Project-based consulting from Matthew Collins, Provenance Nursery, Cumming, Iowa. Orchards, windbreaks and buffers, edible gardens, propagation, grafting and hydroponics, for home growers, farms and businesses. Rates are quoted per project.
I consult on the same work I do every day at the nursery: choosing, propagating and growing plants for cold-winter sites. My background is the Iowa State University horticulture program, with a focus on greenhouse and nursery production, and work at Reiman Gardens, at Bachman's and as a horticulturist for Iowa state government. More about me.
Services
- Horticulture consulting. Plant selection, site and soil questions, plant health and care for home, farm and commercial plantings.
- Orchard consulting. Cultivar, rootstock and pollination planning, layout and spacing, and care for new and established orchards. Background reading: choosing a rootstock and pollination.
- Windbreak and riparian buffer plantings. Species choice, layout and establishment for shelterbelts, living snow fences and streamside buffers. Many of these plantings qualify for USDA NRCS cost-share under its Windbreak/Shelterbelt Establishment (380) and Riparian Forest Buffer (391) practice standards, so contact your county NRCS office early.
- Edible gardens. Planning fruit, nut, vegetable and herb plantings that suit your space and what you want to eat.
- Custom propagation. Grafting, seed and cutting propagation of a specific tree or line you want saved or multiplied. Patented or protected varieties are propagated only with the owner's permission, and material that crosses state lines follows each state's plant-health rules.
- Hydroponics. System choice, nutrient management and crop planning for indoor and greenhouse growing.
- Grafting. Scionwood collection and storage, grafting methods, top-working and rescuing an old tree. See storing and grafting scionwood and the propagation year.
Not sure which fits? Write anyway. Related work, such as identifying an old farmstead tree or keeping an open-pollinated seed line true, is welcome too.
Rates
Rates are set by project. Reach out for a quote. Work starts after you approve the written quote.
What to send for a quote
- Your county and state, or your hardiness zone
- The service you need and what you want to achieve
- The size of the site or planting: square feet, acres or number of trees
- Your timeline
- Photos of the site, and a soil test if you have one
How it works
- Email provenancenursery@gmail.com with the details above.
- I reply within 2 business days with whether I can help, how we would work and a quote for the project.
- Once you approve the quote, you get written recommendations with the public sources behind them: USDA, land-grant extension and published research first.
The same rules I hold to on every listing apply here. Where sources disagree, I say so. Where no one has published a figure, I tell you that instead of estimating one. Recommendations are based on published sources and the site details you share; how plants perform still depends on site, weather and care.