W PERENNIALS 



The year begins when stock plants are dug from the 

 field in November; tip and root cuttings of perennials 

 are taken in December and January. The rooted 

 plants go into the Cold House, The only one of the 

 original three still by the Shambaughs' home up away 

 from the road. The temperature is kept at 28 F. Be- 

 cause of its position (the end faces 

 north) and the nature of the wind pat- 

 terns, snow cover on the sides doesn't 

 melt quickly. The snow surface re- 

 flects most of the light ("Last winter, I 

 didn't water for two months.") and the 

 low temperature holds even on warm 

 spring days. But things are growing — 

 clematis may show no top growth, but 

 its roots are developing during this 

 cold quiet time, in spring, these roots 

 will support an explosion of top 

 growth. 



In March, top growth begins; by 

 April, everything is outside in a hold- 

 ing area. This material is usually in 2 

 1/2- or 3-inch pots. In June it's lined out in the field. 

 This is next year's crop. 



Not all of the cleared land across the street is 

 planted. Land is allowed to rest after each harvest, so 

 maybe two acres of garden are in the five-acre field. 

 Because Wayside's perennials are grown in a two-year 

 cycle, these two acres are divided into smaller sec- 

 tions as well. There's 3/4 acre of shrubs and stock 

 plants, the 3/4 acre that was harvested this year and 

 about the same amount planted for next. This year, 

 for the first time, Ben is planting a half-acre in beds 

 rather than in rows ("a way of using space more effi- 

 ciently"). Soil preparation included scraping off a foot 

 of soil, adding 200 yards of sawdust and a tractor 

 trailer-load of chicken manure, putting back the top- 

 soil, and rototilling thoroughly. 



The plants look good. 



Ben and Lisa recently bought land that includes 

 frontage on Cold River. This allows them to swim on 

 their own land as well as irrigate (a submersible 

 pump, a vinyl pipe to the rotating sprinklers). 



Harvesting the current year's crop begins in April 

 when bare-root divisions are dug and potted. 



Ben has designed a "Lifter." A metal trough with a 

 gouge-shaped front end and prongs in the rear is fas- 

 tened underneath a small tractor. As he drives over 

 the row, the gouge cuts through the soil under the 

 plants, sifts it between the prongs (the soil is fairly 

 gravely, so this is easy to do), leaving bareroot plants 

 ready to be carried to the potting trailer — a flat bed 

 trailer with a three-yard wooden soil bin that is moved 

 to wherever it's needed. 



W ANNUALS 



Annuals are seeded (using a second-hand Niagara 



There will 



NEVER BE 

 A LOT OF EACH, 



BUT THERE 



WILL BE PLENTY 



OF VARIETIES 



TO CHOOSE 



FROM. I 



-J*. 



seeding machine) in 288 trays from the end of Novem- 

 ber through March. These trays go — 50 at a time — into 

 a 5x2x7 germinating chamber. This chamber is in the 

 office, along with the wood stove and a fish tank — mak- 

 ing it "a very cozy place to be." 



After Christmas, the operation moves into the two 

 infation busters. Annuals and vegetables are trans- 

 planted from the beginning of January 

 through May into 8-06s and 10-04 extra- 

 deep shared watering pacs. These have 

 inside divisions only half the height of 

 the pac that allow even watering while 

 growing and easy division when planting. 

 Hanging pots are hung on eight 100- 

 foot runs of pipe laid across the lower 

 truss members of the new house. Later, 

 in spring, the lath area is covered with 

 40% screen shade cloth and more hang- 

 ing plants — in particular, fuchsias — are 

 grown there ("except none of them stay 

 very long"). 



Ben and Lisa make compost from a 

 mix of sawdust, hen manure, cattle ma- 

 nure, and plant residue, then use this as a potting mix 

 for their nursery and perennial plants. This year they 

 also sold this for the first time. A bushel sold for 

 $3.95. You brought your own basket — and over 200 

 people did. "It went well for the first year — we may 

 bag it in the future." Various combinations of peat, 

 sand, vermiculite. sawdust and biomass are used for 

 greenhouse crops. Slow-release fertilizer is incorpo- 

 rated and, for most crops, no other feed is needed. 



Advertising has been by word-of-mouth — people 

 (many of them serious gardeners) travel sixty miles or 

 more because of the unusually wide selection of plant 

 material. "We'd never planned to have customers 

 here," Ben says, "but because of the farmers' market, 

 people began showing up." There are two mailings 

 each year to a 1300-name customer list. A list (using 

 common names) of all material available at Wayside 

 Farms sent in spring (for those who request it, a more 

 detailed list, with latin names and some description of 

 habit, is available) and in mid-summer, a flier listing 

 the offerings in Wayside's annual bareroot daylily sale 

 is mailed out. 



The season ends on August 30. The family takes a 

 vacation, then comes back ready to start the cycle 

 again. 



Ben hires part-time help, but he doesn't want to 

 grow to the point where he sits in the office and the 

 hired help is having all the fun. So he looks for inno- 

 vative techniques that allow both the business to grow 

 and him to do the work (one example; battery-powered 

 computers hooked onto the watering hoses — these are 

 more sophisticated than standard timers, being trig- 

 gered by time, weather, a variety of factors). 



Ben already grows over 1000 varieties of flowering 

 plants. There are "several areas of more intense inter- 



October & November 1 993 

 19 



