Down To Earth Garden Club

I've been trying to get a little bit of 'pre-publicity' for our up and coming organic farm. We are opening next season with small ammounts of fruits for u-pick sales to the public. I would like to let you all know a little bit about what we have and what our goals are on this post.

We are working with the Elk County Planning Commission to try to expand faster so we can make all this a reality. Our main crop is blueberries of course, mmmmmmmmmmm! But we are also growing:
Elderberries, Johnkier-Van-Tett Currants, Jostaberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Seedless grapes of 3 varieties, Patten Pears, Bartlett Pears, Honeygold Apples, Yellow Delicious, Red Delicious, and Banana Apples, Two types of Plums, Nanking and Hansen Cherry Bushes, Sugar Sweet Cherries, Montmorency Cherries, Georgia Peaches, Almonds, Butternuts, Chestnuts, Walnuts, Hickory Nuts, Persimons, and we will be adding more to come. We are looking into some arctic kiwi and some Pennsylvania Pawpaw's.

It's very exciting for us, we are using mushroom compost aged 2 years, mulch mixed with peat moss and pine bark on the blueberries and mulch with blood meal on everything else. I am looking into some different types of organic foods that have nitrogen and sulfur combinations.

One of the biggest problems we have right now is that when we acquired some of our land, we also acquired some apple trees that need some serious attention. One is near death and we would like to save it. It has the best apples on earth. Right now it has many suckers coming from the base of the tree, but I am afraid to touch it because it is rotten all down through the center and I feel that it is too far gone for me to save alone.

I would love for anyone to give us a visit and an opinion or two. We are hoping in the future to build out to 7,000 blueberry bushes and work with the WIC program and let farmers come in for free to set up their tables to sell their vegetables on certain weekends. Also we will be selling our berries cheaper to people with cancer and heart issues because of the added health benefits. When things get going really well, we will be hoping to work with local high schools in their school to work programs. And also we are hoping to get a small building up for an all natural organic milk shake stand.

We are all about family and want something that will help our community grow stronger in every way. We hope that this dream is fullfilled within the next five years. Right now we can get our blueberry bushes full sized 5ft tall bearing 8lbs per bush for $40.00 a piece. We are looking for funding through any resource we can find because we still need to acquire 10 more acres of land next to us, a tractor and fencing, oh yeah and of course the bushes! LOL

All in all the total budget for this project is looking to be around $300,000.00 I realize that it is a pretty big chunk of change. But for a future so bright for the community, I feel that it is money well spent.

Any comments or avenues we can go down is greatly appreciated. We can use all the help we can get on this project. I've been searching feverishly. We are dream chasers to the end!!

Mary Pat and Jason Luchini
The Berry Patch
1822 Old Byrnedale Rd
Weedville, PA 15868
814-335-9009

Feel free to call and come see what we have going so far!

Arts, crafts, dance and song and food on West Long Avenue. From 10a.m.-5p.m.

The club will be participating in the renovation of the Central Catholic butterfly bed under the direction of Lisa. Starting time will be approximately 3 p.m. all days. Volunteers are welcome. E-mail for more information or check back for updates.

The annual spring plant sale will be held at BMP (Business Machine Products) at 1263 Maple Ave. DuBois, PA. The group will have its usual outstanding perennials from member's gardens. These are plants that will grow in the area because they do grow in the area.
Watch for further updates.

The group will meet at 9:00a.m. at a place to be determined at the March meeting. Check for updates. Lunch is in the park at 11:00 a.m.

The Down to Earth Garden Club will meet March 27 at 7:00 p.m. in the Smeal Conference room on the Penn State-DuBois Campus. The group will be discussing the spring clean-up. For more information call 371-8672 or 583-5300. E-mail downtoearthgardenclub@hotmail.com or use the group webpage at www.downtoearthgardenclub.org.

I'm no expert on trees and it would depend on where you are. Here in North-Western PA, where we garden, flowering crabs would meet your criteria. Also some of the Japanese maples don't go much over 25 feet although we are marginal zone wise and they do like a little shade themselves. The size of the leaf depends on the variety.  American mountain ash (Sorbus americana) is good and hardy and grows to about 25 feet. You might also look into one of the more popular flowering cherries Kwanzan Flowering Cherry (Prunus serrulata "Kwanzan), .
 If you are looking for a "street tree" the state of PA highly recommends the Bradford Pear or its less brittle cousin, the Cleveland pear.

I need some suggestions on which would be best for shade trees to plant in front of my house. I would like them to grow no more than 25 feet in height, smaller leaves.

Big Lots has dormant fruit trees and ornamental trees for $12. These are all at least 5'. There are apples, pears and peaches. Ornamentals include the Cleveland Pear that is used as a street tree in this area. They also have an ornamental Mongolian Pear which is a smaller street tree grown for its foliage.

The Down to Earth Garden Club will meet Thursday, February 28 at 7:00 P.M. in the Smeal conference room on the PSU/DuBois campus. The 2007 audit will be available. The 2008 budget will be discussed. The public is welcome to bring suggestions for new projects to this meeting.
For more information call 583-5300 or 371-8672. E-mail: downtoearthgardenclub@hotmail.com
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