Tag Archives: garden

Diversity Explored: Serviceberry

At the time of my early nursery life in the 1980’s I was well aware of this beautiful flowering ornamental plant with delicious fruit. Sometimes in the nursery profession, you would not want to use the word serviceberry. It made … Continue reading

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Dreams of Crop Diversity-The Perennial Bean

The thought of creating or exploring a new crop is a good idea. It is very simple. You start with seeds. All new crops start with new seeds. Like an idea the new seeds are something that no one has … Continue reading

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Hog Peanut Moves to the Light

Once a seed repository is built up including varietal selections like Crispy Snack, seeds can be used for the production of the tubers. You can pelletize the seed for greater uniformity and inoculate it with appropriate nitrogen fixing bacteria. It … Continue reading

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The Perfect Plum

One of my early nursery experiences with another nursery owner on the west coast was with plums. He was producing an Asian species from seed like gangbusters. I started seeing them in the some of the giant retailers like Gurney … Continue reading

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Beautiful Orderly Plants

Under a powerline ground to sawdust by the tree services of Consumers Power is an autumn olive bush which resprouted creating this one bud sport or sprout which is variegated. From a hundred sprouts only one is variegated. Variegation can … Continue reading

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Discovery from Seeds

Sometimes its the small things that matter. Growing plants from seeds and finding traits that are inherited over time in a population of plants is a joy for me. I have no idea why I like it. I just find … Continue reading

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Seeds: River Cane, Pawpaw, Apple, Sloe Plum, Soybean

There is always something new to learn from plants. Growing them from seeds adds to the anticipation of discovery and connection to the natural world. When I grew plants in my nursery we use to routinely sell seeds along with … Continue reading

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Meanwhile Back at the Grocery Store

For many years I would keep the pits of some of my favorite grocery store fruit and try to grow them at my farm. Everything looks so spectacular coming exclusively from California. Everything is also patented and totally illegal to … Continue reading

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Michigan Oranges

Not too long ago, the USDA sent me a newsletter that contained a snippet of nursery catalogs from the early 1900’s. It is interesting to see the drawings and written descriptions of plants used in gardens at this time. This … Continue reading

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Heading North on the American Persimmon Highway

One of the easiest ways to create a strain of plant is to find similar individuals in a climate or zone similar to yours. The reason you might attempt this is that you desire to grow a plant that is … Continue reading

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