Another small garden center closes in Placerville. Carters Nursery owner Dale Carter has decided to retire. With Sleepy Hollow closing last year, and Carters this year there are no longer any garden centers in the county seat! Oh, there is still the local Home Depot which showed up right about the same time. There are other nurseries including mine that are within 10 to 12 miles from town, so all is not lost.
Last week Monica and I went for a drive up hwy. 49 to Grass Valley. We stopped by the old Happy Frog Garden Center, which closed just early this year. This was the mother ship to our smaller store in Auburn. Over seven acres of gardens and nursery that are gone. 
The picture shows some Giant Weeping Sequoias that are slowly dying. What a depressing site, all because of mis-management. Please notice The Master Nursery sign hanging on the fence still. I bet The Master Nursery Association was not too thrilled to have to write off the loss of this store. The Association is a co-op of nurseries and when one goes down it affects everyones dividends. 
EAL commented at one of my post that in her neck of the woods, Western New York the local nurseries are thriving. She mentions it not an economically thriving area, either. I don't know if its just here but small garden centers are dropping like flies. There doesn't seem to be anyone filling the gap yet so I will assume that we just had too many small garden centers in our area. Its either that or mis-management or in Dales case, just wanting out.
I wanted to show some pictures of what the area looks like around here in late summer. We are in the dog days of summer and the hills have turned golden. Haven't had rain
in in months and most likely won't for another month. Unlike Carol, we are used to this. With the fall rains the hills will slowly turn green again. Everything that we grow in our gardens must be supplemented with irrigation water. Only the hardiest natives and Mediterranean climate plants will survive without irrigation.
Back to nurseries, consumers vote with their wallets and if they don't vote for you then your toast. I think in the long run the shake up thats going on in the nursery business in our area will benefit those that remain. We need to stay innovative and positive in our thinking, but a new era for garden centers is coming. Only the fittest will survive.