Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 13, 1992 TAG: 9203130341
SECTION: LAWN & GARDEN PAGE: L&G-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A yard owner can choose from hundreds of them.
Jacqueline Brown, a Virginia Tech extension service technician in Roanoke County and Salem, said there may be thousands.
The best-known ones that offer the standard items number several hundred, she said. But there are many more that offer special lines such as only fruit trees, or shrubs or grasses or tools or some other speciality.
Whatever the number, everything a yard owner is likely to need can be ordered from a catalog. And often at lower prices than nurseries may charge.
There are catalog companies in every region of the country. And many of them offer plants that can be grown only in certain areas.
Some yard owners hesitate to order plants from a catalog for fear they will be weak plants.
But John Arbogast, Virginia Tech extension agent in Roanoke, said yard owners can get some excellent plants by catalog order. However, they are likely to be small plants.
Arbogast cautions buyers not to leave mail-ordered plants in their wrappings for long after receiving them. Unpack and plant right away.
Even if they arrive at the wrong time of year for permanent planting, Arbogast said, the buyer should have a protected place where the plants can be set out temporarily.
Catalogs offer not only standard items, but many also carry specialities not found in garden shops.
One example is Hastings of Atlanta, billing itself as "Seedsman to the South" for 103 years.
Its spring 1992 catalog has a content heading of "Bats, Butterflies and Toads" on page 46.
Real bats, butterflies and toads are not for sale. What is for sale are structures that could become homes for these creatures. The idea is to attract them to a garden where they would become part of a natural pest-control program or, in the case of butterflies, provide interesting color.
A Butterfly Hibernation Box is available from Hastings for $44.95. The catalog explains that some butterflies spend the winter as grown butterflies and need shelter.
A Bat Box, a home for bats, costs $34.95. The Hastings catalog says that if bats can be attracted to a yard just one bat can eat 3,000 insects a night. A bat can eat up to 600 mosquitoes an hour.
A yard with bats at night and purple martin birds during the day has the beginning of a good natural insect-control program, Hastings says.
A purple martin house is available at $99.95 or gourds fashioned into houses at $8.95 each.
A Toad House comes in two models, plain for $19.95 and decorated for $29.95. It gives shelter for these amphibians.
Hastings describes toads as "insect-eating machines." Insects make up 60 percent of a toad's food, and in one growing season, one toad will eat 15,000 insects.
Cutworms, a garden scourge, comprise 16 percent of a toad's diet. Toads also eat armyworms, slugs, gypsy moth caterpillars and beetles.
The Hasting catalog also gets in an environmental statement. It points out that acid rain has reduced the population of toads and urges gardeners everywhere to do what they can to stop acid rain.
Along the same line of natural pest control, Hastings and many other catalog companies offer beneficial insects and organic pest and disease control solutions.
Ladybugs, green lacewings and praying mantis can be ordered, all of which consume insects that eat plants a yard owner wants to grow.
These beneficial insects cost from about $7 up to about $15, depending on where they are bought and in what quantity.
Most of the catalogs offer organic pest controls, such as Safer's Insecticidal Soap and bacillus thuringiensis, which kills leaf-eating caterpillars.
Many also offer various types of scarecrow devices designed to repel birds, rabbits and other small animals that can play havoc with tender sprouts.
One of these items is the Crazy Scarecrow, a vinyl balloon that projects "terror eyes" when blown up. It is mounted on a thin pole that lets the device sway in the breeze.
Among other unusual items offered by Hastings are those for a child's garden, including a complete tool set of spade, fork, rake and hoe for $99.95.
There also is a Kinder-Garden, a plastic mat with dividers to contain soil and 13 packets of seeds, all for $17.95.
Children also can get an ant farm for $14.95.
Hastings offers a plan for edible landscaping by using herbs and vegetables as perennial borders and flower beds.
Among its suggestions are blueberry bushes for hedges and foundation plantings; herbs as borders and edging; plant containers for cherry tomato, radishes and leaf lettuce; fences of grapes; and flower beds for almost any kind of vegetable.
The Vermont Bean Seed Co., of Bomoseen, Vt., bills itself as the company "Serving the Serious Gardener."
The company began in 1974 and sold nothing but beans - more than 30 varieties.
Today it is a full-line company offering all types of vegetables, flowers and herbs.
But it still carries a big line of beans, including some of the more unusual ones such as fava, red peanut, Vermont cranberry and the pink bush bean. Prices on these run around $1 for a 12-ounce packet.
One catalog company, Gurney's Seed and Nursery in Yankton, S.D., not only gives advice but asks gardeners to send in gardening tips. The best will be included in Gurney's catalog, which has some of the characteristics of a gardening magazine.
Gurney's offers a full line of gardening items, including "fun to grow novelties," among them the yard-long bean and the jicama, described as a low-calorie sweet snack that tastes like water chestnuts. These can be had for a little less than $2 for a packet of seeds.
Gurney's also offers a gourd that can be grown to the size of a bushel basket, according to the catalog. It costs $2.50 for 10 seeds.
by CNB