The planting

Jon, James, Justin, and Tommy Shire have been REALLY busy planting nearly 400 or more trees, flowering shrubs, perennials, ornamental grasses, ground covers, herbs and vegetables that had become too root bound in containers, which is almost every plant... Austrian pine, Corkscrew Willows, Ponderosa Pine, Concolor Fir, Blue Spruce, Red Maple, Japanese Maple, Tatarian Maple, Douglas Fir, Dwarf Alberta Spruce, False Indigo, Spirea, Lavender, Sweet Woodruff, Valerian, Hyssop, Hops, Wisteria, Clematis, Succulents, and Boxwood, to name a few. These plants complement the thousands of other plants already in the ground. We've even been experimenting with cold-hardy bamboos, bananas, and palms from NW Palms in South Central Washington. Our long-term goal is to create a huge, lush oasis for humans and wildlife to enjoy. Here in the Palouse hills of Eastern Washington, the only thing to see is rolling hills, abandoned and occupied farmsteads, and dryland fields for as far as the eye can see; so we really are an oasis, but in my mind it's a metaphorical island. Private parks like ours are almost unheard of (and often laughed at by local rednecks) stranding us from other creative and environmental people. After everything that needs to be in the ground is, I will provide an accurate number of plants planted and amount of money that all plants combined would have cost. Both will surely be BIG numbers! Thankfully we were able to keep overhead low, by raising and propagating many plants ourselves and utilizing our exisiting farm equipment.

We will not be operating Oasis Productions Nursery anymore after the collapse of the greenhouse this past winter and the insurance covering everything but snow. We will, however, still have the wholesale nursery license, containers, soils, seeds and propagations for new Friends of The Fresh Idea Farm as a private or members-only nursery/garden. If you are interested in having bareroot plants drop-shipped to your door, we can be of assistance for a price that cannot be beat. Check out Lawyer Nursery on Google for sizes and prices. It is a bit hard to understand, so shoot me your questions if you have any trouble.

Some plants accidentally became specimen plants and have been pruned or trained as bonsai, currently residing on the North Deck. A beautiful, stunted purple Chokecherry, weeping douglas firs (I've never seen this happen before. Maybe we've got the only ones:)), and red osier dogwood. With a few ferns, some bright ornamental grasses, and other flowers, we've made the deck and the areas surrounding look very tropical. I'm going to go take some pics now...