Six years ago in Holden Beach, he started building a landscaping and gardening business along the Southeastern North Carolina coast called Peterson’s Pride. That business is now planted firmly in Wilmington.

Peterson, 57, doesn’t cater to roadblocks, whether they be the 10-foot snow drifts up north or waiting for Secret Service agents to survive his dead man’s plates so Bill Clinton could eat.

Peterson now enjoys the North Carolina sunshine, the state’s two planting seasons, and a customer base of Baby Boomers and retirees who have downsized both their living spaces and their landscapes.

“Keep it simple,” is what Peterson’s Wilmington-area customers tell him. “They’re gearing down from the big house,” he says. “Lots of boomers and retirees like to do vegetable gardens in containers. They want easy landscaping, with all the neat grasses, and low maintenance. They want things that grow well here.

“And since, like me, most of my customers don’t get around like we all used to, I’ve been perfecting raised beds. They can be as high as 3.5 feet and you can walk around it and tend to your garden without bending over. I built one for my parents; they’re in their 80s way up in New Hampshire, and they still garden.”

It was up that way where Peterson was born and bred. And in the Boston area more than 25 years ago, his brother started the first Peterson’s Pride. But Paul got hooked on flour, not flowers.

“I bought Weinberg’s Bakery in Hull, Mass., which is just south of Boston,” he says. “That’s a 24/7 deal, with a staff of 13. I did a quarter of a million cups of coffee a year, 6,000 bagels a week. The bagels were handmade, and I ended up with bagel elbow, but it didn’t slow me down.”

The Secret Service did, though. President Clinton got hooked on Peterson’s bagels, the cinnamon raisin variety, during visits to Boston, and eventually had them shipped to the White House.

“I’d have to give the Secret Service the first samples of a batch, called a dead man’s plate,” said Peterson. “And then we had to sit around for another hour or so and wait to see if any of them keeled over.”

None of them did. That actually didn’t slow Peterson as much as the Massachusetts winters.

“By 2006,” he says, “I’d had enough of it. I wanted to get out of Dodge while I still could. I was done with the snow. One of those last years, we had that perfect storm and blizzards that put 10 feet of snow up against the houses. Everyone was stuck.

“I started driving up and down the coast looking for the best spot to start my own Peterson’s Pride. Florida was too hot. North Carolina seemed to have the best temperatures year around – and it had two distinct growing seasons – plantings in August for collards and root vegetables, like carrots; plantings in March for summer vegetables.”

So he sold Weinberg’s Bakery, and the buyer insisted on keeping Peterson’s daughter, Valerie, on board to manage the place.

“She’s making more money than I am down here,” he says. “Well, good for her.”

That’s not to say he doesn’t have a full plate of plantings here:

• Currently has 22 houses with total landscaping and gardening coverage, and plenty of one-timers, customers who order up visits for spreading pine straw or weeding or general cleanups. Peterson’s Pride also handles major accounts like Locks of the Lake in Brunswick County: mowing and caring for 2 miles of road and more than 75 tall palms.

• Moved the office from Holden Beach to Wilmington and hired an assistant; began his studies with the New Hanover County Cooperative Extension and earned a state license for handling chemical applications.

• Got married in April and bought a place in the Carriage Hills section of Wilmington. Brenda, his wife, is a social worker for New Hanover Regional Medical Center and Paul helps her with her passion to rescue animals, and support Monty’s Home’s Pawsitive Partners Prison Program, the first companion dog prison training program in Southeastern North Carolina.

He also enjoys his new customers in leisurely Carolina, much as he did in hectic Massachusetts.

“Being in retail,” he says, “I like the interaction with customers. And people are great here. You do get the occasional retiree who sits on the porch all day waiting for just one weed to pop up. Weeds grow great here with all the heat. One weed and the person’s on the phone expecting immediate action to remedy that one weed.

“I can’t make any money tending to one weed at a time.”

Besides, that’s not much action for a man on the move.

March 18, 2013

PLATEAU GARDENING: Battling weeds when the weather is chilly 

By C. Rae Hozer

Chronicle contributor
The Crossville Chronicle

Mon Mar 18, 2013, 12:12 PM CDT

CROSSVILLE —
Last year, weather from January through May encouraged an early start on garden and home landscaping activities. Gardeners who tend to “push” the season had tomato plants in the ground so far in advance of normal, their vines had fruit soon after our county’s typical last frost date when gardeners who tend to “play it safe” were just putting their transplants out. The long season made for good harvests and abundant growth of ornamentals.Record-settingwarm weather in the first quarter of 2012 had a down-side as well—a population explosion among undesirable vegetation. Weeds grew up, spread and produced seeds just like desirable plants. 

In contrast, 2013’s chilly weather and snow at February’s end continued into the first week of March. Uncomfortable conditions kept many Plateau gardeners indoors. However, those venturing out into their yards and gardens to check will probably find cold tolerant weeds blooming now. On my property, I’ve spotted annual winter weeds such as common chickweed, mouse-ear chickweed, purple deadnettle and hairy bitter cress in bloom. There are also cold tolerant perennials like dandelions flowering. Seeds from those weeds develop after the flowers fade, unless the plants are eliminated before then. Control weeds now. Gardeners battling weeds should be aware that tactics for effectively getting rid of weeds during cold and/or rainy weather differ a bit from those recommended in warm weather. 

Weeds compete with good landscape and garden plants for space, sunlight, soil nutrients and moisture. They grow up where they aren’t wanted, spoiling the otherwise neat order of a well designed landscape. What you call a “weed” may not necessarily be a “bad” plant. It might be a fine specimen in another location but one that is unwanted at its current site. Most gardeners label particular plants weeds due to their ability to out-compete desirable plants in flower and vegetable gardens or in lawns and due to superior survival skills which makes getting rid of them difficult. Some are also known to harbor insect pests and plant diseases that can spread to nearby greenery. A major problem with weed seeds is they remain viable for a long time. Given the right conditions they sprout and grow to start weed problems all over again in the future. Those negative characteristics may prompt homeowner questions on weed identity and weed control.

I don’t use a lot of chemical controls around my property. In my small front lawn and in beds around the house, my main deterrent is good old fashioned weed pulling and/or removal with the assist of a sharp implement like a hoe. However when the threat level is high enough, herbicides may be my weed control method of choice. There are both organic and synthetic chemical weed killers available. Identifying the plants you want to target helps when selecting a herbicide. Access the University of Tennessee Extension publication, “PB956 Managing Lawn Weeds: A Guide for Tennessee Homeowners”  online by typing https://utextension.tennessee.edu/washington/Documents/PB956.pdf into your Internet browser or ask for it at your local UT Extension office. The environment surrounding unwanted plants is another factor in choosing a control method. An example-A recurring spring clean up task at my place is removing weeds/unwanted vegetation growing among rocks in walkways around gardens near the house. Heat exposure eliminates those weeds relatively easily. One application option is dousing the weeds with hot water poured from a kettle. See photo. Flame from a propane weed torch will also do the trick. Either way, the weeds die leaving no toxic chemical residue behind.

• • •

Plateau Gardening is written by Master Gardeners for gardeners in Tennessee’s Upper Cumberland Region.  Contact UT Extension Cumberland County at P.O. Box 483, Crossville, TN 38557 (931-484-6743) for answers to horticulture questions, free publications and how to become a Master Gardener. Send email comments or yard and garden inquiries to Master Gardener Rae, MGardenerRae@frontiernet.net. 

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2013
Crossville Chronicle, Crossville, TN. All rights
reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,
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While spring is typically the busiest time of year for gardening and landscaping projects, experts are predicting a particularly
abundant sales crop, powered by recovering real-estate sales.

Outdoor living spaces will be on the top of many lists, according to a trend forecast from the American Society of
Landscape Architects, as will designs focused on sustainability and low-maintenance. These outdoor living spaces, defined as kitchens and entertainment areas, earned a 94.5% rating, making them just
as popular as gardens or landscaped spaces. And people want these rooms filled with such amenities as fire pits and fireplaces, grills, seating and dining areas and lighting.

“Business definitely seems to be picking up,” Ted Cleary, a member of the association and owner of Studio Cleary Landscape Architecture
in Charlotte, N.C., tells Marketing Daily, “even over and above the typical spring bump. Over the last few years, we were seeing more customers back out of projects because of financial
concerns. There seems to be more equilibrium now.”

Water elements are also making a bit of a comeback, not just as features in landscapes, but also in terms of spas and pools.
And in keeping with the local food movement, the survey also reports more people are asking for food and vegetable gardens, including orchards and vineyards.

Cleary also thinks the
recent real-estate slump has reset people’s relationship with their homes. “There’s definitely a lot more thought going into projects, and less of this frantic, ‘Let’s fix this
place up and move on.’ I’m hearing more people say, ‘We could be in this house for a while. Let’s make the yard more suitable for what we want long-term.’”

A stronger real-estate market drives gardening and landscaping sales at such stores as Home Depot and Lowe’s. In the latest analysis from CoreLogic, January’s home sale price
index rose 9.7% from the prior year, the biggest increase since 2006, and the 11^th consecutive month of gains.

Last month, Home Depot reported a quarterly gain of 7% in
same-store sales, and expects sales for the year ahead to climb 3%. At rival Lowe’s, same-store sales rose 1.9%, and it predicts a gain of 3.5% in the coming year.