Okay…today is one of my favorite days of the year! It’s garden tour day!!!!

Every year the A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village  (Children’s Museum) holds their annual plant sale and garden tour here in Salem Oregon. It’s usually on my birthday weekend (which may be the reason it’s my favoriteJ), but this year it is a few days early.

We have been contributing plants to this sale since it started many years ago and I just love the whole experience. The plant sale has incredible, unusual plants to buy…always something very artsy I can’t pass up and I will generally see some old friends there too. 

I just have the best memories from this event. I used to load up my delivery van and drop off the plants for the sale late on the evening before the big weekend. I was then allowed to mosey through all of the “killer” plants and purchase my favs before anyone else could. I would so score!

Many times my kids would come with me. The sale is at the Mission Mill Museum, which has a great pond with lots of geese and ducks for the kids to feed. I always loaded my purse with change to make sure there was enough coinage to outlast my plant scouting.

Four years ago my daughter Rachel decided she wanted to go with me on the garden tour.

I used to go with my friends, but gladly ditched them for a memorable day with my daughter. Anytime!!

Rach is one hec of a person to hang out with. She is so much fun and now that she is 12, I really enjoy the time I get to hang out with just her. We have great conversations. She loves to go on this thing with me. She tells me its because she sees my STEPABLES all over the place and just digs it (I think it’s the getting out of school part she really likesJ). She often will stand proudly over the plants and point them out to me–many times jumping on them to show off! You should see the gardeners cringe!!!! AHGH! Then she says “It’s okay! They’re STEPABLES!! And then she jumps again to prove her point. Then she tells everyone that her mom is the STEPABLES lady and points at me. What a character she is. This whole thing usually leads to great chats with the people meandering through the garden at that moment. It is really nice to hear directly from people about my product. I always appreciate the conversations and really like meeting people one on one to talk about plants.

Rach is pretty cool…and quite witty too. A couple of years ago I woke up on garden tour day to green hair! I was so mortified. I colored my hair the day before and went swimming at my boyfriend’s house and whamo! Make mental note to self: Blonde hair color + chlorine = green hair the next day. Rach put a great spin on it telling everyone I was going green for the day to celebrate the tour. We just laughed ourselves silly for the whole day. It was quite the conversation piece let me tell you!

So here’s my message for the day:

If you are every lucky enough to have your kids WANT to do something with you, always take the opportunity!!!  I am extremely fortunate that my kids and I get along so well. I think I have the best of both worlds. My daughter loves to go on these garden tours with me and she is really good at remembering the plant names-but hates to get dirty. My son Mitch the other hand, who is 15, doesn’t want to go on the tour with us at all, but will gladly help plant whatever I bought at the sale. He can’t remember a plant name to save his life, but he has been there every step of the way to plant my entire garden. He loves the marketing aspects of STEPABLES and is very intuitive in business-he just doesn’t know it yet . Ahhhh…there may be hope for someone to carry on my legacy yet! Life is good. J       
Now go get dirty!

Fran

>www.stepables.com

Will STEPABLES® invade my yard?
Some STEPABLES® are fast growers and are “happy” plants. The “happier” they are, the more they creep. Some people need fast growing plants because their budget is small and they need the plants to fill in fast. “Happy” plants are perfect for this scenario. However, these plants also have a higher maintenance factor due to their speed. This requires a weed eater, mower or edger to keep them in check. If you do not keep them contained…”happy” plants can creep where you may not want them to be.

This is Glechoma ‘Variegata’ and it is VERY happy. I need to cut it way back or I will loose my penstemon and my other smaller perennials. What’s great about STEPABLES® though, is that they root at every leaf node, so I can just pull out what I don’t want and give my plants away to my neighbors. I have lots of folks around me that need a “happy” roaming plant.

How long will STEPABLES® bloom?
Most STEPABLE® plants bloom for about 4-6 weeks. My Veronica Georgia Blue started blooming in February and it’s now May and it’s still going!

Will my kids/family destroy my STEPABLES®?
No, not at all. However, you must pick the right plants for high foot traffic. Sedum hispanicum will not take intense traffic, but Blue Star Creeper can take it morning, noon and night. Now it won’t look as fluffy as the one you planted next to your azaleas. Why? The Blue Star Creeper next to an azalea can grow up to 3-4 inches high. However, when walked on all of the time, that same plant may be only 1/8” to ¼” high.
This picture shows Blue Star Creeper after more than 500 people had walked on it—in only two days. It is perfectly fine…took the traffic like a champ! These plants will adhere to the conditions you give them if planted correctly. This area was first prepped with a blend of amendments and ¼” minus gravel for drainage and stability.

How fast will STEPABLES® spread?
This depends on the plant. Some are fast and some are slow. Our spacing for each plant is for a fill in of one year. Slow plants will need to be spaced more closely together, about 4” apart to be filled in completely in one year’s time. Fast plants can be planted much farther, say 12” apart for a one year fill in rate.

Are STEPABLES® toxic to animals?
In all of my years growing these plants, I have never seen an animal keel over in my nursery from eating plants. However…if you have a little muncher, I would be cautious and pass.
I have had people ask about plant toxicity for dog, cats, finches, rabbits, turtles, horses, deer and pot belly pigs, not to mention children. I very much understand people’s quest to find out this important answer. However, I must say that I will not be the one to do the testing. I simply cannot see putting 150 different plants on the ground to see if, or how much an animal-or child for that matter, needs to ingest in order to become ill. I simply cannot do that in good conscience.

Again…if you have a little muncher…pass. It’s just not worth the risk. However, if you really want to try it out, I would give just few plants a go, just to see if there is much interest. There are many resources to find out which plants are toxic to animals; however they don’t list how much of the plant was ingested to make the animal sick.
If any of you have experience with these any of these scenarios, please pass it along to me. I would love to be able to say what plant would be great for a turtle to eat!

Will my STEPABLES® come back every year?
All of our plants are considered perennials, which mean they come back year after year-provided that they have been planted in the correct zone, taken care of correctly, remained healthy and Mother Nature has smiled on your garden and not reeked havoc from too little/too much water, too cold or too hot or anything else extreme.

If I plant STEPABLES®, can I throw out my lawnmower?
Absolutely…or give it away to some poor soul who hasn’t found the path to freedom using STEPABLES®.

Will planting STEPABLES® save the earth?
It certainly will help quite a bit. Planting STEPABLES® instead of grass means you will not be mowing. This means you will be cutting down on those nasty emissions lawn mowers give off.
Also, by planting STEPABLES® you will be conserving water, since many of these plants need little water once established.
By planting STEPABLES® your need for herbicides will be greatly reduced as they spread and crowd out weeds.
No mowing, no herbicides, low maintenance, low water…I think the earth would be very happy to have a lot more STEPABLES® planted! Don’t you?

Now go get dirty!

Fran

>www.stepables.com