GoodSeed Nursery Early Spring 2017 Newsletter

Volume Volume

Issue Issue

April April2017 2016

Growing With Us

Under New Management!

Here’s some news: GoodSeed Farm Country Garden Center reopened under new management for the 2017 season! Our dear friends Adam and Sarah Dinsmore, who also own Dinsmore Supply in West Union, are the new owners. Marjorie and Steve are stepping back from the retail operation in Winchester so we can focus on our design-build landscape service, now called GoodSeed Farm Landscapes, from our farm near Peebles.

Last October Adam and Sarah took over operation of Dinsmore Farm & Fleet, a farm supply and power equipment dealer started by Adam’s parents, Ron and Diane. They’ve renamed the business “Dinsmore Supply” and began an ambitious makeover.

We knew that the Dinsmores had plans for a second location, so we offered them our retail garden center in Winchester. They have re-named it The Dinsmore Family: Sarah and Adam with Cash, Emma and baby Silas.

GoodSeed Farm & Garden, and plan to gradually expand it into a year-round farm supply like their West Union store, offering animal feed, power equipment, fencing and gates, Amish Mini-barns, and other essentials for country living.

Our families share a close friendship and we enjoy working together. It’s a perfect outcome for us to pass the torch to them. Our businesses will share the GoodSeed Farm name, website and phone number (dial 937-695-0350, push 1 for the garden center, 2 for landscaping), but are separately owned and managed. We’ll be working closely with Adam and Sarah to help them get established. Steve will still be coordinating our Country Garden Mother’s Day Party and the GoodSeed Garden Expo, and contributing his weekly gardening advice column “Let’s Grow”, to nine local newspapers.

Sarah is homeschool mom with three children, Emma, Cash and Silas, so she’ll have her hands full this spring season.

She’ll have plenty of support; veterans Nora Huff, Delsey Wilson, Maryellen Pratt, and Hunter Mefford will be back again at the garden center. Marjorie and Stephen James will help out at the garden center and behind the scenes. Please stop into GoodSeed Farm & Garden soon, meet Sarah and her team, and wish her good luck in her new venture!

SPRING GoodSeed Nursery Hours: Monday through Friday, rain or shine .................................. 7 AM to 7 PM Saturday, rain or shine ............................................................ 8 AM to 6 PM Sunday .......................................................................................... 11 AM to 5PM

Maps, Directions & Schedules at www.goodseedfarm.com

Start Your Garden: Boston Ferns, Pansies Seeds, Onion Sets Topsoils and Mulch ProMix & Peat Moss

Growing With Us

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“Steve’s Soapbox:”

Passing the Torch...

We opened GoodSeed Farm Country Garden Center eighteen years ago, on our farm near Peebles. It was truly a labor of love; lots of hard work, long hours, setbacks and frustrations, an adventure with never a dull moment. In the beginning it was laughably small, more a figment of my overactive imagination than a full-line garden center. Little by little we built onto it, expanded, and attracted gardeners from every corner of Ohio.

We were strangers to Adams County. One of the greatest pleasures of our little business was meeting gardeners from near and far, getting to know the community, making lifetime friendships among our new neighbors. Plant people are a special breed, nurturers with big smiles and big hearts. The loyalty and support we felt from our customers was a source of strength through the many challenges we faced day to day.

Honestly, starting a retail business on our rural farm was a really stupid mistake, but with the energy of the innocent we kept it up for fourteen years before we finally moved the garden center to the four-lane, closer to Cincinnati, closer to most of our customers. That move, in 2013, was a breakthrough that saved our business. We should have done it fourteen years sooner.

In the meantime we’d earned a reputation as a design-build landscape installer, building custom hardscape projects and “extreme makeovers” of residential landscapes. Our landscape business sustained us as our garden center struggled. At this point in our lives we’ve decided that’s where we should focus, and pass the torch of the retail garden center to the next generation.

Among our dearest friends are Bob and Lynette Wilson (owners of Wilson Buildings, Seaman, Ohio), their daughter Sarah and son-in-law Adam Dinsmore. These are wonderful people, the “salt of the earth”, hardworking Ohioans who would give you the shirt off their backs if you needed help. Adam and Sarah couldn’t be a more ideal couple to carry on the GoodSeed Farm tradition and take it to the next level. It’s an outcome so perfect I get choked up just thinking about it. Whether you believe in serendipity, destiny or Divine intervention, I’m sure you can relate.

GoodSeed Farm’s Country Garden Center is in good hands.

Growing With Us

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Sarah’s Perennial Pick: Sedum “Matrona” Everyone loves a showy perennial that’s easy to grow, gets better each year, shrugs off drought and neglect, and offers winter interest.

“Matrona” checks all those boxes with her powder blue, rose-tinted, fleshy leaves, maroon stems and pale-pink August blooms. She grows in a neat- mounding shape two feet wide and 18 inches tall, is a magnet for butterflies and loves full sun.

Give her a hot, dry, sunny spot and she’ll demonstrate why people call her “Live-forever”.

Locally Amish-grown Vegetable Plants!

Hosta “Patriot”

GoodSeed Farm & Garden buys all our seedling vegetable plants from local growers. Why? As “big-box” stores grab a bigger share of the garden center market, plant growers are growing into mega-corporations right along with them. This centralization invites the lightning spread of plant diseases like late blight, a fungus similar to the one that caused the Irish potato famine attacks potatoes and tomatoes. Late blight appears innocent enough at first — a few brown spots here, some lesions there — but it spreads fast.

Plants that seem healthy one day, can turn toxic within a few days.

Virtually every big-box store in southwest Ohio buys their vegetable plants from just one company; mega-grower Bonnie Plant farm based in Union Springs, Alabama. Whether you buy plants from Lowe’s, Home Depot, Walmart or K-Mart they all come from one of Bonnie’s 70 growing locations. Bonnie has 10,000 accounts and 500 salespeople.

According to plant pathologists, the latest killer round of blight began with vegetable plants bought by consumers at large chain retailers.

Once those infected starter plants were planted, they spread their pathogens like tiny Trojan horses into home gardens.

Mega-growers are heavy users of pesticides, essential to control insects and diseases in their huge mechanized greenhouses. At GoodSeed Farm & Garden, we’re determined to be a solution, not a problem.

That’s why we support local, family-owned vegetable plant growers who avoid chemical pesticides. Healthy food starts with healthy plants!

PULVERIZED TOPSOIL, COMPOST, SOIL BLENDS, MULCH, SAND & GRAVEL

..for pickup or “next business day” delivery: call 937-695-0350

Growing With Us

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A Beautiful Lawn – Easy as 1-2-3-4 Now is the time to get your lawn on the right track for the season. Start with well-timed lawn food and preemergent crabgrass control in early spring. Pre-emergent means before crabgrass seeds sprout, so starting early is key to success. Apply Scotts “Step 1” Crabgrass Preventer Plus Lawn Food in early spring, anytime between February and April when temperatures are still cool (under 80ºF). Step 1 prevents crabgrass before it can germinate. It also feeds to green up a winter-weary lawn, too.

It’s a good idea to buy “Step 2” at the same time, so you have it on hand. You should apply Step 2 in late spring, anytime between April and June (be sure to wait 4-6 weeks after applying Step 1). It kills many broadleaf weeds like dandelions, while feeding and nourishing the lawn.

Step® 2 builds thick, green turf from the roots up. Apply Step 2 near Memorial Day, on a calm day, on a damp lawn, and when rain is not expected for at least 24 hours.

GoodSeed Farm & Garden can help you kick off your lawn program. Scotts is offering a rebate right now on Scotts Step 1 and Step 2. See us soon to take advantage of this special incentive!

STRAW BALES GoodSeed Farm & Garden now stocks dry, clean, crumbly wheat straw by the bale! Spreading straw on newly-planted lawns helps lawn grass seedlings thrive by equalizing soil moisture, reducing erosion, and protecting tender sprouts from wind and sun.

Straw bales also make great bedding for animals! Count on us for fresh, clean, weed-free straw bales!

Growing With Us

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SAVE $20 OFF DELIVERY CHARGE for any bulk order (minimum 6 scoops) prepaid now through April 30th!

Garden Mix, Topsoil, Gravel or Mulch!

Railroad TIES!

$11.99 Each by the bundle ($12.99 Individually) DELIVERY AVAILABLE

WALL ROCK SALE! $1.59 each by the pallet $1.69 individually.

TIME TO GET THAT WALL PROJECT UNDERWAY! Valid now thru April 30. No coupon required.

Delivery available. Special orders included, if paid for during sale period. $13 Pallet deposit (refundable when pallets returned).

Growing With Us

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Welcome to GoodSeed Farm Landscapes!

Steve Boehme Owner/Designer

FRESHEN UP YOUR LANDSCAPE! Our particular specialty is “Design-build Makeovers” for residential clients. This means taking an existing landscape, salvaging the best plants and changing the landscape to a totally new look. We design landscapes “from the inside out” to add living space outdoors, increase privacy, provide shade, and increase property value. Our designs are casual, low maintenance, and feature a wide variety of unusual plants.

Our designs can include hardscape patios, walks, retaining walls, fire-pits, steps, lighting, and unique wood fences. Installations include comprehensive soil preparation and measures to eliminate perennial weeds like dandelion and thistle. Thriving plants are the best protection against weeds and disease, so we pick the right plants and take extra care to install them properly.

We are a Dealer and Certified Installer for Allan Block, Reading Rock, Pavestone, Ohio Stone, Kichler Lighting, Aquascapes water features and other quality hardscape products. Let us transform your yard by combining these quality products, beautiful plants, and imaginative yet practical design solutions.

Growing With Us

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FREE DESIGN SERVICE! Our design-build projects begin with a meeting to look at your property and talk about what is important to you. We make a detailed site plan showing your entire property and everything on it. We use these measurements to create a design drawing showing how we think your finished landscape should look, and prepare a detailed spreadsheet estimate of all the costs for everything shown on the design drawing.

We work together with you and your budget to make your plan a reality. Design-build projects can be done in phases according to your budget.

Design packages range from $150 to $950, however we credit the entire cost of the design phase against the labor cost of your job. If you divide your installation into phases, design credits are proportional to the portion of the job you purchase.

Call For Your “Makeover�: 937-587-7021

9736 Tri-County Highway Winchester, Ohio 45697 937-587-7021 www.goodseedfarm.com

PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID CINCINNATI, OH PERMIT NO #9714

UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT!

CALENDAR

GARDEN CENTER & LANDSCAPING

GoodSeed Farm

INTRODUCING 2 YEAR WARRANTY PROTECTION on perennials, shrubs and trees, with BONIDE Root & Grow starter fertilizer!

PLAN TO VISIT GOODSEED FARM OFTEN THIS SPRING! Mark your calendar so you can enjoy our special events, take advantage of special savings, bring your family or friends for special times!

March 1st-31st

Early Spring Hours: Monday-Saturday 10AM-5PM, Sunday Noon-5PM

April 1st-July 17th Spring/Summer Hours: Monday-Saturday 9AM-7PM, Sunday 11AM-5PM April 1-30

Delivery Special! $20 delivery on bulk mulch, soil, or gravel, 6 scoops or more.

April 1-30

Wall Rock Special!

Date?

Scott’s 4-step Rebate?

May 12-13-14

Country Garden Mother’s Day Party! FREE “Sparkle and Shine” rose plant for every mother. Specials, food and fun 9AM-7PM Friday, Saturday, and Mother’s Day Sunday

June 4

GoodSeed Garden Expo! Spend the day with experts on gardening, plants, hardscaping and soils! Meet master gardeners, plant experts, representatives from premier nurseries and garden supply manufacturers. Seminars, workshops, exhibits, door prizes, specials, FREE samples. An indoor-outdoor event tailored for home landscapers, vegetable gardeners, lovers of plants & flowers. Rain or shine! Delicious food by Big “E” BBQ and ‘Buckeye Confections”. 9AM-6PM Rain or shine!

July 1st-17th

Season End Clearance Sale: All plants deeply discounted. Great deals on all merchandise!