up planting 12 to 16 orchardgrass seeds per square foot! Similarly, planting Kentucky bluegrass seed containing 0.5% rough bluegrass would result in about 25 to 35 rough bluegrass seeds per square foot of lawn. If your quality expectations are high, you want the other crop to be as close to zero as possible. Good quality seed often has 0.01% “other crop” or less.”
That’s why we focus on quality seed.
Our main recommendation is our Premium Turf-Type Tall Fescue Blend by Gard’nwise. We’ve worked with this blend for years and have always had great results.
It has 0.0% Weed Seed and 0.0% Other Crop Seed. It’s not going to get any better than that!
When you take the time and effort to plant a lawn, do it right, and you’ll enjoy your hard work for many years to come. Cut corners...plant cheap, low-quality grass seed...and you’ll suffer through those decisions for many years to come, too. Which would you prefer?
Stop by when you’re ready to tackle your project, and we’ll help you figure out how much you
need and give you all the steps you need to take to achieve success.
One final reminder...
Don’t forget to put down some starter fertilizer when you plant your seed. We stock Fertilome New Lawn Starter in a variety of sizes to fit your project. It’s easy to use and will help get your new stand off to a great start.
Happy Seeding!
WHAT’s new? …fall color!
It may still be pretty warm out there, but the cooler mornings and evenings mean fall is just around the corner. So, with that said, it’s time to get those tired-looking patio pots from summer spruced up again for fall!
Tear out those gangly petunias, the geraniums you’re tired of deadheading, and replace them with beautiful mums, ornamental peppers, and ornamental cabbage!
Trucks are arriving weekly, bringing outstanding fall color with them. Not sure what you need for your container? The staff at Skinners can help with that. Bring your container in, and we can pot it up for you or give you suggestions and gather the plants you need to do it yourself.
Regardless of the situation, we have stunning fall color to get your house looking good for fall!
—Misty Brown, Greenhouse Manager
more EVENTS, SALES & ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Keep an eye on this section in the future for all the important info and extras you won’t want to miss!
