3rd Day Nursery Update for the Start of 2018! – Farmers Market Intro

3rd Day Nursery Update for the Start of 2018! – Farmers Market Intro

Aloha! We felt like it was a good time for another update from all the new and exciting happenings that have been going on here at 3rd Day Nursery! Our small but incredible team passionately strive to grow plants that are bug resistant and diverse to Maui’s unique landscape. When we’re not focused on the succulents, we’ve been hard at work getting rid of as many weeds as possible and clearing space to put down more weed mat, so that we can expand our variety of plants!  In addition to all of that, we’ve also been working on maintaining our abundance of banana trees…and working on eating some too!

We are overjoyed to announce that Kenny Ward, musician and plant sale specialist, will now be our new face of 3rd Day at the market every other Saturday! If you’ve been to our plant sales, it’s likely that he answered your questions and helped you select what plant(s) to take home. We are very excited to have him represent our nursery. We want to give him a warm welcome in return of all of the amazing customer service & help he has provided at 3rd Day. If you personally introduce yourself to him at the market with a hand shake and an exchange of names, you’ll receive a free $10 gift certificate that is redeemable at the nursery in upcountry Kula during our weekend plant sales. Mahalo!

We kicked off the year with a great start by hosting our public Succulent Arrangement Workshop here at the Nursery! We were overjoyed with the amount of people who came to share the good times, and plan to do many more events throughout the upcoming year. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay in the loop and get updates on when events like these happen! Find us @3rdDayNursery on Instagram and Facebook. Also, the story of our farm is captured in a short commercial that can be found at the link below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slddq1v3Byo

At the nursery, we strive to make enjoyable, long-lasting relationships with our customers. Our goal is to make your visit with us an amazing experience. We are not just a place to buy plants; we are an outlet to reconnect with nature and indulge in the love of succulents. Our staff is always more than happy to answer your questions and help you figure out which plants will work best for your specific needs. We are growing everyday and adding new varieties to sale stock every month. Our goal is to one day be one of the largest wholesale nursery on Maui, expanding the use of succulents in order to preserve our precious water.

Please keep in mind we started selling 3rd Day t-shirts!  We have these super stylish tees available at our plant sales, so you can represent the farm on the island or all other corners of the world! Post a picture of yourself in your 3rd Day shirt & tag us on Instagram to be entered to win a $50 gift certificate which we will announce a winner for every 3 months!

Sales to the public are every:

Saturday & Sunday

9:00am – 4:00pm 

If it wasn’t for our loyal and smiling customers we wouldn’t be as successful and fulfilled as we feel today. We are humbled and deeply grateful for your continued support and business. We love to interact and make customers become a part of a community of passionate, likeminded individuals that share a love for plants like we do. If you can’t make it up to Kula, we hope to see you at the Upcountry Farmers Market every other Saturday in Pukalani. Sincere Mahalos for all of your endless support from all of us here at 3rd Day Nursery!

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DIY: Spooky Skull Succulent Planter

Halloween is getting closer by the day, and we love to get festive here at 3rd Day Nursery.  Kenny has made this creepy cool succulent planter that is perfect for getting into the spooky seasonal spirit!  Check out his instructions below!

Post taken with permission from Kenny’s Trees and Twine craft blog.  See original posting here: https://treesandtwine.wordpress.com/2016/11/20/succulent-skull/

With just a few basic tools and some left over Halloween decorations, this artful succulent arrangement is surprisingly simple to create.  Clicking the blue text below will link you to Amazon for the more difficult to find supplies.  Here’s what you’ll need:

• Hollow plastic skull (6 inches or larger)
• Pencil
• Drill and 1/4 inch drill bit
• Handheld blowtorch (a hairdryer on high will also work)
• Razorblade/box cutter
• 4″ x 4″ piece of window screen (optional)
• Handful of small stones
• Cactus and Succulent Soil Mix
• Succulents, of course!

Step 1:

Once you’ve gathered all of your supplies, you’re ready to get started.  Our first step is the most difficult part of this craft, but possibly the most fun part, too!  You’re going to need your blowtorch and box cutter for this.  If you don’t have a blowtorch just lying around, fear not!  A hairdryer on the highest setting will suffice–it’ll just take a little longer.  Using a pencil, sketch a circle around the dome of the skull.  It’s about to get fiery.

Step 2:

Take your blowtorch or hairdryer and thoroughly heat the line that you traced.  Take your box cutter, and cut along that line.  The plastic should have been softened by the heat.  Act quickly though; you want to get this step done before the plastic has cooled off.  This will be super easy if you used a blowtorch, but if you’re using a hairdryer, you may need to do this in small sections.

Step 3 (optional):

This step is totally optional, depending on the look you’re going for.  If you want a succulent in the eye socket, read on.  If not, proceed the step four.  Use your blowtorch or hairdryer to heat behind one of the eye sockets of the skull.  Once thoroughly heated, cut out the plastic so that you now have a hollow eye socket.  Don’t worry if this is jagged looking; the soil and succulent that you plan will cover that up.

Step 4:

Drainage is super important for all plants, but succulents entirely rely on it. These little guys hate soggy roots, so make sure you complete this step. Flip over your newly dome-less skull, and grab your drill. Using a 1/4 inch drill bit, create a series of drainage holes so that water doesn’t get trapped at the bottom of your planter. This will allow for proper drainage and help to avoid mold and mildew issues.

Step 5:

It’s time to prep for planting. We’re going to start out by placing our 4″ x 4″ piece of screen in the bottom of the skull. This will prevent stones from falling through or clogging up the drainage holes. Next, put a layer of stones in the bottom of the skull. Once these are down, fill your planter about 3/4 of the way with soil.

Step 6:

Pick out your succulents! I’ve gotten mine from a friend in Maui who owns his own succulent farm(shoutout to Derek!). Check your local nurseries and markets for succulents and airplants. If you can’t find any locally, you can always order them on Etsy or eBay. Once you’ve picked your selection, get to arranging!

Tips for care: 

• Don’t overwater your succulents! Make sure the soil is completely dried out before you water your succulents.
• Consider the environment: succs will grow to the space they’re given, so if you crowd them, don’t expect them to take off in size. If you have just a few spread out in a large pot, they will grow big and strong! Neither option is right or wrong–it’s simply a matter of preference.
• Succulents like sunlight. Don’t keep these guys in a room with the shades drawn, or in the basement. The more light they receive, the more vibrant their colors will become. With less light, you will have less-vibrant colors and long, leggy plants.

It’s Been A While…

It’s been a while since we’ve written one of these…going on two years, it looks like!  We can hardly believe how quickly the time has gone by!    Well, needless to say, a lot has changed over the past two years at 3rd Day Nursery.  We’ve seen a lot of faces coming and going, gotten plenty more organized, and of course, have continued growing our gorgeous selection of succulents!  One thing has never changed, though, and that’s the amazing amount of teamwork, pono, and aloha spirit that has gone into making 3rd Day Nursery as great as it is.

Fun time at the Ho’olaule’a & Flower Fest 

Since our last post, we’ve built two new hales (The Trap House and the Doghouse), have started going to some really great events (more on that in a bit), and have met so many wonderful people who love succulents just as much as we do!  Our loyal customers are the people we really have to thank here.  If it wasn’t for our fantastic customers coming to check out some of this upcountry beauty, we would never have been able to grow the way we have!

Derek showing around visitors on a field trip

We’ve hosted some really great events at the nursery over the past year.  One of our favorites was our Mother’s Day Potting Party, and soon we’ll be hosting some more fun potting parties in October!  We’re ringing in the harvest season with some gorgeous succulent arrangements in festive planters.  Another great event at the nursery was a field trip from a local elementary school.  Derek showed the kids around the property, gave them an education on plants, the many varieties we have, and how to properly care for them.  We’re thankful to be a part of such a great local community, and are excited that we’re able to give some of the keiki a hands-on experience working with plants so that they can get engaged with the natural world around them!

Events at the Nursery aren’t the only way we’ve been getting out there, though.  3rd Day has also been a participant at a variety of local events on Maui, including plenty of great

Local keiki getting creative with their succulent planters 

farmer’s markets and fairs.  We’ve attended the Haiku Flower Festival for the past two years, and have absolutely loved our time there.  Another great event that we attended was the Ho’olaule’e & Flower Fest.  Next week, we’ll be at Maui Prep for their Craft Fair.  We love taking our plants and arrangements out to local events because we get to meet so many happy people who are so excited about plants and local businesses!

Our buddy Sean Cox (Sean Cox Video Productions) got us set up with an excellent commercial for the nursery, too!  Check that out below!

Aside from events, we have still be hosting our weekly weekend plant sales.  Every Saturday and Sunday we have been open to the public, and we love having people come by and check out our plants and property.  It’s great showing people our property and getting to talk about plants with people who love them as much as we do!  Now back to point of this post…let’s get started with that “weekly” wrap up!

This week has seen a lot of growth at the nursery.  We’ve got a great team at the moment, and everyone is bringing their unique talents into play in the best ways possible!  Ash is a real hard worker who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.  Thanks to him, so many of our overgrown walkways and banana trees have been cleared out and beautified.  Amanda has been keeping both the top and bottom hydrated and fertilized by trekking around with the hose every week!

Thanks to Kameron, Scotty, JP, and Cuin, our most recently built hale, the Doghouse, is almost entirely complete!  Big shout out to these guys for always working so hard.  We’ve also got Suni and Bonnie killing it around here, making sure to always be working hard on the clock and bringing smiles and laughter to the nursery!

Josh and Kenny have been running plant sales on the weekends, getting the Nursery organized and scheduled, and making sure the word gets out about the nursery, and Vince has been crushing it each week at the Upcountry Farmer’s Market.   We’re also welcoming in two new workers today; Molly and Jensyn have just arrived and we’re happy to have them join the team! On the whole, there has been a ton going on around the nursery and we’re happy to be as busy as we are!  Until next week…

 

Aloha always from the 3rd Day Crew!

Reusing broken items for planting

Think about all the things we throw away day to day. Broken items off to the landfill… But WAIT! often times things that cant be recycled can be reused. Saving you money, and a dump run.

We wanted to share some ways that we’ve repurposed broken items around the nursery

To some a rusty, old wheel barrel. To us a beautiful, spacious, raised garden bed!

Step 1
If the tire is flattened, make placing the wheel barrel  where you’ll want it your first step. This will make life a little easier- it may be difficult to move with all your fixings inside.

Step 2
If there are rust wholes in your wheel barrel, great! These will make for great drainage wholes. If the wholes are big enough for your soil to fall threw, you’ll need to find a way to screen these wholes, so primarily only water is being drained. There is many ways to do this. Find or purchase a fine screen, cut to size, and place over the wholes from the inside of your wheel barrel. Again we want to emphasize reusing! Look around your house for anything that could mimic the screen: cheese cloth, a fine strainer, loosely knit material. Get creative!

If there are no wholes in your wheel barrel great again! That means the holes you create for drainage can be the made to the appropriate size, and therefore for will not have to be screened. Find a nail with a small diameter and a hammer. Flip your wheel barrel bottom side up and hammer in the nail from outside to inside. This way the jagged ends created will be hidden under the soil. It will also help the reduce the failing of the soil threw the holes. Start from the middle, and evenly space about 10 wholes throughout the bottom. Make sure to make whole close to the outermost points of the bottom of the barrel for proper drainage. And BAM! (Literally) your wheel barrel planter now has proper drainage.

Step 3
Time to add soil! Different varieties of plants need different types of soils to thrive. Read up on what type of soil is proper for your plant. For our wheel barrel planter we created a succulent arrangement. We used nutrient dense, porous soil, because that’s what succulents love and we love or succulents!

Step 4
Once your barrel is filled with the proper soil for your plants, it’s time to transplant them into their new homes! Place them (still in their pots) throughout the barrel positioning and repositioning them to exactly where you want them(see image below). Once you’ve found the prefect place for all of them, dig wholes, gently remove them from their current pots, place them in the whole you’ve made for them (making sure the base of the plant is level to the soil), and loosely fill in any places missing soil. Finally give one gentle pat around your plant to set it in place. Repeat with all plants you plan to add. Make sure to water thoroughly after transplanting to ensure a healthy transition for your plants!

Aaanddd.. WA LA! There you have it!

You’ve created a beautiful, raised garden bed from a repurposed wheel barrel.

Sunday Aloha from 3rd Day Nursery!

The past week at the nursery has been busy, just in terms of keeping everything going! We’ve been continuing with a lot of long term tasks. The crew kept working to prepare the ground for our new garden beds and finally finished up with clearing out the cane grass!
We have to say a big thanks to the awesome customers who came out this Saturday to help make this week’s plant sale one of the biggest and most successful ones to date! We had hula dancers once again, so thanks to Catie, Sam, Mia, and Sarah for helping draw everyone in and direct them to the best succulents on Maui (if we do say so ourselves)!
We’re all excited for another great week at the nursery. Everything is looking great and we’re loving every second of being here!

Aloha from the 3rd Day Crew! 🌺

Sunday Wrap-Up – February 21

Weekend Wrap-Up From 3rd Day Nursery

We’ve had a busy week at the nursery! We got so much work done and had some good times, too.  Last Sunday, the crew all got together for Superbowl Sunday (Yay Broncos!) and had an awesome time and tons of food and dips courtesy of Sam. After the game, we all took a fun trip to Café Attitude’s open mic night in Hana.

We’ve done a lot of great work this week, too. Niels from Northstar Landscaping gave us a hand with uprooting a TON of cane grass that was growing wild on the property. He really helped us out, and now we have big plans in the space that got cleared; hopefully we’ll have a few new garden beds set up there soon! Che, Christian, Clarke have also been raking up a storm on the back lot. We’re going to put down some new weed mat and be almost doubling our succulent storage space! Our buddy Brad is also still hard at work with the up-and-coming worm hut. We are really cooking over here!

The crew is hard at work removing all that pesky cane grass

We also revamped the succulent display at Piñatas Mexican Restaurant in Kahului. Make sure to stop in there to check it out and grab some delicious food while you’re at it!

Display of 3rd Day Nursery succulents at Piñatas

Finally we’re super amped that  Mia’s Aloha pots got used as decoration at a local wedding! Congratulations to the happy couple and thanks for sending over the snapshot!

That’s all for this week…we cant wait to see what next week brings us!

Five Tips for Saving Your Succulents

1.) Don’t Overwater Your Plants!
As with anything, too much of a good thing can lead to not-so-great results. Try to wait until the soil is completely dry before watering your succulents!

2.) Expose Your Succulents to Even Amounts of Sunlight, Shade, and Temperatures
Succulents need both sun and shade to survive, and if they end up in extreme conditions on either end, things will go south…and we don’t mean a trip to Cabo. Keep temperatures steady and sun/shade exposure relatively even.

3.) Use Loose Soil
It’s super important for succulents to drain well, and if your soil is too firmly packed, this will become difficult.

4.) Give Your Succulents Ample Room to Grow
Even though baby succulents are mega adorable, they are never going to grow if they aren’t given enough space. Succulents will grow to the size of their container, so if you put small plants in a large container, they’ll grow big and strong.

5.) Allow Succulents Air Circulation
Your plants can’t survive in a closed container.  Tiny terrariums and hanging glass faerie gardens may be gorgeous to look at, but they’re not very good as a living environment for your plants.

Super Sunday Funday! Succulents and football, what else do you need!?

This week on the nursery, we accomplished a lot of tasks that have needed to get done.  We have a massive, hardworking group of workers right now, and they’ve been really getting their hands dirty!  Sam reorganized the entire garden and planted lots of veggies. Its looking great and we cant wait to harvest them for a rockin’ community dinner! 

Some baby plants that Sam got started recently

Emma painted a sweet mural on one of our tool sheds, and she’s a really talented artist.

  Also, Brad has been working on building the worm shed–that’s actually what it sounds like.  A big ol’ shed for worms.  The goal is to get hundreds and hundreds of worms to make compost tea. 

     We’re also very thankful for our buddy Jake (aka general manager) for hooking us up with more chickens for our coop.  The chicken farmers growing which means extra eggs for us! 

     Finally, we’ve got some totally rad artists in our crew and they’ve been painting pass on the daily.  Mia made a really sweet set of rainbow Aloha pot along with some stacked pots sets with landscapes and seascapes on them.

You’ve got to come check them all out! We’re amped for next week’s work, you should swing by and check everything out!

PS: GO BRONCOS!!!! 🏈🏈🏈

DIY Bonsai: Juniper & Jade

The art of bonsai is a beautiful and unique way to showcase a special tree. You’ve probably seen many bonsai trees before, but did you know that any tree or woody plant can technically be bonsai-ed? Bonsai is the style of planting and maintaining, not the plant itself.

As defined by the Merriman-Webster dictionary: bonsai is:

a potted plant (as a tree) dwarfed (as by pruning)
and trained to an artistic shape; also :  the art of
growing such a plant

Our bonsai enthusiast Brandon wanted to showcase the bonsai style from a few different angles. First he used a young juniper, already topped to bonsai from a local tree nursery, to create a more traditional style.  He also picked a jade plant from our succulent selection right here at 3rd Day Nursery to craft a more unusual, whimsical looking bonsai.

DIY Bonsai: Juniper & Jade

You will need:
– a tree or other woody plant of your choice
– pot, potting soil, and rocks for drainage
– clippers, pliers, wire mesh, and copper wire
– accent pieces (moss, rocks, wood, etc)

tree or other woody plant

clippers, wire, wire mesh, and pot

pot, rocks, soil, tools, and moss

Step 1: Choose your tree and your pot. Featured in this project is a jade plant from 3rd Day Nursery and a young juniper tree.

A selection of Jades at 3rd Day Nursery.

Step 2: Wash down the roots of your plant. Then trim the roots back so your plant will fit into the pot.

Roots washed and trimmed.

Step 3: Place wire mesh over the drainage holes in your pot and secure the mesh with copper wire. Then, thread a longer wire through each of your new wire loops. Add a layer of rocks to your pot for drainage.

Wire mesh secured in place.

Wire threaded and rocks added.

Step 4: Place the plant in the desired position and secure it in place by twisting wire around the plant’s rootball. Finally, add your soil.

Secure the tree in place by wiring down the root-ball.

Secure and ready for soil.

Step 5: Trim down your tree and begin training it to take the shape you wish. When your are happy with your tree, add your accent pieces. The purpose of bonsai is to mimic nature in miniature. Create a scene around your bonsai by adding natural features such as moss, pebbles, driftwood, etc.

Trimming down the Juniper Bonsai.

Adding moss to the Jade Bonsai.

Step 6: You’re done! Now maintain your bonsai with periodic trimming, training, or by simply enjoying it. Brandon likes to change the scenery and accent pieces around his bonsai periodically to add a fresh new look. However you do it, you’re doing it right if you do it with love!

Jade Bonsai, Round 1.

Jade Bonsai, Round 2.

Variegated Jade Bonsai.

Juniper Bonsai surrounded in stone.

Juniper Bonsai on mossy knoll with sand.

Which style of bonsai do you like best? How would you build your bonsai? Let us know in the comments below.

Check out 3rd Day Nursery on facebook for more information about our succulents, including jades like the one featured in this DIY Bonsai project; and check out Bonsai Empire for more cool tips, tricks, and information on bonsai in general!

And as usual, remember:
Don’t Go Green; Go Variagated!

DIY Bonsai: Juniper and Jade