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What You Need To Know Before Getting Started in Flower Gardening

What You Need To Know Before Getting  Started in Flower Gardening

Before you engage into your gardening activities, be guided with the necessary resources you’ll need in your gardening operations.

The nursery house, tools, implements and equipment should be ready for convenience in your day to day operations.

You can’t work satisfactorily with inadequate supply needed during the actual performance of your garden works. It is necessary that you should provide these items your utmost priority…

Nursery House

The nursery house is the first requirement you should give due consideration. It is where the life of seedlings, newly propagated plants depend – in other words, the storehouse for baby plants.

Before anything else, you must construct your nursery before you venture into flower gardening.

11  Factors you should consider  before constructing your nursery house

1. Location

The nursery house should be located in a place where the seedlings and newly propagated are safe and free from any disturbances during their growing period.

Locate your nursery house in areas such as…

• access to road  and transportation networks

• available water supply

• free from industrial establishments or air pollution

• proximity to market outlets, climatic conditions

• topography of the land

• light supply

• labor supply

Construct your nursery in an East-West orientation.  This will be discussed in the succeeding topic.

2.  Road Access

Nursery accessibility is closely related to its potential customers. The production site should be accessible to the primary buyers, since your purpose anyway in putting up a nursery  is to provide ready available supply of flowers to customers.

3. Water Supply

For timely production, water must be provided when it is needed by the plants. Depending on the location, the nursery relies on ground water, lake, river, or local water supplies.

These sources vary in cost, quality, accessibility, and reliability of supply. Many nurseries depend on ground source for irrigation.

4. Light

Unlike greenhouse, in which supplemental lighting can be provided, field production relies solely on sunlight. Shade houses can be erected for plants that need such conditions.

Unwanted shading sometimes is experienced where trees are used to provide shelter from the winds.

5. Air pollution

Location of the nursery should be made in such a way that it will not suffer from air pollution.

If it has to be established in a heavily industrialized area, it should located upwind to escape the pollutants emitted from the various industrial facilities.

6. Topography

The terrain of the site has implications in drainage, soil erosion, ease of land preparation, and general ease of production operations.

If the site is rolling, use of machinery is hampered and irrigation systems are more difficult to install and operate. It may become necessary to spend additional cost to level the site to facilitate production operations.

On a rolling site, low parts of the land are likely to experience drainage problems and be susceptible to frost damage or water logging.

7.  Drainage

It is a must that the proposed site should be naturally well-drained. If it is not feasible, you should construct drainage canal, but it well add to your production.

A well drained location will provide good aeration of the soil and reduce the incidence of soilborne diseases. Furthermore, a well-drained soils allow rapid soil warming for early production in spring.

8.  Soil Texture and Structure

Field production of seedlings for sale requires that plants be dug up at some point. If bare-root production is intended, a soil with loose structure (sand or loam) is preferred.

For balled and burlapped production, the soil should be cohesive enough to form a ball around the roots.  A properly textured soil also drains well, holds moisture at a desirable level, and is easy to work and well aerated.

9. Soil Fertility

Fertilization is required for the newly planted plants for optimal growth. To minimize additional cost for fertilizer, you have to select the site with native fertility and be responsive to fertilization.

The higher the soil quality ( in terms of organic matter content, pH, and nutrition), the fewer the initial amendments.

9 Rainfall

The rainfall pattern in your area should be given due attention. Certain nursery operations cannot be delayed.

The amount of rain can be supplemented with irrigation if needed, but rains come during field preparations especially during tillage, making beds, and planting time could be a problem.

Your production schedules are delayed because, for example, the field may be wet to prepare it for planting. You should avoid in areas where unpredictable severe weather so occur.

You’ll loss in revenue if your seedlings are damaged due to hail or storms. Your plants may be too old to sell by the time the damage is corrected, and that well cause your frustration.

10 Temperature

Plants or seedlings produced in the nursery are sensitive than older plants to climatic changes because they are intolerant to rapid change in temperature.

If your nursery is located in areas like the West Coast, you need to provide a winter protection. While, if you’re in the East Coast planting plants in containers consider erecting structures for winter protection.

Tool Room

A part in your stock room should be constructed where all the tools, equipments, and  implements are properly stocked.

They should be properly labeled and arranged according to the order of use. Those that are used often must be placed where they can easily be accessible, while those that are seldom used are placed in a secured area.

The tool room should be secured and locked to avoid children to enter.

Fertilizers and chemicals (pesticides) should not be placed together with tools, since the fumes may affect the usability of the tools and equipment and to avoid accidental leakage that may cause hazard to human.

Tools

Garden tools that are needed in the nursery should be ready before doing the activites so that you’ll not be looking from anywhere else when the time to use them is required. The following tools you need are; hand rake, weeder, transplanting trowel, garden hoe, spade, rake, spading fork, pruning saw, hand pruners or pruning shears, dull and sharp bolos, budding/grafting knife, garden hose, hammer, pliers, steel tape, posthole digger, pegs and mallet, wood axe, crowbar, dibble, V-notched stick, pick-mattock, water hose, grass shear, sprinkler, pail.

Note: You need only to provide the tools that are to be used in your gardening activities. Don’t buy the unnecessary tools which you think are not needed required in your garden.

Equipment

Other garden equipment needed are the following; garden tiller, garden sprinkler, brush cutter, lawn mower, wheel barrow, power/hand sprayer, duster, hand tractor with rotavator attachment.

These are only suggested equipment for large scale flower gardening. For small scale gardener, like you who are only starting, some of them may be  costly for you to buy that may drain your budget.

Refrain from buying them if you can hire the services from other sources to minimize labor cost.

Materials

All materials needed for the nursery operations should be available before starting such as; seeds of various type, germinating trays (no. of holes varies), polyethylene bags, pots (earthen,  plastics or porcelain), string, soil media, manure (chicken dung, bat manure, horse manure, etc.) rice hull charcoal (carbonized), coco coir dust, fertilizers (various kinds), growth enhancers, fungicides, plastic mulch, fine net, culture nets, PP twine, oyster twine, tie wire.

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Cris Ramasasa, Freelance writer, writes about home gardening and Internet marketing tips. You can get a copy of his latest ebook “How to get started in Flower Gardening” and “Vegetable Gardening Made Easy”, and also get lots of tips, tools, Free articles, and bonuses at: www.crisramasasa.com

About the Author

Cris Ramasasa is a retired Horticulture teacher for 29 years and Freelance writer. Writes home gardening tips and resources. Written ebooks titled: How To Get Started In Flower Gardening and Vegetable Gardening Made Easy.

www.crisramasasa.com – Still under construction

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