Gardening
The Kerby's Nursery E-Newsletter
June 13, 2019   
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The Weekly Special  |   Citrus Care  |   New Arrivals    |  2019 Workshops

Just Like Dad
by Joey Bokor
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Joey and Dad, 1977
I was showing a staff member how to use one of my printers the other day, and my instructions included a lot of 'It'll say this, but ignore it, you just have to do this, this and this and it will work just fine.' At that moment I realized that I am just like my Dad.

Growing up, we had a grill on our patio. When I say grill, you may picture a Big Green Egg or some fancy multi-tiered, multi burner grill. Nope. I'm just talking about a plain-old, one burner gas grill, probably from Sears. It was brown and had a plastic stand that went down to a rickety 4-pronged foot that held it up. It worked. You could cook steaks, hamburgers, whatever you wanted. No frills, just fire. Thing is for my entire childhood, that grill was on the patio, in varying degrees of, let's say, disrepair. First the starter button stopped working. Then the burner was only working on one side. Solution: get a new burner. Some critters ate through one of the pipes leading to the burner: replace the pipe. Grill surface rusting away - we can easily replace that. Rickety plastic stand breaks? Find an old frame at a garage sale and remount it on that. Why get a new one, when the one you have works just fine. Sure we may have to hold it together with a little duct tape, but that's ok.

I learned from a young age not to get rid of stuff, but to fix it instead. And if you can't fix it, well you try harder. If you really can't fix it, you save it so that when something else breaks you have parts for fixing that too. Only when you've stretched the lifetime of an item to its maximum, far beyond any warranty or guarantee would have promised, then and only then do you consider replacing. That lesson shows in my garage, where you'll find a 35-year-old radial arm saw, a 45-year-old table saw and a lawn mower from the 70s. And I only recently got rid of my own grill that I'd made many a repair on until it finally just wasn't working at all.

Joey and Dad, 2019
One of the other things my dad and I have in common is that we love fruit trees and in particular, we love citrus. The house he grew up in over off of Dale Mabry had an entire area that we called the citrus grove because there were so many trees (including a grapefruit that was about 30 feet across.) For me as well, my childhood home had at least a dozen citrus trees. I fondly remember many mornings spent squeezing fresh orange juice for the family. So if you, your dad or anyone you know loves citrus trees, bring them out to Kerby's this Saturday at 10am for the Growing Great Citrus workshop. I'll teach you everything I learned from my dad about planting and caring for citrus trees.

And if you can't make the workshop, there is information below on growing great citrus and you can watch our How to Plant a Tree video by clicking here.

To all of the fathers out there, have a very Happy Father's Day.

Happy Gardening,
The Kerby's Nursery Family

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The Weekly Special
Father's Day Fruit Tree Sale
All Fruit Trees 20% Off
Offer valid through 6/16/19
Cannot be combined with other offers.
In Stock Items Only


There may be things that Dad wants for Father's Day, but he needs a new fruit tree for his Fruit Forest. Take advantage of this sale and get him something that will tantalize his taste buds.

Add Citrus to your Fruit Forest

Garden Tip
Growing Great Citrus

Citrus of all kinds are easy to grow in Florida. If you can't make this Saturday's workshop, some of our citrus tips are below and check out our new How to Plant a Tree video.

Planting -Citrus need full sun. In Florida, this means at least 6 hours of direct sun each day. Citrus trees also like a well-drained soil. Fortunately, the typical sandy Florida soil actually makes a good start for citrus, because it drains quite well. Citrus trees do want more than just sand for their roots to grow in, so use a bag of Kerby's custom-blended Planting Soil in the hole of each tree you are planting. Click here for more planting instructions.

Watering - Many problems, such as fruit split, fruit drop and fruit drying are caused by poor watering practices. New trees need daily water for the first month, every other day for the second month and twice weekly in the third month. After the third month, make sure a tree gets at least an inch of water across the entire root system once per week. Yes, you may have to get out the hose during dry periods!

Fertilizer - To produce great harvests and sweet, juicy fruits, citrus trees need to be kept in top shape. Keep trees strong by providing them the major and minor nutrients they need. Fertilize monthly for the first year with The Kerby's Special fertilizer. Thereafter, fertilize in the spring, summer and fall.

Disease and Insect Control - Citrus do come have some problems with disease and insects, but with early detection and a little preventative treatment, these problems can be avoided. To prevent diseases such as greasy spot, scab and alternaria spot, spray trees 3 times per year with Liquid Copper Fungicide. For insect issues, such as leaf-miner, aphids etc. use Neem Oil or Captain Jack's Deadbug Brew, weekly in the spring season, and monthly the rest of the year. A little preventative spraying goes a long way towards keeping trees happy and healthy and happy trees mean big harvests.

Now you are ready to harvest and enjoy!

New Arrivals
Fruit Cocktail Citrus

Orange, Lemon and Lime on One Tree
14" Pot - $149.99
Plumeria or Frangipani

Amazing colors and fragrance
Sizes and Prices Vary

Baby Cakes Blackberry

Dwarf, Thornless Blackberry
10" Pot - $29.99

Kerby's Nursery

2311 S. Parsons Ave.

Seffner, FL 33584
(813) 685-3265
www.kerbysnursery.com


Store Hours

Monday - Saturday
9am - 5:30pm
Sunday
11am - 4pm
Thursday, July 4th
9am - 2pm