Feeling very sick and dizzy I tripped over the couch and fell on the floor.   When I went to the refrigerator all that was palatable was the Pepto Bismol  in the refrigerator.    Every bone in my body said,  ”Don’t open today!”.     I trudged to the closet to pull out my shirt and jeans.   Dang!  I forgot to put them in the dryer last night.   Throwing on my shirt wet from the washer actually felt pretty good because my body felt like it had a fever.   I gulped down Pepto Bismol like kool-aid.  I put on my shoes and went outside.    Hmmm!  Things to do!

• Prep the cash register.   (Oops, forgot to get more dollar bills from the bank!)
• Turn on the sprinklers.  
• Make the coffee and set out the refreshments.
• Tidy up all the empty spots where perennials were sold the day before.
• Rearrange the sitting area.
• Sweep the selling lot aisles and inside the garden center.
• Make a list of people that I need to call.
• Turn on the peaceful music.
• Put up the highway signs.

 Every time I tried to hammer in a stake I hit a rock.   After 12-15 attempts, sick to my stomach, tired, headache and frustrated I sat down in the open field and prayed.  ”God see me through!”  After a bit, I stood up collected my thoughts and bingo the stake went in with ease.   Walking down the ditch to my truck I tripped over a rock and fell.  This time I laid on the thistle and weeds in the ditch and just laughed.  I wanted to cry and and scream, but instead and said,  whatever!.   I rolled back up in a sitting position and accidently put my hand on a ripe thistle.  Retracting my hand back, I could see the 50-60 thistles stuck in my hand.  Bit by bit they came out.  I glanced at my watch 6:52 a.m. and still one more large ten foot sign to put up.    With all my might, I said some self talk.    ”Dave,  get a grip this is just a road block it is not a fact.”  Now stand up and hold your head high.  You have a dream, and you desire to see other people find their dreams unfold.   Now 6:53 a.m., jumped in the truck, hand oozing with pain I grabbed a hold of the key and started up the truck.     Drove up to the garden center lot and  closed my eyes for what seemed like an eternity.   Pulling out the key to unlock the gate I pulled it back and set up the entrance signs.   My dogs came up to me and wagged their tails.   Dumb and Dumber names I have earmarked for them.  I sad down next to one of them and she licked my hand, I smiled.  I looked around and saw once again the beauty that I see every day.   The sun glistened from the wet mist of the sprinklers and the scents of the flowers brought to my attention that though the nite was a huge challenge that a new day is upon me.   6:57a.m.   I stood up and unlocked the garden center doors, took a deep breath and said,  it will happen.   Suddenly without notice the sprinkler fell off the stand and shot straight at me totally soaking me like a wet rag.   It felt good, still feeling sick I laughed and said, “Bring it on”.   I feltl like a  5 year old in a swimming pool.  Suddenly the dogs started to bark and in the distant I could hear my first customer of the day driving down the road.   The car pulled up to the parking lot and a lady came out and said,  ”Good Morning. I waited all week to get here to see this place, I have heard so much about it.”  She walked around for the longest time and kept making comments like  ”It is so calming around here and so beautiful”!     Tears came to my eyes and the words streamed through my mind as if to say, “Yes, it really is paradise”.     

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My kids were small at this time and I always felt it was a waste to use disposable diapers as I knew they would just end up in the landfills.

One day I had an idea!  I took one of my son’s wet diaper and threw it in a bucket of water.  It swelled up about the size of a basketball.  I was amazed at the amount of water it could retain.  Lifting it out of the bucket it was heavy, but no water dripped from it.

I laid the diaper on the picnic table and opened it up, then took it apart.  The plastic peeled off the cotton liner easily.  I threw the plastic away and took the inside liner and noticed that the water was absorbed by  small gel particles.

I then dug a hole about 15 inches deep in the driest part of my land.   I dropped the cotton liner in the hole and added 4 inches of dirt.   I placed a deciduous sapling tree on the 4 inches of dirt and filled the hole to the top.   I watered it a bit but did not water it the rest of the summer.   That summer it was dry and we received very little rain.  The tree did not appear ever to show signs of wilt.  The vegetation around it  looked stressed.  The tree grew almost 2 feet that year.    In the fall, I dug a hole next to the tree and noticed that the tree roots had established themselves around the the diaper cotton liner and branched out from there.  My conclusion was that the diaper liner attracted moisture and that the tree was satisfactorily  supplied moisture when it was needed.

The following spring, the tree was one of the first trees to leaf out and seemed very healthy.   I purchased 4 plastic garbage cans.   Two for holding used wet diapers (not the poopy ones).  One for holding water of which I would later throw the used wet ones in this to absorb as much water as they could and 1 for holding the liner after I pulled off the plastic liners.  I then took a big stick and stirred the liners until they broke up like mashed potaotes.   That spring I purchased more saplings and planted each tree in like manner with digging the hole, putting in a few shovel scoops of diaper mash,  four inches of dirt on top of the mash and finally the tree.  At the end of the summer I counted the trees that survived.  I planted 200.   197 trees survived the hot summer.   I did not water any of them.  My success rate went up to almost 97% from 25-30% without the mash.

The following spring I contacted day care centers and close friends to save their used wet diapers of which they did.  At one point, I believe I had over 1,000 diapers waiting to be harvested and recycled.  By this time, my kids were assisting.   I know my son for one thought his father had lost his marbles.  That spring I planted over 1,000 trees in and around the property with the same success with the 197 trees.  If you were to come out to the garden center I could point out to you which trees were planted in diaper mash.      Since that time, I have seen in garden centers an absorbing  granual that you can dip your trees in that probably has the same effect as the diaper mash.

I wish now that I would have taken pictures of my diaper mash assembly with my kids helping.   I got quite a reputation in town and was often called the  “diaper man”.    People laughed at me all the time, but my experiment worked.    Sometimes when ideas pop in your head, dare to be different and try them out, you might just surprize yourself and others with a new discovery.

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There are all sorts of clippers out there.  I personally like Fiskars.  They are reliable and don’t break after the 5th use.   When gardening you need to be able to snip this and that at a moments notice, clipping off branches, dead heading, not good for clipping your finger nails.

2. Preen weed preventer

Use Preen faithfully in your flower gardens.  I generally apply it every 6 weeks.  If you apply preen to a garden with weeds in it, it will have no effect.   Preen is used to keep weeds from germinating.   I recommend that you groom up a garden and if you can till it up so that only black dirt is exposed.  Apply Preen, it does work after a few applications.  Use it on existing gardens to keep new weeds from germinating.   Though the Preen package says safe for all gardens, vegetables included I tend to question that as it is a powerful chemical.  Should you desire to know other ways to keep your vegetable gardens weed free contact me and we can discuss other options.

When I plant my perennials in pots, I always add Preen,  the perennials grow without the competition of weeds  growing along side.   Jennifer’s Hardware or Bagley Hardware Hank in Bagley is a good place to purchase this.  If you have more questions  call Perennial Paradise at (218) 766-3568.  Perennial Paradise is your Clearwater County MN garden center and I am here to help!

3. Bug spray

There is a ton of bug sprays out there.  I tend to spray bug spray on my clothes  rather than my skin.  The skin is our largest organ in our body.  It is very absorbent,  20 years down the road, I don’t want to hear from the doctor saying,  “You have too much DEET in your system!!

4. Miracle gro

Miracle gro is as the box states.  When you follow directions! It works well, when you don’t the plants die.

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It seems that often people  are drawn to the Phlox perennial plants as they offer an intense beauty that is impossible to go unnoticed.  When the spouse sees this excitement, there seems to be a commonality that is establshed between the two of them.   It is as if they both now relate to the goal of enhancing their yard.  This excitement creates an openness to learn and share with each other.  It isn’t long before both partners are throwing out ideas of this and that.    Something shared is something gained!    Sometimes finding similar interests between two partners is difficult, but gardening seems to offer many opportunities for partners to work together.

Both my parents are very creative.  My mother is a grand chef and can make almost anything from pretzels to grand meals.  She is patient and often times I have come home to learn how to make bread, or sit down and learn from her techniques of making this and that.   She also is does needle work pictures.  These creations sometimes take from 800-1000 hours.  Each of her children have some of these creations in our homes.   I personally could not sit down and put the hours of expertise into such a fabulous creation.    My father as well, an architect/contractor built many many  very beautiful building during his construction era.  Now in his retirement he is head over heels into stain glass works and wow can has he ever creatived some exotic but beautiful glass works.

I have learned from the best.  I look to my parents often for their insight on being creative and take their wisdom and try to apply it in my own life.   What a wealth  of resources to have parents that are so determined and creative.   How lucky I am!

When I was young, I used to garden with my mother as I got older  I worked with one of my fathers employees from Japan. We did not communicate all that well due to the language barrier but I shall never forget the things that man taught me about landscaping.

Now much older, I have such an enthusiastic appreciation for being creative and desire to keep creating till I can’t any more.    All things around us were creations of an inventor or a person that had the diligence to see his vision come true.   I have many visions.  Perennial Paradise is one of them.  I desire to help customers that come to Perennial Paradise develop a creative streak that will allow them to see vsions as well.   I am here to help you achieve that!

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Perennial Paradise now offers for the month of August and September, 2008 an online coupon for customers.   Several of you have been receiving emails from my email address up until we launched the website: perennialparadise.org.    Isn’t the internet a wonderful tool for communicating!  This coupon entitles you to purchase 10 perennials and get 1 free, while supplies last.  Perennials are on sale now for $4.90 cent each.  Buying 10 gives you an additional price break by getting a free perennial.   We appreciate your business always. Perennial Paradise takes special efforts to make the garden center an attractive setting that allows you to walk around and enjoy over 200 + varieties of perennials plants.    Asking questions is encouraged, we both are learning and we both have so much to gain from each other.   If you tire, feel free to go into the garden center and have some coffee and cookies.  We have tables set up inside for your relaxation.  This is a good time for you to sit and interact with other gardeners or just cool in the comfort of the shade.   Soft music plays to give you a sense of a  peaceful surrounding.    We are here to serve you!  We hope people will come to Perennial Paradise and have a calm and enjoyable time.  No need to be in any hurry, just stroll and enjoy the flowers and music.   Perennial Paradise is currently preparing for 2009. Since May of 2008 many new changes have occured.

• We have constructed a large 26′ by 36′ green house that will allow us to grow larger perennials for our May sale!

• We have constructed a planting process area.

• Cleared more land for plans of future expansion in 2009

• Have you noticed the metal structure that looks like a big spider. When this is complete and the vegetation grows all around it. This structure will become a haven for shade plants.

• Recently we acquired enough cedar wood to construct a large gazebo area that will further provide comfort to your visit.

• We now have an overflow area for 2009 plantings that we can draw on to refill the selling lot.

We started all of these perennials in small plug trays in the large green house. Once they root they are planted in 1 gallon pots and are allowed to grow and expand for 2009 sales. The west side is mottled light with overhead pine trees . The mottled light allows the plants to grow but not be too stressed out by the intense heat of the sun. They will sit here till next spring where they will be transported back into the green house to boost their growth for the spring sales.

• Inside the garden center, an insulated room has been built that will house a seeding room starting in February and March to begin early propagation.
• Our inventory will expand in 2009 on request of our customers to better meet your needs.
• Plans are in the making for creating a self serve coffee bar with added refreshments.
• We have begun a seed collection system that will allow us to propagate some of our perennials by our own seed and also offer customers with  hardy seed that they can buy for their gardens.
• Nick Sloan has recently graduated and come on board part time as an Environmental Designer that will allow Perennial Paradise to offer design packages for customers wanting specific landscaping plans.
• We appreciate Val and Barb coming on board to assist in ground operations and planting of new perennials.

As you can see Perennial Paradise has made many new changes that will complement sales for 2009. To get your savings today make sure that your coupon accompanies you when you visit.

Buy 10, get 1 free perennial is only available to online customers

Perennial Paradise during August and September of 2008.

Click here for printable coupon: sales-add1

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