Happy March everybody,
We are actually feeling the excitement of the longer days. How about you?
Now we just have to wait a little longer for the warmer weather…
This time we will be talking about two of our cost saving strategies for your natural garden oasis.
“Grow Your Own Food and Prosper” and “Go Native and Save Money and Water”
“Grow Your Own Food and Prosper…”
Good old fashioned back yard gardening…With a twist.
At thegreenerside, we believe growing food, herbs, fruit and medicine is the most fun ever.
I find great personal satisfaction in providing the wherewithal for the small scale
(less than 10 000 sq ft) grower to prosper with natural edible organics.
It’s easy to get huge harvests when you create a system that works according to
your site, schedule and budget…
So for 2008, we are proudly offering Do-It-Yourself and Full Service options to
create natural abundance and huge harvests for your:
- Balcony
- Backyard
- Porch
- Front Yard
- Rooftop
- And Shady Areas
“Grow Your Own…” Products and Services from thegreenerside:
- We sell worm compost for all of you DIYers.
- We offer edible garden and plant installations for our full service clients.
- We sell worm composters so you can make your own premium plant food by recycling locally.
- We provide coaching, maintenance, support and Integrated Pest Management strategies.
- NEW for 2008, we are offering mushroom logs to grow tasty, healthy shitakes and oyster mushrooms in all of those shady areas!!!
- NEW for 2008, We will trade you your lawn for an organic edible garden!!!
WHAT’S THIS?
- We will take out your lawn and install an edible garden.
- Depending on size, and maintenance time we’ll split the harvests accordingly.
- In other words, YOU DON’T PAY!!!
- Example: You have a big back yard and you don’t want it anymore but don’t know what to do with it. We’ll take it out and install an edible garden. You don’t want to maintain it, fine. We’ll do it in exchange for the bulk of the harvest.
- thegreenerside will assume transformational design and set up costs in return for the bulk of the harvests. Maintenance costs are split case by case.
- Minimum 3 year commitment, minimum 1000 sq ft.
- Call or email for more details
Pricing 1000 sq ft example Year 1:
$500 Soil Prep Till
OR
$2000 Soil Prep by Hand
$250 Plants and Planting
$100 4 4 foot shitake mushroom logs
$300 6 Monthly Organic Foliar Treatments
$50/hr Maintenance visits and coaching
Benefits of an Organic Edible Garden:
- Great exercise
- Healthy organic food picked fresh
- A great way to celebrate community and share with your family and friends.
- Helps create strong local communities.
My experience in commercial organic vegetable growing made me The Farmer…
and small scale vegetable gardens are my specialty. Keep in mind:
thegreenerside works for Mother Nature. We plant when she tells us.
So bear in mind, calling in June may be too late for some plants…
Call or email for a free estimate today…
“Go Native and Save Money and Water”
One of the best ways to keep your garden healthy is to integrate plants that grow easily and provide natural pest control. The plants that grow best for any site are generally the ones that naturally occur in our southwestern Ontario eco-systems. These plants are native perennials. Similar to companion planting for edibles, native perennial landscaping takes it a step further by introducing hardy plants well suited for years of trouble free growth.
Not only are native perennials easy to grow, they also
Attract beneficial (predator) insects
Very useful as part of a sound integrated pest management strategy…
Examples of Native Perennials:
- Goldenrod (Solidago): Goldenrod is a companion plant, playing host to some beneficial insects, repelling some pests.
- Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa): The common name comes from the butterflies that are attracted to the plant by its color and its copious production of nectar. Butterfly weed is also the larval food plant of the Queen butterfly.
- Yarrow (Achillea millefolium): Drought tolerant plant with long history as a powerful ‘healing herb’ used topically for wounds, cuts and abrasions.
- Angelica (Angelica sylvestris): Heightens the immune system. It has been shown to be effective against various bacteria, fungal and viral infections.
- Echinacea (Echinacea): Echinacea is popularly believed to be an immunostimulator, stimulating the body’s non-specific portion of their immune system and warding off infections.
Pricing:
Examples of native perennial landscape design and set-up
$ 7.00 sq ft and up Design, set-up, check up/servicing on all new installations
(Note: these prices are subject to a written estimate with concept sketch and planting plan, based on your tastes, customized for your space)
Benefits of Native Perennials:
- Less maintenance costs
- Less plant replacement
- Less watering
- Attracts butterflies, birds and beneficial predator insects.
To reduce your long term gardening costs take advantage of the years of experience our sister company Green Gardeners Community Collaborative Inc. provides. We are working together with this ecologically oriented landscaping and garden care company to cater to all of your varied and refined tastes and desires.
We look forward to helping design, set-up and maintain your natural garden oasis. We like to think that every garden site is different, just like all of us. We make each plan and strategy one at time, to work for you…
To ensure priority servicing for 2008 call or email before mid march…
Next issue we’ll talk about thegreenerside approach to composting as well as our spring and fall clean up service.
Until then,
Chris MacLuckie
416.877.2560
