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Show 4D FOCUS ?i nr Afrtfl 29, 1981 23-Apr- iT Gives Mountain By Nan Chalat It is a long and arduous journey over Parley's Summit for a newborn tomato plant or a flat of shrinking petunias. Imagine their sur-being transplanted a comfortable nursery in Salt Lake City, where summer has already begun-t- o a chilly backyard in Park City or Peoa where spring is at just getting established. Many never get over the shock. The survival rate is shockingly low and subsequently gardening morale in tire mountains tends to sink' into synidsm. The alternative is to start ' frpm sped at home. The ' should begin in process February and requires cong stant attentiveness. No off down south for a week. It's like having kids or a pet to watch' out for.. The sprouts, if they germinate, then end ' up monopolizing in every southern- window . r trip-pin- -- - .. I . L i : the house until they can be safely transplanted outside. In these parts the rule of thumb is It is never safe to plant until Memorial Day weekend.' By that time, unless you have studied carefully and timed your different seedlings just so. the adolescent shrubs are breaking out of their peat pots and becoming ' d to the windowsill. None of us struggling root-boun- this complicated society needs another disappointment. Failure of. a seed to germinate or the dampening off of an egg carton full of promising sprouts can trigger an onslaught of selfdoubt and Whq needs it? A garden is supposed to provide therapy not frustration. 'There is one other alternative which, when available, is an almost sure guarantee of success turn to a local along in failure-complexe- s. ' professional. Leave, the tricky business of seed nurturing and sprout transplanting to a patient expert. Finding such an individual is not always easy, but good news is almost as hard to conceal from the grapevine as bad news. Again this spring, there were enthusiastic reports of a couple in Woodland who had started a small nursery. This year, we heard, they had expanded their operation and built a second greenhouse. With a growing itch to start planting, we headed out' to Woodland to see what was UP- - Maryann Chapman, .with her remote, telephone in her pocket, was watering a jungle of tomato arid marigold starts in', the first greenhouse. The "air was warm' and humid in contrast to' the cold breeze outside. A large coal stove dominated the center Transplanting sprouts b the most time consuming part of the operation. Maryann transplants into local soil mixed with peat moss and vermiculite. . v isle around which the ground was covered with pallets supporting flats upon flats of healthy green plants marked by species with popside sticks petunias, asters, marigolds, snap dragons, portulaca, African daisies, peppers, and every kind of tomato available. Our spring fever took a giant leap out of its shell. . We started out rather timidly, Maryann ex- plained.' The first year (S summers ago) we started a few; things in bur chicken coop. We just wanted to see whether people would be interested in buying starts from up here. Twice the Chapmans small business. . was wiped out by the chickens. But the couple found out that year that there was indeed a demand for local vegetable and flower starts. Maryann and Phillip went ahead with plans to start a nursery. They built a greenhouse which could be heated with a coal stove and Phillip invented a ..special .remote control alarm which sounds in .the . house when the temperature in the greenhouse dropped to 45 degrees.. The remote unit, Maryann explained was borrowed frpm the kids remote control race cars and is hooked to a standard house thermostat. "At about 11 ! I. Ilatx of annual flower are limed lo bloom all summer. . |
