Villager Journal
A collection of thoughts, tips and news from Villager Nursery.
Tree Winterizing
•) Tree Wrapping – In fall, after the leaves have fallen from your more brittle or vulnerable new trees and shrubs, tie them up for the winter. Wrap the tree tightly to itself, with heavy-duty tree tape.
Fire-Resistive Landscaping in Truckee / Tahoe
A deciduous screen can slow or even stop a fire before it reaches structures. Aspen, birch, maple, poplar and willow require some irrigation to remain fire resistant. -Forest managers frequently use the terms “firebreak” and “asbestos-type tree” to describe quaking aspen. If maintained, hedge rows can deflect wind and filter wind-blown embers.
Holidays in the year of the COVID
The demographics and movement patterns and rental markets and buying habits have shifted. We are adapting, trying to navigate providing necessary services in a safe environment. It is fascinating, frustrating, and satisfying all at once; like gardening.
Your Local Garden Center
Our business survival strategy has long been to provide sound advice and do everything possible to insure our clients’ successes. Our customers are locals and they’ll trust us if they succeed and so we have many, many, many clients and customers that we have known and worked with for decades.
Barley, a good nursery cat.
Barley the nursery cat.
Are We Essential?
April in Truckee and Tahoe teases us. While it is a GREAT time to plant wildflowers, hardy vegetables and herbs, over-wintered dormant plants from the nursery, it is too cold to bring in trees and shrubs from warmer climes that have leaves. April's average daytime...
Silvertip Christmas trees are the most elegant of all Christmas trees.
Lights and ornaments are visible
through the trees. The soft blue tips (silver tips) and fragrant forest
incense add stately elegance to your Christmas experience.
Rain on Snow
This wet snow and rain is good for the roots.
Q. How do I maximize growth and vigor of all the plants in my High-Sierra, mountain garden?
Q. How do I maximize growth and vigor of all the plants in my High-Sierra, mountain garden? This was a recent question... wow. there is really no short answer. I might say: "Plant very well, fertilize like crazy, mulch like crazy, water like crazy and prune like...
Mid Season Planting – July/August
In the Mountain Nursery business the season starts when it starts: when the snow melts and we've had a reasonable period of time to recover from the last hard frost or heavy snow (usually early May to mid-May). The busy season goes until the 4th of July when the rush...
Organics and Soil Fertility
This spring I’ve spoken to so many people who fertilized once and thought that was good enough.
11th Annual Kellogg FREE Planting Days | May 31st – June 1st
11th Annual Villager / Kellogg / G&B / MNGC Planting Days are Friday AND Saturday, May 31st - June 1st - 10am-2pm - (There is a large turn-out each year). It is always a busy weekend in the nursery and we REALLY appreciate the incredible efforts of Kellogg's...
Mountain Tree (or Shrub) Planting Guide
Planting, mulching, fertilizing, irrigating and a little pruning. How and why we do what we do.
Mountain Vegetable Gardening in Brief
Mountain Vegetable Gardening SemiBrief 2018 class hand-out
Spring and Early Summer Classes / Events
Villager Spring Classes and Events from April – June 2019
A Few Fruits and Berries for Truckee
Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie. Vanilla Ice cream smothered with warm plum-crabapple sauce. Chokecherry jelly on sourdough toast. Plump raspberries. Fresh, crisp, juicy apples. And thatʼs just some of the sweet stuff. Space in your yard can yield so much more than just visual...
Growing Potatoes
PREPARING THE SEED TO PLANT: Seed potatoes should be stored in a cool, dark place. We do not use chemicals to prevent our potatoes from sprouting. They may have already begun to sprout. This is often considered desirable. Handle them carefully. When examining them,...
Late Winter 2019
We have closed the shop for the past 4 mid-winters (Christmas-March). I've used the time to catch-up on bookkeeping, administration, filing, orders, articles, hand-outs and a few projects (and have a little free time). We probably won't continue our winter...
Mid-Winter 2018-2019
As I closed the gate for our mid-winter season I came back inside to change the message on the answering machine, adjust the holiday lights timers, change the hours on our gate and on the search engines and social media: Bing, Google, Yelp, Facebook and this webpage...
Late December Truckee-Tahoe Christmas Trees
Because we are "off the beaten path" of Truckee (far-west Brickletown & far-east Gateway) we usually BEGIN to sell Christmas trees on the Friday night that Bay-Area schools get-out for the holidays. Reno was completely sold-out last week. Truckee's Boy Scout &...
