2012-05-28T21:49:53Z http://blog.thetreefrognursery.com/atom.aspx Quick Blogcast tag:blog.thetreefrognursery.com,2011-02-12:d9cee209-6b4e-434d-bff9-7c0c6ca9f610 Paul Riley 2011-02-12T18:03:00Z 2011-02-12T18:03:00Z Just like many of us like to eat new and different foods, we should also try out new and different types of plants for our landscapes. &nbsp;At the nursery, I typically sell a lot of Leyland cypress, Compacta holly, &nbsp;and Crape Myrtles because those are the popular landscape plants most folks use in this area. &nbsp;Most of the reasoning behind those purchases is not because of how those plants look but because that is what the customer has always had or their neighbors or family has so they think it is a safe way to go. &nbsp;<div><br></div><div>There are tons of beautiful shrubs and trees that are native to this region that grow well and easy to care for but when I suggest these a lot of customers shy away thinking they will go against the grain of what they know. &nbsp;They are reluctant and ask how hard they are to care for compared to the tried and true variety. &nbsp;Even when they are the same in care, it is hard to pull the die hard's away from their beloved boxwood - which most people around here call every kind of holly.</div><div><br></div><div>Then there are the true adventurers of landscape design but can be just as possibly problematic in their choices. &nbsp;They go on the internet looking for something cool and different for their yard that the neighbors will be envious of. &nbsp;They often don't look to see if they grow well in this region or are even available in this region of the US. &nbsp;These folks will bring a mile long list from the internet of all these plants they have chosen only to find out they don't grow and/or aren't sold in this area. &nbsp;Then I show them alternatives that will work well in this area similar to what they chose but they don't always measure up to the cool tropical garden plants they found.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>What is the lesson here? &nbsp;When you want to do something new with your landscaping talk to a professional first before you start shopping. &nbsp;They can give great advice on what will work well with your yard that would be different than the typical holly but also will grow well in your yard. &nbsp;Be prepared in possibly getting your soil tested (free from the NC Department of Agriculture). &nbsp;Look at your yard - where are the shady spots and where are the sunny spots in relation to where you want to plant? &nbsp; Look at where an what types of large trees are in your yard. &nbsp;This impacts your soil quality and will dictate what you can plant near them. &nbsp;This very helpful information that will make your nursery shopping and landscape planning experience go very smooth. &nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>&nbsp;</div> tag:blog.thetreefrognursery.com,2010-08-13:dfb30d38-09a6-4bec-866a-3170f2c6b1eb Paul Riley 2010-08-13T15:17:00Z 2010-08-13T15:17:00Z <div><br /> </div> <div><br /> </div> <div><br /> </div> It's been a while since I've done a blog.  I didn't realize it had been so long!  Time flies when you are busy.  It is funny how weather is so important in this business.  This past spring it got warm early in March so the nursery got busy by mid March where-as last year it didn't warm up until mid April so that is when business picked up for Spring.  This summer has been extremely hot starting in May so business dropped off with the heat earlier also.  I figured I'd get a jump on some projects I've needed to do.  One of which is trying to paint the house.  I finally got the old paint stripped with a power washer last spring but decided I would try painting it myself over time.  My wife wants to have it some other color than white but it will be a big enough achievement if I can get a base coat of white primer on until next summer.  Then I will determine whether to put on a different color.  It is a REALLY old house and farm.  Over the past few years I have met several folks who claim to have family that used it live here - usually with the last names of Bobbit, Aiken, or Carver.  On guy actually came from Savannah, Georgia to see the house his great grandfather lived in.  He was a Bobbit descendant and was into genealogy.  As I mentioned in a previous blog - the house is listed in the Durham County Historic Architecture Inventory as the Bobbit-Aiken-Carver house.   I want to keep the house and restore it over time but haven't done as much as I would like because of the nursery taking most of my time and the cost involved.  I decided that if folks drive by may not want to stop in if it doesn't look nice and I've noticed some customers not wanting to go inside when I try to ring them up for purchases.  I think they may think I live there?  Not sure why that is.  Others want to tour it and get all nostalgic over it and want me to fix it up so it doesn't get worse but it will cost a pretty penny - one pretty penny I don't have.  I had the tin roof painted by a group of guys that had paint that covers rust to make it look nicer.  Unfortunately their paint was cut with gas so it was pretty thin and didn't look nearly as nice as I was hoping and there are silver specs of paint all over the bushes around the foundation now.  One customer asked what kind of beautiful bush that was and I said "it's a silver speckle bush".  She believed me until I told her it was paint splattered on a rhododendron bush. <div> <div> <div><br /> </div> <div>The sheep are doing well still.  The last blog about them I mentioned we had 3 ewes and two lambs.  The ram lamb (Doodle) we ended up having to sell to a family that also had a ram lamb that was bottle fed and spoiled as much as Doodle.   We were so happy to find him a good home because he was not doing well with us and the other ewes as he got older.  He wanted to hang out with us humans more than the other sheep and was also getting more aggressive as rams typically do.  The family that took him said that he and the other lamb got a long very well.  They let them roam free like dogs around their farm and they were very tame with each other and people.  Unfortunately after a few months we heard that they both had gotten into some horse feed with copper which is toxic to sheep.  They both died.  We were very saddened by that news.  </div> <div><br /> </div> <div>We kept the female lamb and she is full grown now.  We bread her and the other ewes this year but only two had babies.  One had two ewes and the other had one ram.  So now we have 7 sheep.  We want to sell the two ewes that didn't produce this year and the ram lamb since we don't have a way to separate him from the rest of the ewes.  I'm still working toward building a fence in the field behind our pond but lately they have just been roaming around back there and not running away so I haven't been in too much hurry.  </div> <div><br /> </div> <div>I have adopted two cats for the farm to catch mice since I kept noticing mice droppings in my office drawers.  They were around 6 months old when I got them and they weren't fixed yet so I rushed to get one done but wasn't so quick on the draw with the other so the neighborhood tom got her before I knew it.  She had 4 kittens.  A customer adopted 3 of them and my wife fell in love with one so she took her home.  The mother cat - Cally - got very sick after the kittens were born.  The vet still hasn't figured out what is wrong with her but the closest he can figure is it is her liver.  She lost an amazing amount of weight, went blind, and had neurological issues.  After lots of meds and food supplements, she is stable but still but still very thin and has tunnel vision.  The other cat (Chloe) is a very affectionate cat until it doesn't suit her mood then she will swipe at me to let me know she is done being nice.  She has been a good mouser and has gotten quite fat.</div> <div><br /> </div> <div>I'm planning my next big endeavor right now and hoping it pans out well.  I've had chickens for the past few years but just enough to supply my family with eggs.  I tried selling them to the public at the farmers market and at the nursery when we first started out but there wasn't much interest after we stopped doing the farmers market.  I've decided to expand the chickens to produce pastured broilers and pastured layers vacume sealed and sold at local farmers market, restaurants, and groceries.  I've been reading all kinds of books and online to see how it works and seems like a relatively inexpensive thing to do with a quick turn around.  Of course, reading and doing are always very different things entirely.   If any of my readers have experience with this - please let me know so I can pick your brain too.  I'm also going to experiment with a few pigs to see how easy they are to do and if they work out well then I will expand on that as well.  In order to do these things commercially I will need to create a new business separate from Tree Frog Nursery.  I've been thinking of names to call my farm.  Tree Frog wouldn't fit well with a farm so I want another name for it.  So far I'm thinking of calling it "Woodland Spring Farm" or "Woodland Creek Farm" - something like that since we have a natural spring that feeds our pond.</div> <div><br /> </div> <div>I will try not to let it be so long till the next time I update the blog.  </div> <div> <div><br /> </div> </div> </div> </div> tag:blog.thetreefrognursery.com,2009-05-01:65887f3d-1da9-4462-843a-1b3425deee53 Paul Riley 2009-05-02T02:16:00Z 2009-05-02T02:16:00Z <P dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><BR><BR><BR><BR><IMG style="WIDTH: 330px; HEIGHT: 167px" height=2447 src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/9/0/4/5/1/123642-115409/DSC07702.jpg?a=87" width=3236><BR><BR><BR><BR>I have been a proud owner of 3 ewes since March of this year.&nbsp; It has definately had it's ups and downs.&nbsp; The reason I got them&nbsp;was to breed and sell the lambs each fall.&nbsp;&nbsp; I also have quite a bit of open pasture that I'm not currently using but plan to use in the future so I don't want it to grow wild.&nbsp; For the last two years I've had to hire someone to come bush hog mow it and I have had to saw down new trees that keep growing up.&nbsp; I thought that sheep would be helpful in keeping the pastures from growing wild until I need them - natures best lawn mowers!&nbsp; <BR><BR>When I first decided I wanted to get some sheep I decided I should read as much as possible first to make sure it was the right decision.&nbsp; The best book I found was <A href="http://www.amazon.com/Living-Sheep-Everything-Raise-Flock/dp/1592289061/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1241231023&amp;sr=1-2"><FONT color=#003399>Living with Sheep: Everything You Need to Know to Raise Your Own Flock</FONT></A> <SPAN class=ptBrand>by Geoff Hansen and Chuck Wooster.&nbsp; This book is a very easy read for novice sheep folk like me but as I get deeper into the sheep ownership and re-read it over and over I find new things that I didn't understand the first time to be more clear when&nbsp;I actually experience them.&nbsp;&nbsp; <BR><BR>The first thing I had to do was decide where and how to contain them.&nbsp; I had already had my mind set on this place behind the barn which had weeds, briars, old rusted out car parts (so large I couldn't move them), and grass so matted in that I couldn't get my walk behind weed eater to mow it down.&nbsp; I had choices on fencing such as electric or heavy wire.&nbsp;&nbsp; The&nbsp;heavy wire&nbsp;is more expensive but will hold up a long time.&nbsp; The electric fence is a lot less expensive and the one I chose considering I didn't have a huge pasture at first and I had planned on taking the fence down and moving the sheep up to the bigger pastures later.&nbsp;&nbsp; The pitfal with electric is that if you don't get the electricity to work correctly or you have a power&nbsp;outage&nbsp;- the sheep can get out very easily.&nbsp; I found this out the hard way when the first week I had my sheep 2 strands of the fence were not hot while the others were.&nbsp; I didn't realize it until I found my sheep in the upper pastures one morning when I got to the nursery.&nbsp; I had to call in my family to come help me round them&nbsp;up.&nbsp; Without an Australian sheep dog this is very hard to do.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I had never put in an electric fence before and found it was not as easy as it looked either.&nbsp; I had an irregular shaped section with hills and big clumps of grass and briars to work around.&nbsp; The wire has to be pulled tight as possible.&nbsp; I bought every tool known to man to pull the wire as tight as possible and almost went insane trying to get it just right but now I know how to put in an electric fence.....I'll never do it again!&nbsp; The price cut was not worth the headache.<BR><BR>Once I got the fence situated and the ewes were finally contained properly then I had to determine what kind of hay and grains they liked best.&nbsp; I quickly realized they love sweet feed.&nbsp; I was feeding it to them almost daily with their hay and they had tons of grass of course.&nbsp; They tore through the contained area in a matter of a few weeks and had it entirely cleared out.&nbsp; Suddenly two of them started acting strangely - very lethargic and looked bloated.&nbsp; I was really worried because after giving them so much sweet feed I read that it wasn't good to give them too much and can cause stomach problems.&nbsp; I was getting ready to call the vet when one morning I heard a strange noise coming from inside the barn (they have a covered area in the basement of the barn).&nbsp; I went to investigate and lo and behold there was a newly born lamb on the ground crying.&nbsp; The mother was cleaning it.&nbsp; I was shocked because the guy who sold them to me said that he didn't breed them formally&nbsp;but a ram had gotten loose in the pen with a lot of ewes including mine.&nbsp; He didn't think they were pregnant.&nbsp; Well - he was wrong and I was totally unprepared.&nbsp; According to my sheep book there were all sorts of things that could happen in the first few days and I had no way to contain the mother or lamb to ensure all went well.&nbsp; Luckily all did for those two.&nbsp; The next day was when the real trouble started.&nbsp; Another ewe dropped a lamb but she apparently didn't go to the same mothering school as the first one because she rejected her lamb right away.&nbsp; The lamb was male and she would consistently kick it away if it got near her.&nbsp; She didn't clean it so I had to clean it.&nbsp; I called the guy who sold me the sheep since he was right up the street and very knowlegable.&nbsp; He came over and suggested we try to confine the two of them together so that she would connect with the lamb without destraction.&nbsp; The only place we could do this was that basement area under the barn so he brought his Australian sheep dog and we managed to get her and the lamb in the barn closed off from the rest.&nbsp; We left them there for 2-3 hours with no luck.&nbsp; Finally I decided I was going to have to bottle feed this lamb myself but that meant I had to take it home so it wouldn't get cold at night.&nbsp; Luckily my sister who has a house full of dogs, cats, and other pets wanted to do this.&nbsp; We mixed up colostrum for her to take home and she did fine for a few days until suddenly we found that she and her husband had fallen in love with this little lamb.&nbsp; <BR>They had named it Doodle.&nbsp; Her husband had made his mind up that they were not going to give it back.&nbsp; He was going to buy it from me and he was going to&nbsp;build a pen in the back yard for it.&nbsp; I quickly got very concerned in this logic considering rams get upwards of over 200 lbs in adulthood and without proper room to run would not do well.&nbsp; I also read in my book that rams that are coddled as babies by humans can quickly turn to be very aggressive to those who they were closest to - especially if they are uncastrated.&nbsp; I explained all this to my sister and luckily she saw reason and brought him back and we slowly acklemated him to the flock.<BR>Doodle has definately been the center of attention by my entire family though.&nbsp; He is very cute and so is the female lamb (the one born first) but he will come up to you and play like a dog would.&nbsp;&nbsp; He even practices ramming at my fist now.&nbsp; The other ewes and lamb just look at him like he is crazy and will not come close unless I have sweet feed.<BR><BR>My current challenge is to build a holding <IMG style="WIDTH: 172px; HEIGHT: 174px" height=2395 src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/9/0/4/5/1/123642-115409/DSC07693.jpg?a=51" width=3406><BR>coral for the sheep so that I can give them their enoculations.&nbsp; Spring has been busy at the nursery so I can't find the time to do this but it has to be done soon.&nbsp; The next thing will be to start on the fence in the 1 acre pasture behind our pond.&nbsp; I think it will be June before I can start on it.<BR><BR>If anyone has any great suggestions on keeping sheep, building fences, or raising lambs that are good cost effective ideas - send them my way.&nbsp; I am finding I am spending far more money than I thought and I want this to work out to make money instead of loose money.<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR></P></SPAN> tag:blog.thetreefrognursery.com,2009-03-11:79184675-dad5-4113-8b72-e7d14f7c644e Paul Riley 2009-03-11T19:06:00Z 2009-03-11T19:06:00Z <P>I hope all my loyal followers have had a decent winter this year.&nbsp; In North Carolina, the weather can be very unpredictable in late winter. One day it will be freezing with rain or sleet and the next day be 80 degrees and sunny!&nbsp; I like it here because of the seasons and the fact I grew up here makes me love it more.&nbsp; I have had several situations recently in which the unpredictable weather has caused some unexpected situations and I had to think fast in a pinch.&nbsp; <BR>Early last week it snowed for the 3rd time this winter and my son was thrilled to be out of school for a day.&nbsp; The following day, the school opened two hours late but the temperatures were still well below freezing.&nbsp; The snow had thawed some but then refroze overnight causing some patches here and there of ice.&nbsp; I had to get my son to school by 10 am&nbsp;so promptly at 9:30 we started to pack up and get ready to go.&nbsp; Normally on cold mornings I will go start the car to get it warmed up before we leave so we don't have to freeze for 5 minutes during the trip while the car warms but that morning the change in schedule totally threw me off.<BR>When we left my son tried to open the car door but it was frozen stuck so I walked around an gave it a good jerk which cracked the ice that was holding it shut to break and it opened.&nbsp; When my son got in and tried to shut the door, the door would not latch shut.&nbsp; It kept bouncing back opened.&nbsp; I tried fiddling with the latch but it was stuck very well up into the door.&nbsp; In a rush to leave, I told my son to go to the other side of the back seat and I would figure out a way to shut the other door so it wouldn't fly open on us on the way to school.&nbsp; My son had the same problem with a frozen door on the other side and the latch did the same thing also!&nbsp; So now I have two back doors that will not close hanging half opened and no other car to drive at the time.&nbsp; When you are in a rush to leave, one often doesn't always think logically such as - hey, maybe I should turn on the car and let it heat up?&nbsp; No - it has to be much more complicated than that.&nbsp; My man brain went into high gear and the first thing I though of was...what else....DUCK TAPE!&nbsp; I went to the garage only to remember that my duck tape was at the Nursery.&nbsp; My man brain went to the next best thing....BUNGEE CORDS!&nbsp; I had my son sit in the front seat with me where the door&nbsp;closed fine and proceeded to bungee cord the back doors to the front hand grips above the passenger windows.&nbsp;&nbsp;It worked!&nbsp;&nbsp; The doors held shut all the way to school!<BR>I'm one of those people who will buy a vehicle and run it into the ground before I buy another.&nbsp; The car we were in is a '95 Toyota Corolla with over 200K miles.&nbsp; It didn't occur to me until halfway to school that the front passenger side door inside handle was broken and whoever rides there has to roll down the window to open the door from the outside to get out.&nbsp;&nbsp; The window is manual crank kind so my son was getting more and more embarrassed at the fact that his friends may see him do this and have to crawl out from under a bungee cord on top of it.&nbsp; I told him I would get out and open the door for him so at least he didn't have to do that himself.&nbsp; Wouldn't you know that one of the Gym teachers (very large man) was standing in the car line helping kids out when I drove up.&nbsp; I walked around and opened the door trying not to look at the guy and draw attention to us but he walked up and said "having some door trouble?"&nbsp; I just said "Yeah!" and quickly got back in the car and drove away.<BR>When I got home I pulled off the bungee cords and the doors shut properly.&nbsp; That is when it finally occurred to me that I should have just let the car warm up in the first place.&nbsp; At least I could say that I was doing some quick thinking (maybe not logical) in a pinch!<BR></P> tag:blog.thetreefrognursery.com,2009-01-08:a032d5e2-114a-4e64-860a-63c800fb0d63 Paul Riley 2009-01-08T17:09:00Z 2009-01-08T17:09:00Z <p >After a very busy fall things have calmed down somewhat at Tree Frog Nursery for the winter.  I still have plenty to do but it isn't as rushed with business.  All summer I said I was going to put off some things until winter when it was cooler and I had time to concentrate on them - such as fixing up the house and barn more, clearing out a field to expand into, and various other odds and ends.  As usual - my expectations and reality have not quite met in the middle.  I have been able to get a lean-to built to store equipment and do some work in.  It will really help in the summer when it is blistering hot and in the winter rain days when otherwise I could not be able to do much other than potting plants.  <br /> <br /> Over the summer I kept toying with the idea of getting sheep.  I had read that they were good for keeping pastures trimmed up and not overgrown with trees and grass.  My tractor mower blade does not do well in the bigger fields that I have because of the small trees that grow.  I want to expand in that direction.  I also have some heavily grown up areas behind my barn that I could use if it were cleared out.  I have finally decided it was something I should do this fall and will be buying three sheep to start with in a week or two.  Preparing for them has taken more time than expected.  I had to build an electric and barbed wire fence for them which I had never done.  It required springs and crimping tools and stretching the wire tight.  I had to re-do this several times before getting it right but now I feel more educated in fences.  I started small with the area behind the barn so if I made mistakes they could be corrected easily - now I'm glad I did that.  The sheep will not only be good for keeping the pasture maintained but they will reproduce and I can sell them.  Hopefully this will pan out to be a good idea. <br /> <br /> I had to wrap all my plants up for the winter and with all the wind and rain out here this year it was a real challenge.   First I kept waiting for a calmer day to do it but when that didn't come and frost was looming in the future I had to do it in the wind.  Covers were flying everywhere and trying to pin them down was very problematic but we did it before frost.  <br /> <br /> Last year we were dry as a bone in the fall and winter and dying of drought.  This year my pond is overflowing and the ground is saturated and wet.  I need to cut some drainage ditches but the ground is too wet and my tractor would sink.   I've contacted several state agencies trying to get and idea of how to do this most efficiently but haven't found the answer yet.  <br /> <br /> My chickens have been doing well and we adopted some new ones last summer.  They are beautiful gold color.  I put them in our barn at first to get them accustomed to the place before joining them with the rest of the flock.  Every time I would try to put the two sets of birds together they would fight.  Now the golden ones are larger than the Dominick's and barred rocks so they should be able to hold their own.  They are curious and try to go to the coup with the others but they are still too scared to go in.  I can't catch them for anything to physically put them in there - need a new net for that.  Unfortunately we have had problems with hawks recently and lost two of our new flock.  The hawks are very brave and come around when I am out doing things in the vicinity of the chickens.  I once just turned for a second and one swooped down and was on a chicken in a split second.  They have been quite traumatized by this so I have kept them closed in the barn for a few days to help them - they seem better now and the hawks haven't come back in a few weeks now.</p> tag:blog.thetreefrognursery.com,2008-09-12:a1a9583d-1c8b-4f4f-b013-089fc50bca9a Paul Riley 2008-09-12T18:36:00Z 2008-09-12T18:36:00Z Wow, has time flew this summer!  It seems like we just had memorial day and suddenly here is labor day passing us by.   Even my son's summer vacation seemed to be over in a flash for him also.  I guess the old saying - time flies when you are having fun applied to him.  I'm worried fall will be<br /> I was very busy also doing preparation work for fall and next spring.  A lot of the plants have really grown a lot with all the rain we have gotten and it seems most are busting out of their old pots and ready for bigger pots.  Being a new nursery, I don't have a lot of big equipment for potting plants.  I do it the old fashioned back breaking way - by hand and shovel - one pot at a time.  I can usually get about 100-150 done a day.  I'm hoping to be able to get a potting machine in the coming year so I can do 1000 a day or more.    I also expanded and created a new pad of plants on the other side of the yard.  I will be needing a new irrigation system soon for this reason.  I wonder if anyone has suggestions as to which potting machines and electronic irrigation timer systems work best?<br /> <br /> I just brought in a large shipment of mums yesterday.  A local farmer is bringing in pumpkins tomorrow so we are gearing up for fall.  Maybe we should fix the place up for Halloween!  Hopefully it will not pass by as quickly as summer! tag:blog.thetreefrognursery.com,2008-07-21:a9734a31-2bd6-411a-85a2-c00069e6a907 Paul Riley 2008-07-21T18:50:00Z 2008-07-21T18:50:00Z Hi, I am Wendy - Paul's wife.  I thought I would add to the blog this week considering Paul has been busy.  We have a booth at the Hillsborough farmers market to sell shrubs.  Paul suggested I make jams and preserves for our booth as well so I have been doing it this year but not without learning a few things.  I had canned some vegetables a few years ago with pretty good success so I figured how much different and harder could this be.  It has been an adventure in and of itself.  <br /> <br /> I went out and bought all the equipment such as a canning pot, funnel, and sure gel.  I had a ball canning cook book from my vegetable canning days which has a great section on jams and preserves, however, I decided to go on the internet for a recipe first.  Bad idea.  The recipe was just that and nothing else.  I had forgotten about preparing the jars in advance so I started on down the road of preparing some apple and peach preserves without having jars in boiling hot water and ready.  By the time the jars were boiling hot and ready the preserves were cold.   That batch was ruined so I had to use the fruit for dessert instead of preserves.  I decided I should read up on all the tasks before getting started on anything with the recipe.  I did it again using pears in the right order and it worked out great and a lot faster that time.<br /> <br /> The next great experiment was an orange marmalade.  I chopped all the oranges and orange peel but they were relatively large in size.  The recipe didn't say to chop them down very small but it did say to put everything except the sugar in a pot, bring to a boil, and let sit overnight so that the peels get soft.  It didn't say whether to put it in the refrigerator or not - which was confusing?  Does anyone know if you are supposed to refrigerate it or not?  Anyway - the next day the peels didn't look that soft and I was thinking I didn't recall seeing large peels in marmalade jars so I put the entire concoction into the blender.  I still have orange on my ceiling of my kitchen!  Word of warning - don't fill liquids up to the top of a blender and make sure the lid is secure.<br /> I boiled what was left from the blender with the sugar in a pot for a good while reading the section of my ball recipe book on gelling (yes - I didn't read the task ahead of preparing the recipe).  It wasn't very clear on what temperature gelling occurs and had several tests.  No matter how many of these I tried - it never seemed to be gelling.  I figured after a full 5 minutes of boiling, it had to be done so I ladled the marmalade mixture into the jars, boiled the jars to seal, and then let them sit over night only to find that they were still liquid the next day!  I was very upset.  I dumped all of it out in bitter frustration saying I was never going to attempt it again.  The next week - I was totally focused that I was going to try one more time before throwing in the towel.  This time it worked - I didn't do anything different (other than chopping the peel smaller up front) but for some reason it gelled.  It was the best marmalade I had ever tasted on top of it!<br /> Does anyone know why some recipes use pectin to gel and others don't?  I have no idea and would prefer just to use it with everything  <br /> <br /> Now that I have more confidence in the basic recipes, I have been making more exotic things like Peach Mango jam and Orange pineapple marmalade.  We have the flavor of the week at the farmers market booth each week and folks have given good feedback which is important so that I can improve or make more of what they like.  If you have tried my jams and have feedback or suggestions - feel free to provide them here as well.  <br /> <br /> Also - if anyone has any good recipes for unusual jams - feel free to send them my way.  My current list of tried and tested recipes are the following:<br /> <br /> Strawberry Jam<br /> Peach Jam<br /> Triple Berry Jam<br /> Strawberry Peach Jam<br /> Peach Raspberry Jam<br /> Peach Mango Jam<br /> Blueberry Lime Jam<br /> Apple preserves<br /> Pear preserves<br /> Peach Preserves<br /> Orange marmalade<br /> Orange Pineapple marmalade<br /> Strawberry lemon marmalade<br /> <br /> <br /> tag:blog.thetreefrognursery.com,2008-05-09:3bf7cd54-5c99-4f91-9c42-f4375caf9e2b Paul Riley 2008-05-09T20:35:09Z 2008-05-09T20:35:09Z <img alt="" style="width: 395px; height: 309px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; " height="525" src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/9/0/4/5/1/123642-115409/IM000862_edited.jpg" width="700" /><br /> <br /> <br /> The great thing about working with the public now is I get to interact with a variety of people everyday.  When I worked in corporate world the people were all of the same mind set "get the job done, move up the ladder, and who cares about anyone else".   The TV show "The Office" really hits the nail on the head on how things are - and why it is so funny.  Out here at the nursery I am located close to a small town situated between three growing cities - Durham, Hillsborough, and Roxboro.   We actually have 3 county borders on our property.  When I first set up shop and started building hoop houses and potting plants but had not officially opened for business local folks from Rougemont started stopping in to see who I was and what was the plan for the property.  Most were all very friendly and obviously concerned as to what was moving into their community.  A lot of folks knew the family who last lived in the old farm house and some were even relatives and all have their own stories as to how they knew them.  Some have used this connection as a way to break the ice and ask to fish in the pond.   One person who lives close by had taken pictures of old farm houses around the county and brought me pictures of the house when the family lived in it.  I was very curious to know as much as I could about the house considering I kept debating on tearing it down.  It was in such ill repair and loaded with trash from top to bottom that the thought of renovating was very daunting.  If you jump up and down on the second floor the whole house rocks.  Windows were broken out, trees were growing into the walls, and the foundation was on very loose fitted rock piles.  I was amazed at some items left behind including home canned goods long gone bad and what appeared to be dried pork cracklin layed out to dry on a table.  <br /> It's probably a good thing I did some research and found the house listed on a Durham County Historic Architecture Inventory.  It is the Bobbit-Aiken-Carver house (ca.1850) - see the attached website for reference<br /> <a href="http://www.durhamnc.gov/departments/planning/hi/hi_5.pdf">http://www.durhamnc.gov/departments/planning/hi/hi_5.pdf</a>.  <br /> As I mentioned in a previous blog, people sometimes have a romantic notion of how it is to work in a nursery and don't realize the work it takes to start it up or keep it going.  The same goes for house renovations.  I for one am a long time fan of the TV show "This Old House" and have been and armchair renovator for years while living in a fairly new home.  Now that I actually have something to renovate it is an entirely different story.  I honestly didn't not even remotely know where to start!    If I had decided to tear the house down I think I would have had a possey of folks with pitch forks and torches ready to hang me out to dry with the pork cracklin.  People have wanted tours of the house even though it is not fixed up yet.  Several had suggestions for how to fix it up including how to deal with the lead paint on the outside.  Of course, the environmentalists insist that we must get the proper authorities out here with their coveralls and bag the house while they get all the paint off.  I can't even imagine what that would cost.  Then we have the older residents who say it is nothing to have a little lead paint around and just paint over it or power wash it off.   That probably would not be the best idea either considering we have chickens and we eat the eggs.  <br /> Some ladies have suggested a gift or antique shop in the house.   My wife really wanted to have a gift shop also and thought it would be unique to have frog themed gifts so we managed to clean up one front room and made it our sales area.  She collected frog beach bags, frog visors, frog T-shirts, frog candles, frog iron artwork, bird feeders and all kinds of gifty items and we arranged the front room as best as could be done with the limited budget we had but after a year now no one has been too interested in it.  My wife claims it is due to the lack of the gift shop sign but I think most Rougemont folks just don't see frog candles as essential to their daily gift needs.  A friend of mine suggested converting the house to a coffee shop or a restaurant due to the lack of restaurants in Rougemont...not sure why they think coffee, food, and shrubs go together but I don't think that would go over well either.<br /> I had to fix the bathroom also considering the floor was about to collapse from water damage and we needed a place to go otherwise I would have had to get a port-o-potty...ew.   I gutted it in one day with the intention of quickly getting it completed within the same week.  A month later, my wife was calling around to local contractors trying to find someone who could come in and complete the work considering I was so busy with the nursery there was just no other time to finish the job.  It wasn't too much of a problem not having a bathroom for me of course but my sister, wife, and mom were very insistent that it needed to quickly be resolved.  My mom really brought the message home when she brought a pot with her one day when she came to help put in liners (her emergency toilet).  She gave me a toilet in a box kit for my birthday a few days later. The next week my father and I were out there finishing the job.  <br /> The idea of renovating an old house really is overwhelming but if it weren't for this common factor that all these great folks in the area want to save and preserve then I wouldn't get to meet the folks that I do now (besides the ones coming to buy plants).  They aren't all like like the corporate working world and only looking out for themselves. They have great ideas, care for their community and the history within it - including an old house that will take a tremendous effort but well worth it in my view now. tag:blog.thetreefrognursery.com,2008-04-07:9c241e38-c1a4-49c3-94ea-b22ad7ac9060 Paul Riley 2008-04-07T19:52:00Z 2008-04-07T19:52:00Z My wife has always wanted chickens but we have always lived in neighborhoods where it would not be appropriate.  When opened the Nursery we though it would be a good time to get some chickens.  I also found out that Guineas were good natural pest control birds so I bought 25 guinea chicks and 10 Dominick female chickens.  I built a pin inside our old farm house and put hay, water, food, and a heat lamp to keep them warm.  They did quite well but we did loose a few right off the bat to cold and sickness.  One of the Guineas got trampled and his leg was twisted outwards so that now he walks with a bad limp.  We named him Gimpy.  After they grew big enough to go outside I built a coop with a wire fence but the guineas figured out how to fly very quickly.  The chickens figured out how to dig under very quickly.  It was a struggle keeping them in the coop and I quickly realized they weren't wandering too far so I didn't make it a big priority to run after them.  The Guineas quickly became very much a BIG nuisance though.  They are LOUD!  They will squawk at the slightest thing.  They have almost gotten themselves eaten by hawks on several occasions due to their own loudness.  I would try to get them into the coop before leaving for the evening but they would not want to go so they would fly up onto the roof of a barn and squawk loudly at me.  A hawk would start to circle at the noise and I would try to get them down but they would be oblivious to the danger and keep doing it.<br /> Eventually I had to give them away (except for Gimpy the handicapped one) because they started wandering into the neighbors yard and eating their new grass seed.  I did get 9 more chickens from a friend who had to move and couldn't take his chickens. <br /> There is definitely a pecking order though in the yard between the Dominick's and the Delaware chickens.  They are very separate groups except one white one has decided the Dominick group is the better group.  They have all gotten quite fat from dinner scraps and waddle around the yard.  They like to take dust baths in the barn or relax in the tall grass.<br /> I have a few favorites (or they like me best - I can't quite tell which way it goes).  There is a Delaware I call "4 toes" because she is missing a toe nail and she definitely has a liking for me and follows me like a dog.  There is a Dominick that also will follow me around more.  The Dominick's will squat and allow us to pick them up.  My son loves to bring them food on the weekends and they chase him around the nursery.  He calls them senorita fluffy butts!  Surprisingly I really like them better than most of the other pets we have ever had (especially cats)!  Unfortunately we have lost about 5 to local predators.  I found a pile of gray feathers the other day behind the barn and nothing else.  I've expanded the chicken run so we can contain them at night and when I'm not there and am putting bird wire on top so they can't fly out.  As much as I'd like for them to be free all the time I want to keep them safe too.<br /> <br /> The eggs are really very good.  We have been getting approximately a dozen a day now and started selling them at the local farmers market on weekends.  It is now a tradition to have French toast every Sunday at our house.  <br /> <br /> tag:blog.thetreefrognursery.com,2008-03-26:2105641c-a6d8-4634-a079-d40dbb7e6164 Paul Riley 2008-03-26T19:13:00Z 2008-03-26T19:13:00Z A lot of people who come out to the nursery often think that having my own Nursery must "be the life!"  They have these grand notions of hanging out in the nice weather and clipping bushes.  That is not actually the reality of it and over the past 5 years I have learned this realization because I used to be one of those folks who thought this also.  Most often my week now consists of things like water pipes breaking when it is 15 degrees outside, gutting the old bathroom in our farmhouse and putting in a new one, or making a stock pick up trip 75 miles away.  <br /> 5 years ago I spent my days in corporate world cubicle dreaming of the day I could have my own farm.  My wife, whose grandparents had farms knew the reality of farming was not a grand notion and was very hard work.  She would make me aware of this every time I brought it up.  When I finally decided that corporate world was just not for me any longer, my wife suggested the Nursery business.  This sounded like a good idea because it seemed more realistic for what I was looking for.  I decided to take classes at NC State University and work at the NC State Horticulture lab to get experience.  That was the best move I had ever made.  I went to visit Nursery businesses and they really did look like they were the way to go and I wanted in!  Again - looking at something from the outside does not always show what it is really like.  To be an owner I needed land, stock, equipment, and money.  I didn't have much money because my wife had been having major medical issues but we decided it was now or never and put everything we had into buying what we could and borrowing the rest.  When we bought the property - we had to start it all from scratch.  Clear fields, haul in gravel, build a water pump from the pond, put in sprinkler systems, dig drainage ditches, clean out the old house for an office, clean out the barns for storage, and pot plants.  This was a huge amount of work!  I couldn't afford to hire help so my family has helped me when ever they could.  <br /> Now when I think back to the grand notions of what I thought a Nursery business was 5 years ago I know that it was not what I thought it was but I am so glad I did it anyway.  I would not have it any other way.  I am so tired when I come home at night that I don't make it much past dinner before I'm asleep on the couch but there is nothing like that feeling of - "I did it myself".  This is the life! tag:blog.thetreefrognursery.com,2008-03-18:298ae605-171d-424b-b78c-888131e5fb3a Paul Riley 2008-03-19T00:46:00Z 2008-03-19T00:46:00Z I opened Tree Frog Nursery in Rougemont NC last April. It has been a challenging first year considering the drought among many other things. Business was slow and I was not able to pour funds into it right away until I made money. I have a lot of horticulture and business background but never owned a business before so to open on a year as this was more than I bargained for. I wasn't lucky to have family in the business to teach me what to do or give me land and equipment so everything has been from scratch. We sit on an old 36 acre farm with a pond and an old house (circa 1850). The house was practically about to fall part and the two barns also were also loosing the battle to stay up. I needed to fix things up in the house and barns to use as an office and storage but the amount of fixing was more than I realized. Currently the bathroom in the house has been gutted for over a month when I realized the floor was about to fall in from water damage. This causes a lot of problems when my female staff comes to work. I finally had to give up the ghost on one barn. The previous residents were major pack rats so it had years of stuff inside. I had to haul off all of it then tore it down using my tractor. The old pond had a dam and drain pipe but was so old that it had broken off below a good drainage level so I had to build it up by attaching a new pipe to the old one. Once I had that fixed I realized I had a resident beaver living on the far side of the pond but liked to plug up the drain pipe for fun. I have tried to "terminate" him but he is sly and only comes out when I'm not there so I have yet to get him. The well for the old house is very shallow and would only run 5 minutes of water before drying up and not running for another few hours. I had to build a pump from the pond for this reason. When I ordered the first greenhouse from Jaderloon I thought I'd try to save money by building it myself...big mistake! The instructions were like that on most technology these days....meant for engineers. It took 3 times longer for me to do this and I lost precious growing time....lesson learned....next time get it installed! I'm sure others can relate who had to start a small business from the bottom - everything cost twice as much as you thought and takes three times longer to accomplish than your business plan has.