Native Plant Sale: 50% off our entire stock!

Good Oak is growing up and moving out! We have found an office/shop on Pflaum Rd. off of Stoughton Road on Madison's east side that will fit our growing team and allow us to work more efficiently.

We’d like to save the time of moving over  almost 400 plants to our new location, so we’re putting our entire inventory on sale at 50% off retail price! We are also happy to donate plants to not-for-profit organizations for use in local conservation and sustainable landscaping projects. You can find our current inventory below.

We are  offering these plants on a first-come, first-serve basis. 

Either myself or Athena will be at my house (205 Walter St. Madison, WI) for you to come by and pick up what you'd like. Please knock on the side door of the house and we'll come out and help you make your selection, during the following times:

Tuesday, Nov. 4rd: 9am - 5pm
Wednesday, Nov. 5th: 8am - noon
Thursday, Nov. 6th: evening, by appointment only
Saturday, Nov. 8th: 9am - 1pm

Common Name	Scientific Name	Size	Qty	Type	Retail Price	Sale Price	Note
leadplant	Amorpha canescens	plug	8	forb	$4.00	$2.00
pussy toes	Antennaria plantaginifolia	plug	21	forb	$4.00	$2.00
common milkweed	Asclepias syriaca	plug	21	forb	$2.00	$1.00
sky blue aster	Aster azureus	plug	2	forb	$4.00	$2.00
New England aster	Aster novae-angliae	plug	8	forb	$4.00	$2.00
silky aster	Aster sericeus	plug	11	forb	$4.00	$2.00
short’s aster	Aster shortii	plug	4	forb	$4.00	$2.00
pale purple coneflower	Echinacea pallida	plug	23	forb	$4.00	$2.00
alum root	Heuchera richardsonii	plug	18	forb	$4.00	$2.00
Blazing star	Liatris ssp.	plug	13	forb	$4.00	$2.00
black-eyed susan	Rudbeckia hirta	plug	14	forb	$4.00	$2.00
sweet black eyed susan	Rudbeckia subtomentosa	plug	28	forb	$4.00	$2.00
blue-eyed grass	Sisyrinchium albidum	plug	7	forb	$4.00	$2.00
showy goldenrod	Solidago speciosa	plug	8	forb	$4.00	$2.00
butterfly milkweed	Asclepias tuberosa	quart	1	forb	$6.00	$3.00
sky blue aster	Aster azureus	quart	3	forb	$6.00	$3.00
New England aster	Aster novae-angliae	quart	2	forb	$6.00	$3.00
large-flowered coreopsis	Coreopsis grandiflora	quart	3	forb	$6.00	$3.00
white snakeroot	Eupatorium rugosa	quart	4	forb	$5.00	$2.50
Virginia waterleaf	Hydrophyllum virginianum	quart	2	forb	$6.00	$3.00
Mayapple	Podophyllum peltatum	quart	12	forb	$7.00	$3.50
black-eyed susan	Rudbeckia hirta	quart	16	forb	$6.00	$3.00
brown-eyed susan	Rudbeckia triloba	quart	3	forb	$6.00	$3.00
stiff goldenrod	Solidago rigida	quart	2	forb	$5.00	$2.50
Pennsylvania sedge	Carex pennsylvanica	plug	13	graminoid	$4.00	$2.00
bottlebrush grass	Elymus hystrix	plug	21	graminoid	$4.00	$2.00
bottlebrush grass	Elymus hystrix	quart	6	graminoid	$5.00	$2.50
early wild rose	Rosa blanda	#1	1	shrub	$12.00	$6.00
redbud	Cersis canandensis	#10	2	shrub	n/a	FREE	pulled from landscape sites after winter damage
black chokeberry	Aronia melonacarpa	#5	1	shrub	$45.00	$22.50
early wild rose	Rosa blanda	#5	1	shrub	$40.00	$20.00	poor form
downy arrowwood viburnum	Viburnum rafienesquiaqum	#5	1	shrub	$45.00	$22.50
cranberry viburnum	Viburnum trilobum	#5	3	shrub	$45.00	$22.50

Though its a little later in the season than we usually plant, fall is a good time to plant because the plants require very little (if any) maintenance once they are in the ground. Plus they get an early start next spring ahead of any newly-planted plants.

Also, check out our Online Garden Center for some great gardening tools such as our favorite, the hori hori, to help you do your planting.

Hiring Sustainable Landscapers and Ecological Restoration Managers

We're looking to hire a few good people here at Good Oak. We currently have our Sustainable Landscaping Manager and our Ecological Restoration Manager positions open, and I'm eager to accept applications from qualified candidates. We are also looking for a Seasonal Ecological Restoration/Sustainable Landscaping Technician.

The two manager jobs have a few things in common. They are both leadership rolls, with about 30% of the time spent in the office managing projects and 70% leading the crew in the field to get the job done. So candidates need to be good at managing time and juggling multiple projects at a time, all while leading by example during field work days. The benefit of this approach is that it allows the project manager to be sure the client's needs are met, and it also means they get to see the project through from vision to completion. We need people that are good with technology; iDevices, spreadsheets, etc. and good communicators who can clearly relay challenging conservation concepts to clients in an impactful way.

The positions differ in the kind of work they do.

For the Sustainable Landscape Manager, we're looking for someone with a horticultural background, particularly in residential and commercial landscaping. We want someone with the experience installing and maintaining trees, shrubs and perennials these sorts of landscapes. We work exclusively with native and edible plants because they have the greatest value to wildlife and humans. So we need someone with experience with these plants, or the ability to learn them. In particular we're hoping to find someone with a strong knowledge of edible plants since our current staff already knows quite a bit about landscaping with native plants. There also tends to be a lot of weed control in this work, and winters will be spent working hard outdoors with the brush clearing crew.

For the Ecological Restoration Manager we need someone with experience installing and maintaining prairies, clearing brush from woodlands and restoring them to health, stabilizing shorelines and controlling invasive weeds. Knowledge of safe and effective use of power tools, herbicides and prescribed fire is a must. Since brush clearing is such an important part of this work, they can expect to be doing this sort of work for the winter months each year, and we'd love to find someone with experience operating light machinery for those sites where brush mowing is the most cost effective option, or for other applications.

Over the past year and a half I've been having a hard time finding qualified candidates to fill these positions. So I'm now going to leave them open until filled rather than setting a deadline. We are willing to fill in some gaps with training for smart and motivated applicants who have most of the skills needed to handle these jobs, but these are leadership rolls, and we need people who can take on that leadership right away. Good Oak has grown a lot in the past 6 years that we've been in business, and frankly I need at least one, if not two people to take some of the project management responsibilities off of my shoulders (and to a lesser extent Athena Salzer, our recently promoted Project Manger's shoulders too).

We are also looking for a Seasonal Ecological Restoration/Sustainable Landscaping Technician, to start as soon as possible. This would be a good opportunity for more mid-level experienced people to apply.

If you're qualified and interested in these positions, feel free to send me a resume and brief cover letter (in the email itself is fine) at the email address on the job announcement. Because of my heavy workload right now, I will only respond to qualified candidates.