Wild Plant Nursery Agenda for 2011
Structural Priorities
We will improve the container-yard fences. Better fencing will improve appearances, improve security—and help keep rabbits out!
We will finish the container-yard watering upgrade and reorganize the watering system for our irrigated raised beds.
We hope to finish laying gravel in the growing-trough aisles.
We will elevate the growing spaces slightly in the section of the container yard devoted to meadow production, by laying gravel there too. (Elevation will improve drainage.)
We will build one more small (15 feet by 6 feet) growing trough for producing wetland species. Our growing troughs can be configured to retain water; we are currently using one of them in this fashion, to grow emergent species (plants that root underwater); we need more space for emergents.
We will build a 6-foot by 45-foot cold frame in the northwest section of the container yard. The cold frame will make it easier to management germination of large seed accessions.
Production Priorities
We are always working to expand both our species inventory and the seedling volumes of many of the species that we grow. Results can be difficult to predict—we never know exactly what opportunities might come our way, or what setbacks a year might bring—but to the extent that we can plan, we hope to make progress in two areas this year.
We will continue to expand our inventory of herbaceous (nonwoody) meadow plants, and meadow shrubs. Our need for this type of stock will grow rapidly as we expand our meadow restoration work.
We hope to expand our inventory of ferns. Ferns are important in many local native-plant communities. But since ferns reproduce by spores, we have had to develop different propagation techniques for growing them in large quantities.