Friday, August 25, 2006
Plan now for future garden business
John Arbogast
Landscape consultant John Arbogast answers your questions every Thursday. Send questions about your lawn, garden, plants, or insects to:
Dear John
5102 Greenfield St. SW
Roanoke, Va. 24018
Or send an e-mail. Answers will be given only in this column. Please don't send pictures or samples.
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Q: I hope to retire in about 3 years and have a dream of opening a garden center. We already have a commercial type building in a good location on our family farm, but I don’t have a horticulture degree and my only experience is home gardening. I think there would be a market in our area because there aren’t any other garden centers on this end of the county. I don’t want to compete with Lowe’s, but still offer good quality plants, shrubbery, trees and small garden tools. My daughter has a business degree so she would take care of that part, but what would you suggest I do in the next three years to prepare for opening this type of business in a small community?
A: Start by calling your local Virginia Department of Agriculture and consumer Services Office at the phone number listed under the Commonwealth of Virginia to learn what various licenses you’ll need for various products you might be selling, such as the license for selling fertilizers and pesticides. Contact your local government to learn what business licenses might be required in three years.
Also, have your daughter help you to select the targeted market you can make money serving. Examine what your potential customers will want to buy from you, so you can learn more about those items. This list might include vegetable garden transplants, seeds, annuals, perennials, herbs, shrubs, trees, groundcovers, tools, horticultural chemicals, and indoor plants to keep income coming in during the winter if your plan is for a year-round garden center. You need to find your horticultural niche, which will be things that Lowe’s, Home Depot, and discount department stores don’t sell. The needed commodity here in the Roanoke area that comes to my mind would be “organic gardening” items. A big helper in learning horticulture in the Roanoke area is Virginia Western Community College. Call their Horticulture Department at 857-7120 to learn what classes they offer that you can take during the next three years. Many hours will be needed now to learn who can supply the things that you’ll sell. Decide what kind of staff you’ll need and where you can find them.
Garden centers are busiest during the spring, so decide if you will want to work long hours seven days per week. Learn more right now about horticultural structures that you’ll need in three years, such as plastic greenhouses and shade structures to keep tender plants out of the hot sun. Shortly, get your daughter’s help in developing a detailed “marketing” plan. How do you want to tell your potential horticultural customers to come to you? Horticultural businesses get customers interested in early spring grand openings.
Q: I have a very large and beautiful, well, once beautiful, maple in my side yard. A couple of months ago, I noted the tree wasn’t looking as full and lush and discovered a girdling root. This tree provides privacy and shade to my yard. It’s looking worse by the day. Everything I read says that there is no hope. Any suggestions?
A: Before you accept what might be the inevitable death of your declining maple, do a specific tree examination. This four-part fact-finding routine should include careful examinations of: the trunk condition to identify possible injuries or decayed areas; the tree’s canopy consisting of the leaves’ color, bare branches and leaf size plus browning; root condition to find problems like more girdling roots in addition to the one that you already discovered; and the site of the tree to include all possible adversities, including any recent physical work done that could have injured the roots. Do what is called a “root crown excavation,” which means carefully digging with a trowel a 6 to 12 inch wide and 8-inch deep ring all around the base of the trunk.
You’ll look for more girdling roots close to the surface and other physical problems like decay at the connection of the trunk and root system; on the day before excavating, water the soil at the trunk base, taking care not to soak the trunk itself, in order to make careful excavation easier at this time of year. A frequently forgotten culprit that damages a tree’s shallow feeder roots or causes lower trunk rot is frequent watering and digging for annual flowers planted anywhere under shade trees.
The results of this thorough examination will help you to decide whether or not your maple should be removed or might be assisted by a knowledgeable tree professional. Unfortunately, trees that are as bad off as you described are beyond help from pruning, mulching, fertilizing, and removal of damaged parts.
