AT GARDEN WORKS we feel a sense of relief when we get Christmas and New Year’s behind us. We are getting ready for the spring season now. We have buyers in Atlanta getting all the new products for our new member plant and gift area called the sun room. The fun, new trend indoors is all about airplants, succulents, and great containers for them to call home. We have ventured further in the sun room with soaps and candle lines, artwork, jewelry and gifts for indoor gardening. We will have a truckload of indoor plants from the tropics coming in soon to enhance the indoor spaces in your home.
Garden Works has 18 greenhouses where we grow our annuals, perennials, and herbs that are filling up fast. Our grower puts together combinations of plants in drop-in pots and hanging baskets that are sun loving or shade loving plants. These containers are available to you to make it easy for you to pick up colorful combinations that are ready when you are.
These pots also are there for you to get inspiration for your own pots. The ingredients to these combinations are available so you can do your own if you wish. When the weather begins to seem spring-like most people want to begin with their pots while the ground is still warming up enough to plant. The hard part is that the winter flowers are just beginning to look their best at the time that it is time to start over with spring flowers. It’s best not to wait too long to get the spring plants going before it gets too hot.
Our shrub and tree buyer is out making connections with the growers to make sure we will be ready with all the best and newest varieties that flourish in Mississippi. We are lucky here at Garden Works to have a landscape company. We’ve been landscaping this area since 1958. We have had plenty of opportunity to learn what does well here with our soil and long, hot summers. We try to stick to the tried and true landscape plants for you to plant at home. Our customers often bring in house plans, pictures, dimensions, and sun and shade spots to be planted. This is a free service that we provide to you. We want you to be successful in your gardening endeavours. We are going to set you up with the proper plants for your spaces.
This is the best time to get the soil prepared, beds shaped and a plan that you are excited about. Our soil must be amended for long term success in your yard. Plants like well drained soil, the exact opposite of the clay we have. To amend soil here is to add some soil that is a gritty, sandy organic mix. This mix will allow the water to drain and lets oxygen move around the roots to aid in healthy, vigorous growth. I like a tilled in mixture of grit, cow manure, and mushroom compost. Planting the new plants slightly raised above the soil level gets those roots a little further from that clay. After planting it is very important to use root stimulator which is a growth hormone that gets those roots growing as healthy as can be.
We love our lawns in Mississippi. It is time to use a preemergence now. Preemerge goes on our lawns and beds with a fertilizer spreader. The preemergence will keep the weed seeds from germinating. It is one of the most effective ways to a weed free yard when used regularly. For those weeds that have sprung up in the lawn we have an herbicide that works even in the cold temperatures so you can get a jump start on weed control.
February is the month we wait for to do major pruning of crepe myrtles, roses, and ornamental grasses. The plants are dormant by this time making it a great time to do any dividing or transplanting. Come by or call with any pruning questions. I think one of this year’s big questions will be about the crepe myrtle bark scale. Those insects are causing problems on crepe myrtles and anything under crepe myrtles that may become an epidemic of epic proportions.
If everyone doesn’t address this rapidly growing problem we may be seeing the last of the crepe myrtles in the next five years. There is a cure for these pests, it’s inexpensive and effective but a gardener must use the proper chemical correctly and at the right time. We will help to get you set up on a calendar program that will help you to stay on top of this growing problem and other important dates to remember. Timing is everything when using chemicals and fertilizers in our yard. Our staff has degrees in plant science, horticulture, golf course management, chemical science and lots of experience using the tools it takes to make your yard look great.
At Garden Works we believe everyone needs a few pots around the front door and back patio. If you’ve visited us you know we have the biggest pot collection in the south. We’ve connected with the pottery brokers from all over the world to have another interesting collection of pots and fountains for you to choose from.
We have designers here to help you with your collections, just bring pictures and dimensions and we will help you pick out the right pots and the plants to go in them. We think of pottery and fountains as permanent fixtures to your home, it’s important to get the right size and color of these permanent pieces that change or enhance your biggest investment.
If all of this sounds like a lot of work and a little confusing we provide a landscape service. Garden Works has five crews that are trained to landscape from start to finish. We design outdoor kitchens, swimming pools, rock walls, drainage, irrigation and lighting systems. You can choose to get on our maintenance programs that will keep a check on all that it takes to keep a year round beautiful yard. We have a service that keeps your pots planted seasonally with the right plants in the right places.
One thing we are also excited about is that we are bringing chickens back into the circus going on up here. We had crazy chickens for years here and our customers frequently ask about them. We love having them here, so fun to watch.
Originally I though we’d have chickens here to give kids something to do while parents shopped, but it turns out the parents loved them as much as the kids. We are building the new pen near the bedding plant area where everyone can enjoy tem.
We hope you’ll come by and experience all we have to offer, we hope you’ll feel like you took a little vacation from life, and if you’re not careful you might learn a little something.
We are one of many great garden centers in our area to check out, we all do it a little differently, that’s what makes it so fun to nursery shop.
Remember this is the year to shop local. There is no way to be more local-minded than at your local garden center.
Allen Martinson
