Last Monday Tracy Wootten and Valann Budischak came and talked to us about Delaware’s green industry. The $20 million industry is made up of producers, retailers, landscapers, land managers, golf courses, and equipment suppliers. They started off by talking about the producers. Producers and growers grow anything from flowers to bare root plants and grass plugs. They sell their products to a broker or wholesale nursery who act as a middle man and sell the products to the landscape companies, big box stores, and garden centers. The end users will get the products from one or more of those three sources. Part of the green industry is land management and conservation. We learned how important vegetation is for filtering water run-off from roads and parking lots. In fact Del DOT has started only mowing margins rather than whole areas along roads so that the vegetation will filter run off. Another big part of land management is controlling Invasive species which is a huge problem in Delaware.