2009

SPRI

NG

Spring Newsletter Sneed’s Nursery and Garden Center

Have you heard about the RVA card??  It is an awesome way to shop and receive discounts at your favorite RVA shops and destinations. You

purchase the card for $10 and 2 of those dollars will go toward the charity of your choice.  Flash the card at

participating businesses and receive discounts and rewards.

Sneed’s has signed up…we are offering 10% off

all regularly priced items when you show us your

shiny new card!

IN THIS ISSUE:April Events & Classes 2May Events & Classes 3June Events & Classes 4More Great Info 5

We’ve got a calendar full of garden demonstrations, conversations, and fun! Mark your calendar and learn something new this spring! Remember we do

request an rsvp to jenny@sneedsnursery.com or 320.7798 x306

2014

APRIL Adult Classes Wednesday Workshops

Events for Kids & Totally

Tina Crafts

APRIL

5Introduction to Bee Keeping & Pollinator Gardens: Learn the basics on how to get started with your own hive as well as how to put together a garden of favorite bee plants. Bring your questions and your notebooks! Class begins at 11

9Drop by at 4:00 and learn how to Grow vegetables in small spaces

12Easter Egg Hunt and Spring Fling!

Join us for our annual easter egg hunt at 10:30 a.m. 500 eggs will be hidden throughout the nursery and just to make sure that parents are having fun, too, some eggs will contain coupons or give aways. And of course, there is the GOLDEN EGG! This year we will also be giving prizes for the best easter hats. The Gelati Celesti Truck will be here with their heavenly hand-made ice cream available for purchase…yum!

APRIL

23Drop by at 4:00 and learn how to use organics to grow healthy plants!

26Totally Tina leads children in nature inspired arts and crafts activities beginning at 11 am.

Seed Bombs: Guerilla gardening at its best! Kids will get their hands dirty with clay, compost and seeds to create little balls of life to toss anywhere they want to see flowers!

APRIL

16Landscaping Ins and Outs

Join Tim Krueger, our resident landscape architect, for informative and lively discussions on landscape and hardscape designs. Bring your questions and problems and get an opinion from the pro! We will offer this as a monthly session getting started at 3:30

PotatoPot™ is a patented, pot-in-pot potato growing container that lets

gardeners grow and pick delicious potatoes all season long.

Grow potatoes on the porch, patio, balcony—almost anywhere!Lift and replace innerpot, allows for selectpotato harvesting withuninterrupted growth of the potato plant.

19Go Native! Our resident experts Jacob and Andy will lead a 2 part discussion on native plants and habitats. Jacob will get started at 10:30 with native plant basics. Andy will follow with information on how to make your home a certified wildlife habitat. Virginia offers two certification programs and Andy will offer tips and advice on getting started.

26Pot it Up! We offer a lot of growing options for small space vegetable gardeners. Jenny will demonstrate some of our favorite growing options. You will get to pot up a seed potato with Dr. Earth Organic Soil into a unique pot and take it home! There is a $20 fee for this class. 11 am

Bee-Keeping 101…bzzzzz!

Interested in trying your hand at bee keeping? We had a lot of interest in this last spring and decided to expand our offering of informative classes with our very own Cath Cowan. Join her for a fun and lively discussion on the ins and outs of having

healthy hives. We do request an rsvp to jenny@sneedsnursery.com or 320.7798 x306. Classes begin at

11 am. Get more details on the Monthly Event pages.

MAY Adult Classes Wednesday Workshops

Events for Kids & Totally

Tina Crafts

MAY

3Swarming & Products from Your Bees: Learn about swarming and how to use this phenomenon to your advantage. Cath will also talk about the different products you will get from your bees; honey, propolis, pollen, and more! Class begins at 11

7Drop by at 4 and experience a Terrarium workshop…no fee-you only pay for materials used.

9Tea and Cupcakes with Seraphina, Maymont’s Fairy Godmother! 

Join Seraphina in exploring Sneed’s own fairy trail through the nursery.  Children will scavenge for hidden fairies and fairy objects.  Tea and cupcakes will be served at our own petite Fairy Doll House.  The fairy adventure will begin at 4pm.  Make sure to be dressed in your fairy finest!

MAY

10Mother’s Day Gifts…All day long we will help you make it special! Kids can decorate pots and then pop a pretty plant in it for mom. We can dress gifts up with bows, ribbons, birds and more. Leave it to Sneed’s to make mom feel great!

MAY

31Teresa Peckens of Living Art will lead a class in creating succulent wreaths.  We are so excited for her to be here.  Her creations are so fabulous!  You will go home with an 8” succulent wreath that you have made from scratch…fun!  There is a $30 fee for the class.  11 am

17Totally Tina leads children in nature inspired arts and crafts activities beginning at 11 am.

Feather Art: Kids will use feathers to create nature inspired master pieces.

24The Three C's of Sustainable Gardening: Companion Planting, Composting, and Compost Tea. Join Allie and learn how to maximize space in your garden through companion planting poly-culture, composting and making compost tea. You don't want to miss this demo! 11 am

21

Landscaping Ins and Outs

Join Tim Krueger, our resident landscape architect, for informative and lively discussions on landscape and hardscape designs. Bring your questions and problems and get an opinion from the pro! We will offer this as a monthly session getting started at 3:30

21Drop by at 4 for our seminar “No Deer Allowed”: plants that are ‘rarely damaged’ by deer

Please join us on May 15th, from 5:30-7:30 to raise awareness for AARF and save some furry friends!! AARF is an acronym that stands for Animal Adoption and Rescue Foundation. They are a Richmond, Virginia based, non-profit, all volunteer, non-euthanizing organization founded in May

of 1993. Their goal is to rescue orphaned animals and place them in loving homes. More information on this great event can be found on page 5.

3Also:  May 3rd  See us at the French Food Festival to benefit Little Sisters of the Poor at 1503 Michaels Road, RVA 23229 from 11am to 9pm

17Not Your Gramma’s Trees & Shrubs! Join Deb for a tour of the nursery. Discover new plants and new varieties of old plants to spice up your garden. Attendees will receive a $10 coupon to go toward your next tree/shrub purchase. 11 am

JUNE Adult Classes Wednesday Workshops

Events for Kids & Totally

Tina Crafts

JUNE

7Hives & How to Split Them: Learn about the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of hives used in bee keeping. What happens when you have happy bees? They multiply and have to be split. Cath will talk you through the proper way to divide a hive. Class begins at 11

4Learn how to grow herbs and make your own herbal teas!

21Totally Tina leads children in nature inspired arts and crafts activities beginning at 11 am.

Bug Pooters: What?? Yup, a Bug Pooter! Using a jar and other bits and pieces, Tina will help kids make insect catchers for observation. The pooter is sometimes called a bug-vac.

JUNE

21Perennial Faves! Whether you have sun or shade, wet or dry…there is a perennial for that spot! Claudia will show you her perennial favorites as well as new varieties of old stand-bys to try in your garden. Attendees will receive a complimentary perennial. 11am

JUNE

21Also: June 21st  See us at the Richmond Vegetarian Festival in Bryan Park between noon and 6pm

18Landscaping Ins and Outs

Join Tim Krueger, our resident landscape architect, for informative and lively discussions on landscape and hardscape designs. Bring your questions and problems and get an opinion from the pro! We will offer this as a monthly session getting started at 3:30

18Drop by at 4 and experience a Terrarium workshop…no fee-you only pay for materials used.

The Benefits of Tumbling Composters / Compost Tumblers

Moisture and oxygen are two critical ingredients for composting. Since composting is an aeroebic process, the microorganisms will require oxygen to function properly. In addition, a proper balance of moisture must be maintained. The proper way to maintain an adequate balance of both oxygen and moisture is to tumble the entire compost heap daily. Tumbling a compost pile creates oxygen pathways throughout the heap, while distributing the moisture consistently throughout the heap. Tumbling a compost heap can be an arduous process. For example, in a small, compact composter bin, it may be difficult to thorough mix the material at the bottom of the heap with the material at the top of the heap. The use of a tumbling composter facilitates this entire process. A tumbling composter or compost tumbler usually comes with a built-in mechanism that allows the entire compost heap to turn and mix. For example, many tumbling composters consist of a barrel that revolves around an axle. The entire barrel can be turned much like a bingo tumbler. Some larger compost tumblers even come with gears and a turning crank so that heavy loads can be accomodated. We’re excited for you to come in and see our new Compost Tumblers!!

Bob’s CornerWow! What a winter! It is officially Spring, at least that is what the calendar is telling us, and that means it is time to prepare for flowers galore in this great city by the James. Sneed’s mode of operation in the past has been to sell off most of our inventory in the fall to make way for Christmas trees in the late fall and then to restock fresh in the spring. That restocking has been seriously slowed by the winter like weather that has persisted long into March, However the good news is that the new stock that is arriving daily is not “winter damaged” and will have the best possible opportunity to grow and thrive this Spring.

One of the old wives tales is that a cold winter will seriously reduce the numbers of “bugs” that we gardeners will have to deal with as we replenish our gardens. If that is the case then Richmond gardeners should get some relief from all those pesky varmints that make organic gardening so challenging. That would mean the cold weather this winter has given gardeners a great organic head start in pest control.

I have not seen this kind of winter with the sustained cold temps and the five “snow events” for a long time. The Almanac is predicting that April and May will be warmer and dryer than normal. I suggest we celebrate the warmer part and be mindful of the dry part as we replenish our gardens. Lets enjoy a season that always beats expectations for beauty and celebrate the resultant renewal of “Life and Soul” that comes naturally with Spring and is enhanced through gardening .

Thank you for your business.Bob Sneed

Sneed’s Farmers’s Market Mondays from 3 to 6.   Cabell Lemmond Nalls is excited to share her garden with you this spring and throughout the summer - as she will be selling her produce at Sneed's on

Monday afternoons and evenings from 3pm until 6pm. Cabell is a first generation urban farmer growing local organic food in raised beds, using organic and sustainable practices in her RVA

backyard. Raised in Richmond and a VCU graduate, she has worked and traveled across the country collecting experience in all aspects of the restaurant / food industries including interning on an

organic family farm in Montana. Cabell will offer a variety of spring salad greens, butter and romaine lettuces, various young kales, spinach, onions, radishes, and Sugar Snap Peas for the spring - beets,

carrots, potatoes, and strawberries - rotating to tomatoes, peppers, basil, garlic and cuc's for the hotter part of the summer, then back to cool greens for fall and winter. Please stop by on Monday Evenings to meet her and check out what's ready to take home and eat fresh and locally all week.

The Smart Pot is an aeration container. It has a unique ability to

air-prune and enhance a plant’s root structure. A highly branched, fibrous root structure is the key to growing a better plant – with more flowers and fruits, and more resistance to insects and diseases. Come on in and check

out our awesome collection of different sizes perfect for your new

garden!