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Shazbot3
So, I picked up the newspaper on Monday morning. I went immediately to my favorite section-Farm & Garden.
There, on the front page of Section C was one of the most innovative ideas for gardening I've seen in a very long time. Below is the article:
McConnell growing the ingredients for pre-packaged salads
Jennie Jones Giles
Times-News Staff Writer
[e-mail:jennie.giles@hendersonvillenews.com]
Picture
Danny McConnell is now growing different varieties of salad at McConnell's Farms. (MICHAEL JUSTUS/TIMES-NEWS)
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Combine fresh lettuce and greens, mix in leeks and radishes, and top off with some fresh tomatoes. If you think it is too early in the gardening season for a fresh, homegrown salad, think again.
Danny McConnell is trying to take advantage of the growing popularity of pre-packaged salads and is now growing all the ingredients in a greenhouse.
He even has tomatoes ripe for picking. They are small, salad tomatoes growing in a hanging basket.
Randy Gardner with the Mountain Horticultural and Research Center came up with the idea of propagating a tomato plant that will grow in a hanging basket and McConnell Farms has been selling them for a couple of years.
"One of the baskets had 300 tomatoes on it," McConnell said. "Last fall during the floods, people with the hanging baskets still had fresh tomatoes picked off their decks."
McConnell said the hanging baskets are also popular at retirement centers.
Inside the 30 by 50 foot greenhouse can be found all the ingredients to compliment the tomatoes.
McConnell used 5 inch white aluminum gutters, filled them with soil, put in a drip tape as used in tomato fields and planted seeds.
"White reflects heat better," he said. "Using the drip tape for water, there is no mud or dirt splashing up on the plants and it keeps the leaves dry."
The gutters are about 42 feet long and run in layers the length of the greenhouse.
Plantings were staggered, so fresh lettuce and greens are always ready to cut. "The bigger plants shade the smaller ones," he said. "When we snip off the larger plants, the smaller ones come out."
On the top layers he is growing leeks and radishes.
"We have a mix of kale, lettuces, young spinach and rape," he said. "It is just like the spring mix people buy in the grocery stores."
Rape is an old green similar to mustard greens in flavor, he said.
There are eight different types of lettuces and greens in McConnell's mix. The greens and lettuces have never been sprayed. No insecticides or fungicides have been used and they were never fertilized, he said.
"We do plant the seeds in commercial potting soil, so it is not certified organic," he said.
"We will cut the greens and lettuces, put them in zip-lock bags and weigh them out," McConnell said.
Each bag will weigh 1/2 pound and sell for about $3. In grocery stores, a bag of spring mix salad greens costs about $6.99 a pound, McConnell said.
A hanging basket of tomatoes costs about $6.50 to $7.
McConnell is also selling horseradish in pots. A pot costs about $7. The horseradish was started in his greenhouses.
Fresh asparagus cut on the farm is ready.
"People love fresh asparagus," he said.
His rhubarb should be ready this week, also. The rhubarb is later than usual because of the late cold snap and the weather in the fall. The Food TV Network was planning to film a segment on rhubarb at McConnell Farms this year, but the rhubarb was not ready for cutting in time.
"They had to go to Oregon," he said.
McConnell had rhubarb growing in pots for sell for planting in yards. A gallon pot of rhubarb is about $5.
"Rhubarb plants make excellent landscape plants," he said.
His father-in-law, Fritz McCall, is selling ornamental plants, azaleas, rhododendrons and red maples.
People were also asking about the lupines growing in his mother's flower garden, McConnell said. "Now we've got them," he said.
McConnell Farms is on Old Dana Road. The farm stand is open from 9 am. to 6 p.m. seven days a week.
And here is a picture-doesn't show much, but gives you an idea:
God's Warrior
shazbot3
I was so taken with this article-I HAD to go there!
So yesterday my mom & I drove out there. You guys would have to see this to believe it. I'm in awe, I really am.
We spoke with Mr. McConnell AND his father-in-law. I think maybe we drove them a little nuts asking so many questions, lol. They told us that this story about the "gutter-garden" wasn't supposed to make it into the newspaper, this is just an experiment they were trying to see how it would go.
However, the response they've had from the article has all but depleted their supply of fresh salad greens-they can't keep up with the demand.
Their set-up out there is wonderful. The whole produce stand itself smelled of the most delicious strawberries! Even tho ours will be ripe soon, we came home with a gallon in the neatest little plastic basket-the smell was overpowering. Today I'm making a strawberry-rhubarb pie with his berries and rhubabrb from our garden.
Anyways, we came home with the berries, one of the hanging baskets of grape tomato, a 6-pack of lupines, and a Corkscrew Willow, lol.
I'm taking DH out there tomorrow or Sunday to see the gutter set-up. I WANT ONE!!!!!(Also, I MAY just get that shrimp-colored azalea I wanted, and to get some of that freshly-cut asparagus he'll have then, lol) Looks very easy to build, takes up very little space, and we could grow even our strawberries in a setup like that, keeping them off the ground and away from those dratted slugs who eat most of them before WE can!
Can you tell I'm agog?? Lol. I'm hoping Mr. McConnell will let me take pics of the framework for my own use-I plan to take the digital just in case. If he does, I'll post some more pics here.
And the funny thing? This place is about 3 miles from our home-in the boonies, granted-but we never knew it existed!!!!
Horseshoe
Thanks for posting that, Shaz! Looks like it works to me!! I'll have to give it a try sometime (probably when the weather begins to cool off again).
I grew lettuces in PVC pipe one year and it did okay but I like the gutter system much better! Looks promising, doesn't it!
shazbot3
It does, 'Shoe. I've seen the setup firsthand, and I GOTTA have one. Imagine picking greens without having to break your back to do it!!!!
shazbot3
Oh! ANOTHER innovative idea.
DH came home the other day and told me about what a buddy at work had done to make a "power-duster"
He took a gas blower and added a few modifications here & there, and voila! A power duster that gets the job done in record time.
So, we have 3 blowers, and he said he'd do one of ours if we'd just buy the PVC & screening he needs. Supposed to pick it up on Wed.
When he gets it done, I'll post some pics of it. He said his works like a dream, doesn't clog, and gets the dust even to the undeside of the leaves!!!!
Elena
What a fascinating thread this has been. I hope to see updates to this in the future, Shaz. Good reporting job on your part, my friend! Delightful!!!!!!
Horseshoe
Sounds like that would be great in large applications. For years I just used a sock filled with my dust and shook it over the plants!
Fortunately I now have a "dustin-mizer" (think that's its name). Although it isn't motorized it has a hand crank that throws out the dust thru a long tube. Sure makes it nice, and also uses less dust than my old socks did!
shazbot3
I have one of those, too, 'Shoe. But mine seems to lose most of the dust out of the air-intake slits on each side, and I have to shake it to pieces just to get the dust to blow out. I liked it better than the old knee-his, but this blower thingie just fascinates me.
I guess I'm the female counterpart to Tim Allen-aarrgghhh? Lol.
Horseshoe
Hah!!! I hear ya! I have my share of "home-made" gizmos, too!
Elena
I have an "Ellen homemade gizmo" that is almost too crude to describe ...A tin can with nail holes in the bottom of it (sharp sides up to break up any small clumps) tacked to the bottom of a stick. I fill it with Sevin and a few pebbles and shake it over the plants. It can be held very close and I don't waste powder. Told you it was crude....LOL
Horseshoe
Zowie...now that sounds like it'd work perfect! Good goin'!
Elena
I can see that you are a man who appreciates my talents. Thankee kindly, Sir.
Gardenwife
That is a *really* neat setup. I don't have a greenhouse or a sunny enough spot for one, but if I did...Look out.
Is there an advantage in using powder over liquid insecticide? I like being able to spray it on with my pressure sprayer. Any of you use the systemic ones? I was looking at the labels at Lowe's the other day, wondering about 'em.
Elena
I do use the systemic ones for iris borers and also for the canna borers and a few other things that I feel will get bumped off by them at the base of the plants (roots - bulbs, etc.) We use sprays too. Some things need that pressure to really get to them. The powder isn't always the best poison for things but it is good between sprayings and also there are some things that it just seems to discourage longer, especially when it doesn't rain. I sprinkle it on damp plants so that it will cling. Albert does all the spraying (and knows more about that than I do.) I just do the dusting when I feel that things need it and know he won't be spraying for a while. As you can tell, we use many different methods and usually there are things that respond to one method and not another.
shazbot3
Shoot, Ellen! Your duster sounds perfect!!!!
shazbot3
Well, the blower/duster is done. And let me tell you, that thing WORKS!!!!!! I told DH he should start charging the neighbors for dusting THEIRS, too, lol.
I wanna take pics, but DH said wait. He's trying to talk the man into putting a patent on the darn thing!
The veggie garden AND the roses were done in less than 5 mins-the neighbors' too, lolololol. Aaarrrgghh?
shazbot3
Well, LB is NOT going to patent the idea. I think he's nuts-I really believe he could go far with it. But, he's an old country boy; and very distrustful of things like patents-he says he's afraid someone would steal the idea and he'd get left in the lurch.
However-now I can't take pictures immediately for posting. For some reason now, my digital camera refuses to communicate with the PC for uploading. It will take pics, but I'll either have to buy a printer with a card-reader, or take the cards to be developed onto paper or disc. Grrrrr!!!!!!!!!
I WILL get pictures of that thing up here before the summer is over-I PROMISE!!!!!!! It would be the perfect thing for you new nursery owners!!!
Gardenwife
It's funny how people think the very thing set in place to protect their intellectual property rights will be their undoing if they use it.
Looking forward to your pictures - it sounds really neat.
shazbot3
I know it, GW. I really think this guy could make a killing if he'd just go for it.
He's one of the old country boys in our area tho who doesn't even trust banks. Folks like him keep their life savings in a sock-in a coffee can-buried in the back yard, lol.
Elena
Fruit jars are better. They don't let water get in. LOL
shazbot3
Lol!
Horseshoe
Oh no...! You mean we're s'posed to put the money in a SOCK first!? (I messed up.)
Be right back, got something to take care of. (Now where'd I put that shovel...?)
Elena
Since you don't wear shoes, you probably don't have any socks. I hope that Alex or your DW will loan you one. You might be able to get the one you hang up for Santa and use that. I bet that is a really big one so he will leave you lots of goodies.
Gardenwife
I was just going to say the same thing, Ellen -- if he doesn't wear shoes, socks are probably out of the question. You might pad the money in a femi-NINE pad, though. Newcomers will have no idea what I'm talking about, now will they?
Elena
That is a Horseshoe story that hasn't been told her at TGP so unless folks reading this are members at DG they won't have a clue what that is all about. Actually, i don't think there are any real rules to burying money in the back yard. you might just put it in a brown paper sack. I think it has to be brown though! (So it can hide better in the dirt!) I guess if you have red clay you would have to find a red clay colored one. Sure glad it is you having to do all that and not me. I think my money wlll be safe in the sack in the jar in my septic tank. No one would ever think to look there would they?
Gardenwife
Maybe Shoe could be persuaded to post it in the humor forum?
Elena
Poor ole Shoe. Once he starts posting his stories, we will have more and more of them that we'll want him to post! It must be terrible to be so popular! Maybe we can just all buy the BOOK!!!! Shoe, when is that book due out, my man?
Horseshoe
Oh mercy me! Ya'll talking about me?
I actually DO have a sock but I tend to use it for putting garden dusts in so I can shake it over the plants to get rid of any insects.
GW...I'd have to go do an extensive search for that TRUE story over on DG!
As for any book...heck, I can't even finish some of the gazillion stories I've started. Not yet anyway...too busy here these days. Hopefully this Winter I can do some, eh?
Elena
Shoe, do you want some of us to send you an extra sock?
I forgot that you are going to do a CD or maybe even a DVD of your stories in addition to the book. Now, when do you expect that we can be looking for them to appear? Do you think that I will live that long???? If I do, there is te distinct possibility that I won't even remember who you (or who anyone else is for that matter) are by that time. LOL! Ya need to hurry it up a bit cause I ain't agonna live forever!!!!
