Black Mountain Nursery - You Rock!

How important is a great nursery to supply you when you are on the road from blank canvas to dream garden? If I said it means EVERYTHING (bold type, italics and underlining thrown in too) you will probably be getting the idea that’s something worth chasing.

The further we go from garden plan to planting here at Bountiful, the more we realise just how much we have bitten off in this adventure. One thing that’s given us pause for thought (and doubt, to be honest) is the difficulty we’ve had finding nurseries – particularly tree nurseries – who were interested in helping us. At all. We are complete newbies at this game, so be patient with our ignorance. We expected a long list of tree purchases would be good business for someone’s nursery.

It was true that we had a few unusual trees on our list – for example, hubby was keen on a particular variety of Liquidamber that didn’t drop its hard golf ball-sized seed pods onto unsuspecting noggins. But for the most part, our research showed that the trees we had discussed with Courtney - our designer from Gardening Excellence - were readily available. Phone calls, emails, drop in visits and giving Google a workout to within an inch of its capability, only produced spasmodic results. Most people we contacted simply didn’t bother to get back to us. It appeared we would have to get one tree here, one tree there from wherever we could, and certainly not on our timetable. With winter, the prime season for tree planting fast approaching, things were not looking good.

   

Until the day – cue heavenly music, triumphant overture and much happy dancing – hubby discovered Black Mountain Nursery. I’ll never forget it – my even tempered, unexcitable hubby joyfully relating that he had found a nursery – one nursery – that could supply us with everything. EVERYTHING. Was this miracle too much to hope for?

No! Nothing was too much for the wonderful team at Black Mountain, a family concern located between the towns of Armidale and Guyra in New South Wales. On the numerous emails and phonecalls we dealt with Kristy, who went out of her way to find us what we needed. We promptly received two separate deliveries of barerooted trees, involving a total of about 35 trees. And I mean prompt – within two days for the first one. We were astounded.

Barerooted trees look like a tree from the ground up, but instead of the roots coming encased in soil within pots or bags as you’d normally see in any suburban nursery, there is no soil in sight. It is more economical to buy trees in this way as the cost of delivery becomes impractical if you are buying potted plants and paying by weight. If you’ve ever tried to pick up a very large potted plant and move it, both your back and hip pocket will relate! Our barerooted trees from Black Mountain came securely wrapped and tied together in plastic and black bags which nestled the roots amongst layers of shredded paper, dampened down for the journey to keep the trees happy. It was a simple matter to unwrap the trees, carefully separate them and put them straight into the holes we had prepared for them.

Plants as they arrived to us.

Trees unwrapped ready for planting at Bountiful. 

Black Mountain also had trees that we had been looking for that were a little more mature, and these were already potted. The expense of getting these to us by freight would not have been practical – but it just so happened that we had a trip north to Brisbane planned for my university graduation, and a switch from the coastal to the inland route would take us right past Black Mountain - at about the six and a half hour mark of an eleven hour drive. Kristy suggested we drop our trailer off to them and they would pack it up for us, ready for the return trip to Bountiful. After so many occasions of no service at all, this knocked us for six. We sent through our order, eager to stop in at the nursery as we headed north to see this little slice of heaven for ourselves.

The nursery is open to the public (as opposed to trade enquiries only) and is a great little oasis in some of the most badly affected drought country in the state. Nearby Guyra has recently been in the news for having a dam holding little more than a puddle. Water is such a precious resource and these guys handle it with the care it deserves. On our visit we also met Pam Youman, who has run Black Mountain Nursery with her husband Gordon since 1985. The wonderfully helpful Kristy is their daughter. 

Trailer packed for us - just needed the cover and we were ready to roll. 

Kristy and her mum, Pam

To say they were helpful to us is an understatement. I can’t promote their service and product quality more highly. When we have saved up some more money and can look at stage two of the garden plan, we’ll be straight back to Black Mountain Nursery for our next order of trees and plants. Our trees are an enormous investment, and this experience has shown us that it just isn’t worth bothering with anyone else. And let’s face it, with family and friends dotted along the coast from Bountiful to Queensland, there will always be the possibility of pairing a trip to Black Mountain with the chance to catch up with people we love and don’t see enough of.

Pam and Kristy, you were wonderful. May your business continue on in leaps and bounds as any business should that values their customers and loves what they do as well as you. You are a top example of how to do business well.

You can check out their website - Black Mountain Nursery  or look them up on Facebook. 

The song that came to mind while I was searching for the news report on Guyra was Jackson Browne’s Running on Empty. It’s what a lot of Australia is doing right now. Released in 1977 on an album of the same name and in the years before video clips became such an everyday part of life, the best and seemingly only way to view it is to see Jackson performing it live as in this clip from his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. I wonder what a clip of this classic would look like if Jackson was to make one today? It’s still one of my favourite songs, and I never tire of seeing musos enjoying their craft.

Tracey 💧

With thanks to the YouTube Channels of:

Channel Nine for the report on Guyra and the drought, and

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for Jackson Browne's performance