Mother’s Day Party!

Spring Shopping Hours

Monday through Saturday, rain or shine .............................. 9 AM to 6 PM

Sunday................................................................................................ Noon to 5PM

Maps, Directions & Schedules at www.goodseedfarm.com

GoodSeed Nursery Spring Hours: It’s SPRING!

•Gorgeous Roses

•HGTV Home Plants

•Sweet Potato Starts

•Soil & Mulch

Volume 11 Issue 2 May 2013

Growing With UsGrowing With Us

It’s time again for the annual gathering of mothers and daughters, grandmothers and grandkids, mothers-in-law and mothers-to-be, at GoodSeed Farm for the Country Garden Mothers Day Party. After fifteen years this has become an an-nual ritual, including a FREE gift plant for every mother; this year it’s Old-Fashioned Lilac! There’s one for you. This will be our first Mother’s Day in our new, more convenient Win-chester location, with lots more parking and lots less walking! COME HUNGRY! Our menu includes egg sandwiches, coffee and Amish donuts for breakfast, Papa’s Kettle Korn, pulled pork sandwiches, chicken salad croissants, lemonade, homemade cheesecake and more. Jo Hall’s Hilltop Reception hall next door will be offering two seatings for Mother’s Day dinner, at noon and 1:30 on Mother’s Day Sunday. We’ll be giving away 1200 cute little Old Fashioned Li-lac bushes, one for every mother, no strings attached, and the Brown County Master Gardeners will be manning the plant giveaway table. Our party starts Friday morning May 10 at 9AM, and continues 9AM to 6PM all three days. We’ll have plenty of unadvertised specials of 30%, 40% and even 50% off on plants at their peak, perfect for Mom!

We’re introducing the new HGTV Home Plant Collection, with specials on their stunning combination planters and baskets. Special guests include barn quilt muralist John Stadtmiller, caricaturist Galen Bailey, and Ken’s Unique Birdhouses. If this is your first year in the GoodSeed Farm community, it can be the beginning of a wonderful family Mother’s Day tradition for you and your family.

“Steve’s Soapbox”

We lead a charmed life, dealing with plant peo-ple all day. It’s a bubble of sanity and pleasure in an increasingly hostile and dangerous world. Plant people are natural optimists, thrilled with the sen-sual pleasures of life around them, eagerly antici-pating new and exciting sensations. It’s truly a blessing to be near them. Healing salve for the soul.

Here in the country we can filter out the modern world, enjoying starry skies at night, peace and quiet, clean air filled with the fragrances of plant life and the sounds of birds. If we absolutely must, we venture to the suburbs or the city, always relieved to get home again to our little co-coon. Technology allows us to control just how much we see and hear of current events and popular culture.

Perhaps that’s why it feels so jarring when we’re forced to confront the modern security state our country has be-come. Like when I was asked to present my five-week landscaping class at a local institution of higher learning. I ea-gerly accepted the invitation and gave my class, as I’ve done many times at other schools, for the usual fee.

It was a surprise, after five fun evenings with a class of eager gardeners, to receive a thick dossier in the mail. To get paid, all I had to do was fill out a stack of forms and present myself for fingerprinting and a criminal background check. The forms had to do with federal, state, and local taxes, public employee retirement funds and the like. I’m a public employee? I guess I am. I certified that I’m not an illegal immigrant or resident alien, made copies of my I.D. documents, signed disclosures about “whistle-blowing” and admonishments not to engage in “political activities”. Which leaves the trip back to the school for the background check and the fingerprinting.

I stopped flying after 9/11, when it became necessary to remove my belt and shoes, surrender my wallet and keys, and be frisked and x-rayed in order to get anywhere near a boarding gate. Pretty much the same routine you face if you’re arrested and sent to jail. I’m an American, and I find this treatment so traumatic my blood pressure goes through the roof, my hair stands on end and I shake with rage. We are slowly being conditioned to being treated like criminals. Big-box stores search our carts and examine our money suspiciously. Cameras record our every move. SWAT teams in armored vehicles stalk our streets.

But not here at GoodSeed Nursery. Here, the sun shines, birds sing, friendly plant people laugh and gossip and en-joy the flowers. We’re in a comfort zone of nature’s goodness, with the freedom to enjoy every minute of every day. Any time the stress of modern life starts to make you tense, you’re invited to join us. We’d love to see you.

Page 2 Growing With Us

A new local business has sprung up in rural Adams County, an artisan coffee roaster with a passion for really good coffee. We’re talking about Cheryl Greene and The Greene Beanery.

Cheryl lives and breathes coffee, and we’ve had the pleasure of serving as her “guinea pigs” while she perfected her small-batch roasting technique. Now we’re offering her handiwork at GoodSeed Nursery.

Visit us any morning and try a cup! Our favorites are Cheryl’s sweet and fra-grant Ethiopian Yirgacheffe and her robust Columbian Dark Roast. You’ll want some to take home, or as a special treat for your favorite coffee lover!

ENJOY A GREAT CUP OF COFFEE!ENJOY A GREAT CUP OF COFFEE!ENJOY A GREAT CUP OF COFFEE!ENJOY A GREAT CUP OF COFFEE!

A Breath of Fresh Air...

Marjorie’s Marjorie’s Marjorie’s Marjorie’s

Perennial PickPerennial PickPerennial PickPerennial Pick

“Cora Stubbs” Peony

This Japanese Peony looks like your favorite dessert. Fra-grant, raspberry-colored petals surround a giant dollop of pink and cream. With lush foliage and sturdy stems, this plant will get bigger and better over the coming decades. The secret to Peonies is to plant them very shallow, mixing Bulb Tone with the soil, and keep the lawn grass from smothering them. Remove flowers as soon as they fade. After foliage dies back, cut the stems off and discard them. During the dry months, Peonies need regular, deep watering. Mulching helps keep the soil cool and moist, and controls weeds.

Page 3 Growing With Us

PULVERIZED TOPSOIL, COMPOST, SOIL BLENDS, MULCH, SAND & GRAVELPULVERIZED TOPSOIL, COMPOST, SOIL BLENDS, MULCH, SAND & GRAVELPULVERIZED TOPSOIL, COMPOST, SOIL BLENDS, MULCH, SAND & GRAVELPULVERIZED TOPSOIL, COMPOST, SOIL BLENDS, MULCH, SAND & GRAVEL ..for pickup or “next business day” delivery: call 937..for pickup or “next business day” delivery: call 937..for pickup or “next business day” delivery: call 937..for pickup or “next business day” delivery: call 937----587587587587----7021702170217021

Starting this year you can enjoy a deli-cious family meal in Hilltop’s elegant ball-room on Mother’s Day Sunday. Reserve a table for up to eight people for a gracious Mother’s Day buffet dinner. Seatings are at 12:00 Noon or 1:30PM, for a mouth-watering menu of Prime Top Round of Beef, Glazed Lean Sliced Ham, Sliced Breast of Turkey, Mostocholi with Melted Cheese, Assorted Cheeses, Vegetable Tray with Pickles, Peppers and Olives, Hot Baked Beans, Homemade Salads, Cole Slaw, Assorted Breads, Dessert, Cold and Hot drinks. Cost is $10.99 per person. Reservation deadline is Thursday May 9th. Call 937-695-5545 for details or visit www.hilltopdesigns.org.

Mother’s Day Dinner “Out”, No Waiting!Mother’s Day Dinner “Out”, No Waiting!Mother’s Day Dinner “Out”, No Waiting! Reserve a Table Now for a

Sumptuous Mother’s Day Feast,

Next Door To GoodSeed Nursery

Page 4 Growing With Us

Blueberry bushes are attractive shrubs with abundant pink-tinged white blooms in spring, shiny foliage and stun-ning fall color. If you have a well-drained full-sun location for foundation shrubs or privacy hedge, consider using blueberry plants. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes. There are even blueberries ideal for planting in contain-ers! As an added bonus, your family can enjoy loads of luscious fruit.

Like any orchard plant, blueberry bushes have challenges, particularly keeping wild creatures from getting all that juicy fruit before you do. The most important step is well-drained soil, best accomplished in raised beds. The reward is an attractive landscape plant that also provides a plentiful food supply.

Here’s a radical approach to successfully growing blueberries and strawberries in your yard: Rather than digging holes and planting them, set the plants on top of the ground and build a raised bed around them. Then fill the bed com-pletely with Pine Magic mulch and keep the mulch moist until the root systems grow out into the mulch. This won’t take long, and you’ll have a bumper crop of blueberries!

This technique is easy to do and it works for two reasons. The first is that blueberries love well-drained acid soil, and the second is that blueberries just hate hard, gooey clay soil. We come from southern New Jersey where there is a huge blueberry industry. South Jersey has well-drained, sandy acid soil. You can pour a bucket of water on the soil in a Jersey blueberry field and it will immediately soak in and disappear. If your soil doesn’t drain this well, blueberries will sit and sulk.

Raised beds allow excess water to simply drain off by gravity rather than being trapped in a hole around plant roots. Pine Magic is very similar to the potting soil that nurseries use for growing blueberries in containers. It holds just the right moisture and the rest just drains away, allowing roots to breathe. The fluffy texture of the mulch encour-ages new feeder roots to quickly grow, and the acidity is perfect for blueberries. Adding a few inches of pine mulch every spring prevents weeds, making your bed maintenance free.

Succeeding with

BLUEBERRIES

Page 5 Growing With Us

For excellent quality blueberry plants (“instant results” sizes, not “sticks-in-a-bag”), visit GoodSeed Farm. You’ll find all the essen-tials for growing blueberries, including Pine Magic, Holly Tone organic fertilizer, Peat moss, bird netting and other home orchard sup-plies. We recommend Espoma “Holly Tone” fertilizer for blueberries. “Holly Tone” is the perfect blueberry food, providing additional acid and trace minerals vital to healthy blos-soms and fruit.

There are hundreds of blueberry varieties available. It’s a smart idea to plant several dif-ferent types; since they ripen at different times you can extend your harvest that way. If you’re using them for landscaping you’ll want a par-ticular shape and size. Here are our favorites, all hardy for this part of Ohio.

Blue Crop: Hardier and more drought resistant than most blueberries. Dense upright bush 6 feet tall x 4 feet wide. Medium to large, light-blue fruit that’s firm, resistant to cracking and has a good flavor. Red fall foliage & stems.

Blue Ray: Vigorous 5 foot bush bears tight clusters of large, firm blue fruit early to mid-season. Very showy burgundy fall foliage, deep red stems in winter.

Bountiful Blue: Prolific fruit set of large, super sweet berries and the bluest foliage on any Blueberry we have ever seen. Full, yet compact, rounded habit 3-4 feet tall & wide.

Chandler: Vigorous, upright, high bush blueberry 6 feet tall and 5 feet wide. Bears the largest fruits of any blue-berry, fruits heavily for up to six weeks.

Chippewa: An upright high bush blueberry with large, light colored sweet berries. Mid-season fruiting. Bright red fall foliage, red stems in winter. 4 feet tall x 3 feet wide.

Jersey: A favorite of home gardeners wanting an easy to grow, heavy producing blueberry. Reliably pro-duces medium sized, very sweet fruit. Northblue: Compact size makes this blueberry an ex-cellent landscape shrub. Very productive. Moderate grower 3 feet tall and wide. North Country: Low, spreading shrub good for con-tainers and landscaping. Small to medium fruit has a sweet wild blueberry flavor. Ripens early. 3’ tall and wide. Patriot: Sweet berries cover this early producer. Dis-tinctive upright habit and colorful fall foliage make this a superior blueberry for landscape use. St. Cloud: Upright growing blueberry with firm, me-dium-sized fruit. Grows 4’ tall 3’ wide. Good pro-ducer. Sunshine Blue: Compact semi-dwarf shrub good for large tubs. Semi-evergreen. Hot pink flowers and abundant large tangy fruit.

Page 6 Growing With Us

INTRODUCING:INTRODUCING:INTRODUCING:INTRODUCING: The HGTV Home Plant Collection at GoodSeed Nursery The HGTV Home Plant Collection at GoodSeed Nursery The HGTV Home Plant Collection at GoodSeed Nursery The HGTV Home Plant Collection at GoodSeed Nursery HGTV designers have combined stunning new varieties into stylish planters that grow HGTV designers have combined stunning new varieties into stylish planters that grow HGTV designers have combined stunning new varieties into stylish planters that grow HGTV designers have combined stunning new varieties into stylish planters that grow well together. Buy readywell together. Buy readywell together. Buy readywell together. Buy ready----made designer planter pots, or get the same combinations in gal-made designer planter pots, or get the same combinations in gal-made designer planter pots, or get the same combinations in gal-made designer planter pots, or get the same combinations in gal-lon containers ready to drop into your own planters. Or, buy the plants individually and lon containers ready to drop into your own planters. Or, buy the plants individually and lon containers ready to drop into your own planters. Or, buy the plants individually and lon containers ready to drop into your own planters. Or, buy the plants individually and combine them yourself. combine them yourself. combine them yourself. combine them yourself. Want to know more about choosing the right plants? How to care for them? Which Want to know more about choosing the right plants? How to care for them? Which Want to know more about choosing the right plants? How to care for them? Which Want to know more about choosing the right plants? How to care for them? Which plants combine well? We take the guesswork out by giving you our expert knowplants combine well? We take the guesswork out by giving you our expert knowplants combine well? We take the guesswork out by giving you our expert knowplants combine well? We take the guesswork out by giving you our expert know----how! how! how! how! GoodSeed Nursery and the HGTV Home Plant Collection GoodSeed Nursery and the HGTV Home Plant Collection GoodSeed Nursery and the HGTV Home Plant Collection GoodSeed Nursery and the HGTV Home Plant Collection ---- perfect together!perfect together!perfect together!perfect together!

“Chic Chic Black Black & White”& White” “Glow Yellow”” “Pink Flirt”Pink Flirt”

“Purple Genius”Purple Genius” “Red Sparkle”Red Sparkle” “Tropical Bliss”Tropical Bliss”

“Orange Bliss”Orange Bliss”

Page 7 Growing With Us

Time to come to GoodSeed Farm while we have plenty of fresh sweet potato plants; five different kinds, in bunches of 25 plants. Sweet potato plants are rooted cut-tings; stems with a few leaves and well-developed roots sold in bunches. Which sweet potatoes should you grow? Here’s a rundown of varieties we offer this season:

Georgia Jets are the sweetest of sweet potatoes. They grow extremely fast, producing #1 size potatoes in only 90 days, and extra-high yields. They produce 2 1/2 times the yield of standard sweet potato plants. Jets have deep orange inside color with moist flesh and a marvelous fla-vor. The outside skin is so red it is almost purple.

Vardaman is a bush variety with the deepest, bright-est inside color of all sweet potatoes. The second sweetest type we sell at GoodSeed Farm, Vardaman has golden yellow outside skin that darkens after digging.

Beauregard has been accepted by farmers every-where. Chances are this is the sweet potato that is avail-able at your local market. The outside color is red-orange and the inside color is orange. The Beauregard is a quick maturing potato and has a good shape.

Porto Rico "Bunch" Also called "Bush" and "Vineless," Porto Rico is a favorite of gardeners with lim-ited space. It has a copper-colored outside skin, light red flesh, and delicious "old-fashioned" flavor, it is an excel-lent baking potato producing "Baby Bakers" in 100 days.

White Yams are one of America's oldest varieties. Known also as Triumph, Southern Queen, Poplar Root, "Choker" and White Bunch, are white as cotton inside and out, and sweet as sugar. White yams are the driest sweet potato.

Oh SoOh SoOh SoOh So

SWEETSWEETSWEETSWEET ‘TATERS‘TATERS‘TATERS‘TATERS

Have you ever wondered where you can get one of those colorful quilt murals for your barn? The barn quilt craze has gone national, but it started right here in southern Ohio. It’s easy to decorate your own building with a colorful quilt square; GoodSeed Nursery has over three dozen different murals in stock or we can have one custom-made for you in your choice of colors. Most barn quilts are based on tradi-tional quilt blocks. We stock the most popular ones like the Ohio Star and Grandma’s Fan. Perhaps you have a fam-ily quilt you’d like to memorialize on your barn. Show us your photo and let us help. Whether you’re looking for a one-square-foot panel or a giant 8x8 or even 10x10 mural, together we can create the perfect barn quilt for your particular home place.

Dress Up YourDress Up Your

BARN!BARN!

9736 Tri-County Highway

Winchester, Ohio 45697

937-587-7021

www.goodseedfarm.com

PRSTD STD US POSTAGE

PAID PERMIT 5400

CINCINNATI OH

May 10May 10May 10May 10----11111111----12121212 Country Garden Mother’s Day Party!Country Garden Mother’s Day Party!Country Garden Mother’s Day Party!Country Garden Mother’s Day Party! FREE Lilac Bush for every mother. Specials, food and fun 9AM-6PM Fri-day, Saturday, and Mother’s Day Sunday

June 26June 26June 26June 26----July 7July 7July 7July 7 Truckload Annual Flower SaleTruckload Annual Flower SaleTruckload Annual Flower SaleTruckload Annual Flower Sale Outrageous savings on a fresh shipment of annual flats, pots and hanging baskets while they last

Aug. 23Aug. 23Aug. 23Aug. 23----Oct. 13Oct. 13Oct. 13Oct. 13 Mum SeasonMum SeasonMum SeasonMum Season Perfect MUMS plus shrubs, trees, fertilizer, mulch and soils!

October 11,12,13October 11,12,13October 11,12,13October 11,12,13 Appalachian Artisan’s FestAppalachian Artisan’s FestAppalachian Artisan’s FestAppalachian Artisan’s Fest Three-day craft festival. We’ll be open with our gorgeous hardy mums, barn quilts and a selection of fall color.

October 18October 18October 18October 18----21212121 End of Season Sale! End of Season Sale! End of Season Sale! End of Season Sale! Friday: everything discounted 30%! Saturday: everything discounted 40%! Sunday: every-thing discounted 50% or more! come early for the best selection. (Bulk Mulches and soils not included).

October 22October 22October 22October 22 CLOSED FOR THE SEASON!CLOSED FOR THE SEASON!CLOSED FOR THE SEASON!CLOSED FOR THE SEASON!

PLAN TO VISIT GOODSEED FARM OFTEN THIS SPRING!PLAN TO VISIT GOODSEED FARM OFTEN THIS SPRING!PLAN TO VISIT GOODSEED FARM OFTEN THIS SPRING!PLAN TO VISIT GOODSEED FARM OFTEN THIS SPRING!

Mark your calendar so you can enjoy our special events, take advan-Mark your calendar so you can enjoy our special events, take advan-Mark your calendar so you can enjoy our special events, take advan-Mark your calendar so you can enjoy our special events, take advan-tage of special savings, bring your family or friends for special times!tage of special savings, bring your family or friends for special times!tage of special savings, bring your family or friends for special times!tage of special savings, bring your family or friends for special times!

CALE

NDAR

CALE

NDAR

CALE

NDAR

CALE

NDAR

CALE

NDAR

CALE

NDAR

CALE

NDAR

CALE

NDAR

Goo

dS

eed

Nu

rser

y

GARD

EN CEN

TER & LANDSC

APING

GARD

EN CEN

TER & LANDSC

APING

GARD

EN CEN

TER & LANDSC

APING

GARD

EN CEN

TER & LANDSC

APING

SAME PARTY, DIFFERENT PLACE!

We’re now at a more convenient location, just off the

Appalachian Highway at Route 62 in Winchester.

We’re at Hilltop Designs on Tri-County Highway

across the street from the Winchester Carpet Outlet.