Liberty Park GreenHouse

We now return to the Dave and Molly show.

All right, welcome back everyone.

We are joined by our friend Jim from Liberty Park, Greenhouse.

We had a wonderful connection with you guys last week and I know you guys are listeners too,

so that's very exciting.

And I love the Go Hawks hat.

I get to wear this all year with pride.

Yes.

Yes you do.

Because our team won the Super Bowl.

Yes, it's been.

Anyway, we had such a great time last year.

We got a tour of the place and all the cool things that you guys do.

I know that you opened up a couple of weeks ago, but now it's like really go time, right?

Liberty Park?

Yeah, we're finishing up bringing in some of the last things and the sewing last things.

We've had several plantings already.

So we've been going all the way along really so for us.

This is just where it really picks up and starts to go.

You wait for Mother Nature to what are the rules of thumb because I know there are people

out there.

Some they say no more snow on Mount Spokane.

What is you, like when do you say to your people, yes, you can come pick up your plants

that we've been taken care of?

Yes, it's time to put them out.

A lot of things, certain things like perennials, things like that, you can plant early, but

a lot of the tender things, unfortunately, everybody wants to plant everything all at once.

And it's like, no, don't.

If you can, don't do that, but I always tell people that come in, even like some of the

sunny weather we've had, they'll come in, they want to buy things.

Don't be fooled.

Oh, I always tell them, I don't care about the day temperatures at all.

It's that night temperature.

I said, go out at four in the morning in your underwear and tell me what it feels like.

And don't let anybody see you.

But usually I like to see things a little bit above 40 for some of it.

In evenings.

In evenings.

Night temperatures.

Yeah.

We're not there yet.

Not quite really, you know, I mean, certain things will handle it, but you can really set

a plant back.

I mean, it may not freeze, but it can be damaged and it just sits there for a month before

it really starts to grow again.

A bunch of tomatoes, too early for tomatoes, right?

Oh, yeah.

I grow some early because people, they have their hothouses, they have whatever, and they

want to pick them up early.

So we grow several soins of tomatoes and stuff, but I look at that typically as a mid-May

type.

And then I'm looking at night temperatures.

So all going there, it starts to May, okay, the time of the year is good.

I start looking at that weather, okay, the forecast is good.

We're above 40s for a while.

Go for it.

Okay.

And you, I mean, obviously you know your stuff and I love, this is what I love these kind

of conversations when you talk to like a real expert.

Let's talk about the history of Liberty Park.

I was amazed.

You could spend about a hundred years, right?

Yes.

And my grandfather opened Liberty Park in 1928.

Family business.

Yeah.

He was a little Italian immigrant, came over here, worked for a while, a lot of the greenhouses

in town were from that same area of Italy, I don't know, yeah.

Oh.

And these, you know, they all came over kind of around the same time.

They did a lot of truck farming then, worked for other people, up by the airport, there's

the hoits stacked there.

My grandfather started working for hoits and that's how he got interested, interested in

greenhouse industry.

And then he bought the house on the corner of the property there and the front plots for

back taxes.

Oh.

And so he started the greenhouse up originally it was tomatoes and things like that that

he could sell.

He started growing flowers.

Then we opened up the floral shop and did the floral shop for, and the year I was going

to say your business model has changed over the years.

So talk about that a little bit because it's, I think this is a brilliant way to do your

business frankly.

But go ahead.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, the floral industry is very labor intensive and it's time and I was going

for, you know, your six, seven days a week, you're around, you finish up with the spring

stuff, you've got weddings all summer, all the holidays are taken up with floral arrangements

and things like that.

And so it just kind of reached to points like, man, I'm not a spring chicken anymore, I'm

getting older.

Right.

And I thought, you know, I enjoy the growing in better than the floral land.

Okay.

And I think it's time we can just close the floral shop, we're open to the public from

April 1st through the end of June, but then we do our maintenance ordering.

It gives you more time to relax a little bit and, and you can pay attention.

It's rough running both business.

I mean, you think a mother's day, well, that was, you know, both ends were running at

full boredom by God, I prayed for rain.

So, yeah, no, it was so now what will people, what would they find there?

If they've never been and never used your services ever, what will they find?

Oh, I think they'll find a nice selection of, try to grow a lot of different things in

there.

Yeah.

Every year we're bringing in a few new things just to try and it's like anything else

in life, you know, one out of 10 new things is good.

I mean, you're always seeing new varieties, so you try those.

We get trial packs in from different growers and test some of those and, and see how they

react and, you know, because some of them are, just, some of them are, most of them are

okay.

Some of them are duds, but then there's those two or three out of that 10 that go, you

know, those are, those are really nice and they can work well for customer.

And when we encourage everybody to kind of like what we did, I've, I've been by there,

I'd been by there a hundred times and then it wasn't until our tour last year, where

we got to see how big of a place that is, I mean, you have the, the main building, which

everybody, that's kind of what I always thought it was.

And then you go out to the back and the, the huge greenhouses and all that land.

And that's the same spot you guys have been for 98 years.

Yes, correct.

Oh my gosh.

Now I did purchase a greenhouse from a rose grower upon 29th and Glenrose and we use that

to grow out of also to help feed down there because we're, we're kind of out of land

back there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, we pretty much covered everything we can.

So I like in your main area too, which is now open and it's a good time for this is that

you have stuff for the garden like decorative decorative stuff.

That's safe.

That can be under 40 degrees.

So you could decorate everything then wait, plant a little later, right?

And a lot of containers and stuff we try to bring in those.

Most of our containers we sell is planted, but we offer service in the fall.

So what we'll do is with customers that have had plant planners from us before, we'll

call them up or whatever, we'll set up a pick up time in the fall or you can call less

and say, Hey, you know, even though we're closed that time here, we go out, we'll pick

it up for free, store it in the greenhouses over winter.

And then in the springtime call up and say, Hey, we can plant it up and then that way

in mid-May or whatever when the weather turns nice, you're getting it.

It's already drawn and looking pretty good.

So I need to do that this year there.

I am pledging.

I'm coming in.

It's not too late, right?

No.

So I can come in by a couple of planters.

We can talk about what this and then when it's time, I pick them up and then in the fall,

I just have you come get them.

Yes.

And then how do I keep them alive?

How do you keep them alive?

And remember who you're dealing with?

Yeah.

Is it watering?

She's the killer of plants.

Yes.

But I think if you guys gave me the right situation, if I just want two big pots out on

my deck, and I'll tell you, okay, you can do it.

I believe in it.

You guys will come back in the fall and go, Oh my God, what is this woman done to our

beautiful plant?

Here's the thing with containers that you want.

Get a little bit bigger container because the more soil you have, the easier it is on

water relations because you can water it good, it'll stay wet a little bit longer.

You get a small container and those plants are growing pretty darn good.

And so if you have too small of a container, it's drying out every day.

Right.

You go away for two days and you come back and it's a crispy critter, it's gone.

And so you also remember too that you want to keep fertilizing.

I mean, there's some things like osmocode or different long lasting products that you

can put in there.

And those are pretty good.

But when you think about it in the summertime, especially the end of July, 1st of August

in the morning, that's where most of my see the downfall to it is because that's your

heat.

The plant's been growing all summer long.

It's got very good size to it.

If you're using either a liquid fertilizer or something that dissolves in liquid, you're

probably going to have to hit that one so weak with that fertilizer.

I'm going to need you to actually come to my house every time.

I'm going to be like, hi, Jim.

Want some more in-depth situation?

No.

It's going to cost me more.

I understand that.

Or I'll just invite you guys over for a glass of wine and be like, Jim and Kelly, you

want to come over for a glass of time for a glass of, bring that stuff with it.

This is coming along every week.

I don't know.

That's a question though, but what is your personal garden look like?

What do you like to have?

What do you grow and what do you grade at?

I do some containers.

Most of my beds are either above ground.

I have only a couple of in-ground beds.

The old ways where people grew a large flower bed or whatever.

Most people don't have that in their yards.

They don't want to take the time to weed it and keep it clean and everything else.

We don't judge them.

No.

No.

I'm, hey, I'll come to my earlier.

Look at all those beads here.

But no, I do a lot of container stuff, a lot of the million bells.

Those are really carefree, pretty easy to grow.

I like to play around with a few different new things and see how they do for me.

It's not just does it grow well for the summer or in the springtime.

It's got to grow well for the customer all year round and stuff.

Like our hanging baskets and stuff, we'll put some long-lasting fertilizer built right

in the soil there so that when she is growing in the summertime and she does it fertilizer.

It's got at least a little bit and most of those are temperature related is how they release

their fertilizer.

The warmer it gets, the more they release.

Do you have to remember certain ones, if you don't get a real long one, certain ones

are only three, four months well.

If it was planted in April, May, the end of the season, you got no fertilizer left.

It's not me.

It's the fertilizer.

I think so.

I'm so good the first few weeks and I'm on it and then I know it.

Well, okay.

So tell everybody the location where it's in Perry.

Okay.

Eighth in Perry.

Just park out in front, walk on in, there's a nice, you can grab a cart.

We've got nice six-foot wide cement pathways.

You can wheel it all the way through and go see pretty much everything.

And what are your hours?

We are open for the public, nine to five thirty, Monday through Saturday and 10 to five

on Sunday now.

If I want to do the thing with the container, can I just come in at any time and anybody

can help me?

I don't make an appointment.

No.

You don't need to do that.

Sometimes as I walk through the plant shops, they start to die.

They're, oh.

It's harder.

It's like, oh.

What you have to look for is, okay, one thing I want you to, okay, pay attention to where

that plant is going to go.

Yes.

Is it sun all day?

Is it shade all day?

And then you're going to have to pick things and you know what your best friend is?

The tag on the plant.

I tried the tag before but then something hurt.

I think it's the planting.

I think that's good.

If you guys can plant them for me, that is key.

I think I screwed up.

I think I break the roots.

I think I do something.

Yeah.

You don't have to chew up on the roots too much.

I don't, when I plant, most of our stuff is younger.

You've got a young root system.

It's usually not root bound or anything.

I would leave those roots alone.

That's the main problem.

Just take it and don't plant it too deep, don't plant it too shallow.

Most stuff is not like a tomato plant where you can plant it six inches and you're fine.

Right.

You want it.

Yeah.

You just want to plant it.

So the soil level in the pot is the same as the soil level in your plant when you're

done.

You can just water it in, set it.

You want to get a good watering the first time and that sets that soil around that root

ball.

Roots come out.

You're in good shape.

I love that you guys.

So that this is your, this is your world.

It's family business local.

That's the, yeah.

That's wonderful.

Let me ask you this though.

So starting just from ground zero, we've referenced the tomato plants a couple of times.

Is that the easiest vegetable to grow?

What's the easiest vegetable and what's the easiest fruit, the easiest flower?

Like, give us like the stripped down version of like, you can't mess this stuff up.

Like, most people do tomatoes.

I'm not a huge vegetable garden grower for a lot of things just because they don't taste

any different than you get them in the store.

Okay.

And it takes up a lot of room and stuff like that.

But now I grow cucumbers for my granddaughters.

Okay.

And I've already started of them.

They're about six inches long.

Okay.

Within two weeks, I'm going to start picking for them.

Okay.

And, but as far as that goes, tomatoes are easy.

And tomatoes are one of those things that people love the fresh flavors.

Yes.

And a lot of times in the stores, a lot of fruits and vegetables, they're picked fairly,

fairly young.

I mean, a tomato, they may pick that when it's just starting to turn red.

Right.

Just barely, you know, and it's off to the, you want it to ripen in the sun, Jim?

You can have it sun ripen to do it that way.

And so that's, that's a good one.

And it's a really easy, plus you can do it in a container, but make sure your container

is good size for a tomato.

And then just do a little pruning on it in the year, don't let it just become this massive

bush sitting there.

Okay.

Yeah.

I let my son, my son can grow some good tomatoes.

I let him handle that.

I have a box.

Yeah.

You know, one of those.

Yeah.

But, but he sometimes will plant too early because we'll have a beautiful day and

then he'll say, oh, I think he should do it.

So no.

Look at the night temperatures, especially like peppers.

Peppers are very easy, but boy, they don't like cold temperatures.

They're probably one of the later things that there is, but like I said, we grow several

different soings.

So the person who's early, I mean, we've tried to warn them and it's like, okay, you're

a little early for this, you know, but like I said, it's amazing how many, I swear to

God, 90% of the people have greenhouse, at least they tell me that.

Yeah.

I love that you talk about the peppers because I have friends that, that they grow their

own peppers.

And I know that that's a different, I mean, that has to be later and it needs a lot

of sun, all that kind of stuff.

But what I've noticed from the people that grow their own peppers, they're way spicier

than the stuff that we get in stores.

Why is that?

Is that a certain species that grows better here?

Yeah.

You can get different varieties, you know, just a jalapeno.

You can get different varieties.

And the heat basis can be a very a lot by just variety and also growing conditions.

How much sun was it grown dry or was it, you know, it can play with that, but it's kind

of fun to see the different varieties because we'll grow a lot of the hybrid varieties that

you don't see, say at the box stores or whatever, just because a lot of your whole setters and

stuff, they're selling on a wholesale basis, they're not going to dink around with the

30 varieties of, you know, of peppers or whatever.

And so this way here, typically like our gallons, they seem to produce better if they're

in twos.

So my peppers, there's two to a pot and they're side by side, don't tear them apart, just

let them grow, stake them up and grow them and, you know, but they seem to do really well

that way.

So in general, is it, if a pepper plant gets more sun and less water, will it be hotter

or is it all depending on the species of the actually?

A lot of it's just the species of it, but you know, if it's a little bit drier, tends

to be a little tougher plant or whatever, but you know, don't over water a pepper and

okay, you know, pretty much everything don't over water it.

Yeah.

So your container, you're going to plant it and it's all weather dependent.

At first, wait till that soil gets dry.

You want those roots to grow down in that pot and search for water a little bit.

I mean, you don't have to wait till it wilts if a light wilt is not going to hurt it,

water it good, set that soil back in there and away you go.

Okay.

So I've heard some people, oh, I got it on my drip system, it's watering every day.

I don't know how they do it.

I mean, that's usually a death sentence and make sure your container has rain holes in

the bottom.

Yes.

Okay.

Otherwise, it's dead.

Yeah, it'll just sit there and.

Yep.

Oh, we've learned so much today.

Well, and you're going to put it to good use this year.

I'm going to put it to good use.

I am, I am pledging, not failing, but pledging.

Now, what you can also do if you're buying that container, some containers, especially

if you're dealing with ceramics are frost free.

Yeah.

They will handle the light frost when they're full of dirt.

There's will not.

And if they're wet out there in the winter time and it freezes, you get a crack pot.

There's ways to avoid that you can get like a plastic liner to set inside that.

And then you don't have to worry about the water, the winter.

Your pot can sit out there all winter long and look nice in your patio.

And you don't have to worry about it cracking.

So much to learn.

Yeah.

Well, they're open now.

Stop by.

There you go.

And for people that are showing up saying the next week or so, any specific sales,

any certain items that like we want to move this stuff.

Yeah.

Usually what we'll do is we'll start every week.

We'll have out and add and we'll put a few different things on sale.

Okay.

Typically this time of the year, it's spring items.

It could be perennials, rose bushes, things like that that can actually handle the colder

temperatures.

We'll put that on sale.

As the season progresses, we'll pick out some other items so you might see a warmer

item.

And this week it's begonias, this week it's marigolds and petunias or whatever, so.

And we'll update.

We're going to be running commercials for you guys, so we'll kind of update that so people

know what the specific sales are for that time.

Sounds good.

Yeah.

Jim, you're wonderful.

Thank you.

We love you guys and keep up the good work.

And I hope that you're with us next year and then the year after and we celebrate 100

years.

Yeah.

That would be fun.

Yes.

All right.

All right.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Liberty Park Greenhouse.

This is the Dave and Molly show.

We're back after a break live from the New America studio.