Great day at the SPPC Plant Sale!

It was a beautiful day at the Sacramento Perennial Plant Club Annual Plant Sale (SPPC) at the Shepard Arts and Garden Center at McKinley Park, in east Sacramento. Did well selling bamboo and the last of my Japanese Maples, saw some friends from last year and made some new ones this year. This sale is more than just making money, its a social experience. McKinley Park is in a beautiful part of Sacramento in an upscale neighborhood (homes built in the 1930's to 1940's) that is a bit bohemian, great venue overall with customers that get gardening as evidenced by simply walking outside along the sidewalks in the neighborhood (awesome 30-50 year old Japanese Maples all over the place).

I also met fellow blogger, Trey Pitsenberger, from Golden Gecko Nursery up the hill in Garden Valley, CA. What a nice guy, very down to earth. I have followed and commented on Trey's blog (a good one in my book) for several months now and it was nice to meet him in person.

Today was like Christmas morning for me, it turned out to be a great day! I worked my !!@# off today but it was well worth it, no doubt a good sleep is in store for tonight.

Sean

See you at the plant sale....

Don't miss it if you live in the Sacramento area. I'll be at the Sacramento Perrenial Plant Club (SPPC) tomorrow (Saturday) at the Shephard's Art and Garden Center, McKinley Park, Sacramento (3330 McKinley Blvd, Sacramento). The sale starts at 9 am through 3 pm.

15 vendors, including myself and fellow garden blogger Trey Pitsensberger will be at the annual sale that benefits the SPPC.

Drop by and say "howdy."

Sean

Experiment - fertilizing naturally or not, what makes a better looking, healthier bamboo?

In my ongoing renovation of my backyard, I began focusing on the southwest corner of my yard. I planted four (likely will be five by tomorrow) bamboo, f. murileae "Umbrella Bamboo", t. crassinodus "Kew Beauty", t. crassinodus "Merlin", f. robusta and the fifth will be b. fungosa.

Trying to grow using more natural methods, I opted to use compost from my bin (pictured) which now has a good mixture of leave and grass debris and recently (3 months or so) we began including kitchen scraps from fruits and vegetables. Needless to say after finally being good about turning the compost, we are starting to get some rich compost.

So, for the past couple of years, I have been using Osmocote to fertilize my bamboo as a slow release and have been fairly happy with the results. However, becoming more aware of the impact of synthetic fertilizers, I am going to try something different on these five newly planted bamboos.

When I planted them, I put a thin layer of compost on top, not only to protect the root structure from frost, but as a natural fertilizer.

Pictured are the subjects of the experiment (from left to right) t. crassinodus, "Kew Beauty"; f. murileae "Umbrella Bamboo" and f. robusta.

Let the experiment commence!

Sean