Oconomowoc Landscape Supply and Garden Center's
Annual Flat Sale
$11.99 per flat!!

Come to OLSGC for some of the most dramatic and colorful plants available for summer planting! We've expanded our list and are offering new annuals that bloom longer.

Bedding plants produced in flats are the easiest and most economical way of filling your garden with all your favorites. Don't miss this great value!

A favorite event of the season. Enjoy the harmony, peace and spa-like ambience of our beautiful greenhouses. Our warm, tropical atmosphere will feature extraordinary wine and appetizers, music, and demonstrations. Visit with local vendors and enjoy a little pampering!

Three lucky ladies will win a 60-second shopping spree valued at $50.00, $75.00, or $100.00. Tickets are $10.00 each or 5 for $40.00. Bring a friend--or make a new one.

Registration is limited. Please RSVP by May 19th.

Father Dom's Duck's Doo is an award winning soil conditioner that can be used in vegetable and flower gardens, tree and shrub plantings, and lawn seeding and sod projects. It is also useful for indoor gardening. It can also be used in potting soils for houseplants, or in soil mixes for starting flower and vegetable seeds.

Duck Doo is completely weed seed free and made entirely of recycled duck poop, cranberries, rice hulls, wood shavings, pickles and vanilla beans. Duck's Doo Compost is surprisingly sweet smelling...and your plants will love it too!

If you have ever wondered how to get some of the same great flavors you find in top restaurants, consider planting the secret weapon that top cooks employ--a chef's garden. Get the most out of your garden by adding not only beauty but an endless bounty of flavor as well!

A good chef's garden incorporates the attributes of every location in the garden to produce a variety of flavorful food. Start with a boring fence line. Instead of flowering vines, consider attaching a few trellises and planting a variety of different table grapes.

To block out the neighbor's windows and create privacy, plant fruit trees. Semi-shaded areas are a great place to plant berries. If you have the room to allow them to roam, consider planting blackberries and raspberries. Are you looking for something a little more formal? Consider blueberries.

Save the sunniest location for your vegetable garden. Remember to plant "fruit" and "root" vegetables for summer. Plant "leaf" and "flower" vegetables in winter. Don't forget to add a little color with tasty nasturtiums--and save some space for a crop of strawberries and artichokes. Are you short on space? No problem. Herbs do wonderfully in containers--and no chef should be without them. You'd perhaps be surprised how many vegetables can also be grown in containers. And don't forget dwarf fruit trees!

The key to creating a great chef's garden is to look at every available location in your garden with the eyes of a chef. The possibilities are endless and the rewards are delicious. Are you getting hungry, now? Then don't delay, start planning your chef's garden today.

The world's desire for safer foods and a better environment continues to build, and in turn has created a growing interest in organic gardening. Quite simply, organic gardening involves a natural approach to soil preparation, fertilizing, pest and disease management, and weed control. In the process your plants will become healthier, your garden will attract more beneficial insects and the food you grow will taste better and be safer to eat.

Soil Preparation
Organic gardening starts with amending your soil; the healthier your soil is, the happier your plants will be. Organic gardening has come a long way from the days of simply bying steer or chicken manure from the farmer, applying it to one's garden and waiting weeks for the smell (and the salts) to dissipate. Rich organic soil amendments and balanced organic plant foods have all but eliminated the need for their use.

Start by adding an all-organic soil amendment. This could be as simple as mixing a 50/50 blend of amendment and native soil for each individual planting hole or rototilling the same blend into a large patch for a flower or vegetable garden. Many organic gardeners like to maintain a compost pile. Composting, done properly, can be an excellent way to enhance the soil and thereby improve plant health. Hessell's Greenhouse has all of the soils and mulch you need for a healthy garden.

Feeding
Organic gardening involves using organic fertilizers instead of chemical fertilizers. The reason is simple. Organic fertilizers are more stable in the soil and become available to the plant more gradually. While they are feeding the plants, they are also improving the overall soil health. The more gradual growth in turn produces stronger plant cells, which helps the plants have a greater resistance to disease and be less tasty to garden insects.

Gardening organically can be a truly rewarding experience. Not only will your plants be healthier, but any food you grow organically will be extra-delicious--and worry-free!

Wile many people have become interested in organic gardening, both from a desire for safer foods and an interest in the environment, some are also afraid that organic gardening makes it much more difficult to deal with pests, disease and weeds. However, the use of organics to feed the soil produces stronger plants that, from the start, are more able to resist pests and disease. And there are plenty of organic alternatives to using harmful poisons in your garden, even if you do have pest or disease problems. Weed control is also easier than you might think!

Pest and Disease Control
While some insects can simply be washed off or picked by hand, many require some kind of insect spray to control them. Aphids, mites, whiteflies and other insects can be controlled with an insecticidal soap, a pyrethrum spray or a spray oil. Caterpillars and tomato hornworms can be controlled with an insect spray containing Bt. Because you won't be using something that poisons everything in sight, you are also less likely to harm beneficial insects that are preying on the pests.

Some plant diseases can be eliminated simply by hand-picking the infected leaves and depositing them in the garbage. For more difficult cases of powdery mildew, rust, blackspot and other diseases we recommend using a sulfur spray or a copper soap.

Weed Control
If you are using an organic approach to gardening, then it goes without saying that you want to resist spraying herbicides to control weeds. The key to weed control in an organic garden is prevention. This can be done by applying an organic pre-emergent weed control twice a year. Then cover your open spaces with a 2-3" layer of mulch. The mulch not only helps control weeds but also helps the soil retain moisture, providing a great environment for the beneficial microbes in your soil and for your organic plant food to multiply.

Gardening organically can be a truly rewarding experience. Not only will your garden be healthier, but the food you grow will be delicious too. And most important of all, you will be actively making a positive contribution to the environment.

In the summertime, when the weather is hot, heat-loving annuals will dazzle your gardens with vibrant colors. They are the sun-bathing beauties of any garden. With so many different flower forms, colors, sizes and foliage shapes, every gardener will have a dozen or two favorite annuals blooming in the garden to brag about.

Versatility is their name; garden pizzazz is your gain. Annuals make themselves at home in your garden beds, intermingled with your trees and shrubs, patio containers, window boxes and/or hanging baskets Some annuals are groundcovers, some are perfect for the "middle and marvelous" group, and of course some will stand "tall and sassy" in the rear of the garden bed.

For a huge colorful impact, plant in swaths or waves. For example, many people planted their gardens in red, white and blue for July 4th. Perhaps they used 6 packs of blue lobelia in the front row, zinnias (red of course) in the next row, and in the back, lots and lots of white cosmos. The same concept applies to other color schemes.

Plant your annuals using a good amendment like Master Nursery Bumper Crop or Father Dom's Compost. Most of these annuals need regular water. Fertilize with a good bud and bloom fertilizer to encourage continuous blooms. Also, to keep your annuals blooming all summer long, deadhead (which means pluck off the spent flowers). This will keep the plant from thinking that it is time to spend all of its energy developing seeds for the next season. Remember that annuals are plants that grow and bloom within one season.

Whatever your garden style or colors, we have annuals for you! Hurry in and pick your favorites. Get them in your gardens for a spectacular summer flower color show!

The world of berries can be confusing. You have blackberries, black raspberries, red raspberries, and yellow raspberries. How do you tell them apart? Berries whose core stays intact are blackberries. Berries that lose the core and resemble a thimble are raspberries. But then...a few berries are a cross between the two!

The similarities don't stop there. All bear fruit on two-year-old wood, except for the ever-bearing raspberries that also fruit on first year growth. These are also called two crop raspberries because they bear a late summer or fall crop on the first year growth and a second crop the following spring on the two-year-old wood.

Different types of wood? What's that all about? Ok, it may help clear up a lot of confusion about blackberry and raspberry culture if one remembers that after flowering and fruiting, any cane that bore fruit dies back to the crown. All the new growth will rise out from primary buds just below the soil line.

Now here's the good news, blackberries, raspberries and any other favorites will thrive in most locations and soil types, but good drainage is desirable with most varieties. Just give them some room to ramble because they do like to spread out. As far as cold-hardiness goes, raspberries tolerate very cold temperatures better than blackberries.

Most berries like being fed at blooming time, with a follow-up feeding in early fall after the plants have finished fruiting. Just use a well-balanced fruit food. They prefer staying moist, and should be watered regularly if rainfall is insufficient.

The new canes that grow out each spring will not bear fruit until the following summer when they are two years old. After harvest, the two-year-old fruiting canes will start to die back and should be removed as close to the ground as possible without injuring the new canes.

In mild climates berries can be trained be trained to stakes or trellises in late summer or early fall, after the fruiting canes have been removed. In colder climates, the canes should be left on the ground over winter--making them less likely to be damaged by cold. The ideal time to "spring train" is after the danger of freezing weather and before the leaf buds begin expanding.

We have berry plants that grow well in our local area. The bottom line is that all berries are easy to grow and they taste great. So don't stress about all your different choices. Just plant some berries and enjoy!

This phrase could be the Summer Vegetable Theme Song. And it is time to plant your summer vegetables!

Most of our favorite summer vegetables are planted in May. What vegetables do we grow in summertime? Try planting beans, corn, cucumber, eggplant, leeks, onions, peppers, squash, tomatoes and zucchini, just to name a few. Beets (red and golden), carrots and radishes are root vegetables, and they are simple to grow. Many root vegetables can be planted now--you'll want to wait a bit later for the heat-lovers like tomatoes, peppers, squash and such.

Perhaps you look at our list of vegetables and think to yourself "Right, I could grow all of that, if I lived on a farm!" Of course you can grow all of them, but the real issue might be a question of space. So pick your favorites and go from there. Root vegetables can grow underneath just about any of the other vegetables listed. That means the onions, beets, carrots, and radishes can be planted very near to the beans, tomatoes, peppers, or eggplant.

Cucumbers, squash and zucchini (also a squash) all grow as a vine and have large leaves. They will need much more growing space and need to spread out. Plant these on a small mound of your amended soil in clusters of three plants. You could even make that 3-5 plants, one of each that you love the most.

If you have not been a vegetable gardener in the past, here are a few tips for you to follow.

1. Pick a sunny location, free of grass (or "free it" from the grass!).
2. Soil preparation. Determine whether or not your soil is predominantly sand or clay. Supplement your native soil with a good amendment , such as Master Nursery Bumper Crop. Roto-till or use a good old-fashioned shovel to mix in the amendment and level out the soil.
3. Use a good vegetable fertilizer, whether you use organic or non-organic. Remember when choosing fertilizers, you are ultimately planning to eat these vegetables.

We also have all the necessary products that you will need to become a great vegetable gardener: Tomato cages, trellises for the tomatoes or beans, bird netting, stakes for the peppers and eggplant. And don't forget our soil amendments, fertilizers, and of course, our excellent advice and encouragement.

We are here for you, the future vegetable grower. Maybe you'll even share your vegetable wealth with us at harvest time!

The most effective management of leaf miners is simply to remove the infected leaves and throw them away. These larvae eat until full and then fall into the soil beneath the foliage to grow up. If you don’t want their life cycle to go that far, throwing out the leaves is best. If you miss a leaf or two, chances are birds or other natural predators will probably eat the pupae in the soil.

We all are thrilled by the Queen of the Garden every spring. Don't you agree? The first rose bloom is always absolutely fabulous. If you haven't come by the garden center and wandered through our rose varieties, we invite you to do so.

Roses perform best in bright sunny areas. Choose a location where access for pruning and maintenance is easy and where the plant is not likely to be exposed too much overhead watering, (such as lawn sprinklers) which could result in continual mildew problems. Although bare root planting was in early spring, you can plant roses now before it gets into our summer hot weather.

Almost everyone loves roses but many people don't grow them because they think roses are difficult to care for. Not so. They do require some care, but new resistant varieties are much easier to care for than the roses our grandparents grew. Here are the basic care tips for growing the Queen of the Garden.

Planting: Once you have chosen a location, plant your rose carefully to ensure a healthy start. Use a quality soil mix to blend 50/50 with your existing soil. Dig a hole 1.5 times as big as the container size you are planting. Use your soil blend in the bottom and handle the root ball carefully, using two hands to place it inside the hole. Next, using your soil blend, fill in around the sides of the root ball. Water the root ball thoroughly and let the soil settle naturally. Remember to water daily, as the rose gets established. You can begin fertilizing in 2-3 weeks.

Once the first blooms fade, what is your next step? Deadhead, water, fertilize and mulch. Pretty darn simple.

Deadhead: This encourages your rose to grow more secondary canes that will give you the next bloom cycle. So, unless you like to grow rose hips, then cut off these blooms. Make your cuts just above (1/4") an outward facing 5-leaflet. How far down the cane? That is your choice. During the bud/bloom time, some cut long stems to take into the house. Others cut back to shape and maintain a certain size to the rose bush throughout the season. Cut off cross canes and any canes coming up from below the graft union (those are suckers from the root stock).

Water: Roses love water. Keep the soil moist but not with standing water.

Fertilize: Roses love to eat--wouldn't you after all the work of these blooms! We like Espoma Rose Tone--so will your roses.
Mulch: Cover the soil with ~2-3 inches of mulch (cocoa mulch, small or shredded bark) surrounding the rose bush. Keep mulch away from the main stem/graft area. Mulch will keep weeds down, moisture in the soil, and increase the health of your soil.

We look forward to strolling with you through the rose section of our garden center and helping you with the best selection of roses for your garden.

Answer:

A fertilizer can be labeled as all-organic when it is completely composed of naturally-occurring ingredients. While people place an organic label on manures--and products such as bone meal, blood meal and "hoof and horn" are considered organic--most blended organic fertilizers do not contain these products. Most organic fertilizers use only plant and fish by-products as a source for their nutrients.

The majority of organic fertilizer blends contain a mixture of alfalfa meal, cottonseed meal, kelp meal, feather meal, fish bone meal, mined potassium sulfate, soft rock phosphate and seaweed extract. Organic plant foods break down faster in meal form than in pelletized form, because pellets have a binding agent that needs to be broken down before the nutrients can become available to the plant roots.

What is the best way to get rid of slugs and snails?

Answer:

First, make sure you have slugs and snails, not earwigs (pincher bugs). The best way to tell is if you see shiny snail trails around the garden.

Sprinkle pet-safe snail bait such as Sluggo or Bonide Slug Magic around the plants you want to protect, or create a barrier between where they hide during the day (under decks, dark places, and leaf matter) and where they feed at night.

You can also place a bowl of beer out to attract them (stale beer works best). This way they'll have quite a party before they fall in and drown. (Probably won't feel anything either.) Just remove the bowl in the morning so the neighbor's pets don't get drunk.