Creekside Festival Roundup

The Creekside festival went way better than we expected. Having only advertised the event to our mailing list customers we didn’t know what to expect. Just after 6:00 pm they started arriving and didn’t stop till it was over at 9:00. We will definitely make this an annual affair. Here is Sundae the cat greeting people. We have four cats who follow you around the nursery.


Here is Kristiana and Denise pouring wine for David Girard Vineyards. Kristiana is an artist who lives in a Silver Stream Trailer she has remodeld. Her business is Silver Trailer . Denise is our web master. Her business, River Coyote Designs built our web page and e-newsletter. Thanks to both for helping out.

This is Woodsong Herb Pharm, run by our friends Steve and Julie Baldwin.

White Bear Studio is run by Mark and Barbara Noack. It was also Mark's Birthday which added to the celebratory mood.

Our friend Julie manning the front gate and enjoying it! Local wine was the common theme tonight.

A truck loaded and ready to roll! The owner was proud that it had lichen growing on the metal. He said he was "lichen his truck more and more." We had a sale where everything in the nursery was 25% off! We managed to clear out lots of plants that we don't want to have to over winter. People loved it.

Monica managed to pull me from the wine glass long enough to help write up some customers. I would check the receipt later if I were them.

The next day we hosted 70 El Dorado County Master Gardeners for their annual picnic!

It was a great weekend! Now we have some time to recover as our next big event is the Fall Festival in October.

"Creekside Festival"

Tonight is our first “Creekside Festival”. We are going to close the nursery then re-open from 6:00 to 9:00pm. We live at the nursery, and enjoy the garden almost every night and wanted to share this with our friends and customers. We have pathway lights spaced every so often, and have been wrapping white and some blue lights up the big oaks and alders. I most like the “torches” that have been placed under the oaks. Gives it a surreal look, which is what we wanted.

White Bear studios will be showing off their pottery, Woodsong Herb Pharm will be here, and
David Girard Vineyards will be pouring. We are having a sale, too.

It seems rarely do you get a chance to go through public gardens or nurseries at night. The garden takes on a whole different feel, and with the proper use of light you can create some real interesting effects. I like trying to create a sense of mystery and adventure, so the torches should do the trick.

If this turns out as nice as we hope, we will do it every year. We may even have a night event every month in the summer! It’s so hot here during the summer days. There are two or three other wineries in the area, an olive oil producer, and more local artists that could come.

Then on top of this, tomorrow afternoon we are hosting the El Dorado County Master Gardeners for their annual picnic. This is the second year in a row they have been here. It’s neat that the meeting area under the oaks is starting to be used more and more. Garden Clubs, Sacramento Model T club (of which I have pictures, and will post later), Sacramento Porsche Club (more pictures), Coloma-Lotus Chamber, and our local quilt club, have all met here.

I know it will turn out great because our one helper from high school has called in and said he can’t make it this weekend. It never fails that when we put some special event together someone calls in sick. The events usually turn out alright though, so it must be an omen.

I'll try to take some pictures. My skill of holding a camera and wine glass will be tested, since when I set it down it usually falls over, spilling it's precious contents. Gardening While Intoxicated say’s “For me, the big decision is to flick out the little bugs or just drink them. It depends on my mood.”

Little bugs?

Commenting on comments.

Great post at This Garden Is Illegal about leaving comments. She lists some of the reasons she has not commented before. Being relatively new to blogging it was an interesting read for me. I have to admit not having commented enough on other people’s blogs, even if it’s just to say, “Great post”.

I write because it allows me an avenue to express myself. Comments are welcome, but not necessary. That being said, I think most bloggers are pleased when people take the time to comment. It’s nice to know that people are looking, and being moved to leave a comment, good or bad.

As I wrote in Hannah’s comment section “I sometimes don’t comment because of the opposite of # 2. I don’t want to be a busy body nurseryperson. Bloggers are having fun talking to one another, and the last thing needed is an ‘expert’ jumping in with his solution. That being said, occasionally I do see a post where people are asking for advice. So I submit it, and everything is fine. Just like at the nursery when we offer advice somtimes we never hear back from the customer how things worked out. The solution was made, and they move on to the next project. After all that’s our business. When people do come back and say the advice was helpful, it is a real pleasure to know you helped. It’s the same thing with blogs. The vast majority of the time bloggers do answer back, but every so often they don’t. Could be they are to busy, or any number of reasons.

Most bloggers enjoy it when people comment on past posts. Sometimes I get a comment on something I posted earlier, and it’s nice to know someone went through the archives and found something worth commenting on.

Now that I have read Hannah’s post, and the comments she received, I plan on commenting more, even if it’s just a quick “found your post interesting”.

It’s Susie Coelho from "Outer Space(s)"

Is Susie Coelho from outer space? (No, just Southern California)

Latest issue of  Garden Chic, the art of niche retailing arrived. This is a new publication for garden centers and nurseries. (That's the last issues cover.) They have a section called Celeb View which is billed as unique perspectives from influential style setters.

I don't watch much HGTV so I have missed out on Susie's show, Surprise Gardener and " Outer Spaces". I do see she got a mention in Garden Rant. I did read the whole article, since we are told she is an important person I need to know about to better improve my business.

Her statement that she is one of the few, and probably the most prominent, lifestyle experts in the country, in terms of outdoor living got my attention. She continues "I was one of the few on the air, at the time that covered outdoor rooms. Oh, oh there are those words again, outdoor rooms. Now I just read in Garden Rant "outdoor rooms"is a term well over twenty years old. I understand that Henry Mitchell said "Some mischief has been done, probably, by calling the garden an 'outdoor living room,' as if any living room in the world had such wonderful things in it as a garden has."

Garden Chic asks Susie, as the outdoor room becomes more popular, do you think Americans are going to get use to changing out accessories? Susie answers, across the country, Americans have to get used to the way Californians live. It's because we are outside all the time. A lot of times, we will bring things in. If you want to live that stylish life, it takes a little effort. When it rains, we just dash out and take the decorative pillows off so they don't get drenched. Most are outdoor-rated anyway, but why not keep them nicer? It's the same as people who put their cars in the garage if it's raining or snowing."

Do you get it? You had better start living like Californians if you want to be stylish. Newsflash! We don't have a garage to put our car in, we don't have decorative pillows outside, and I would sure as heck forget to run out and pick them up when it's raining. If you lived in any other state wouldn't you feel a little insulted? I live in Northern California and I am insulted.

She is popular with the stylish crowd that thinks, in her words, you can go to the home improvement stores and buy 4-foot pavers, and, as long as you can lay them on sand with no grout. Fill them with crushed granite, and you have yourself a patio. Don't forget the throw pillows!

What is so infuriating is that Garden Chic magazine bills it self as the art of niche retailing, and then throws this main stream lifestyle expert at us as someone to look to for advice. If garden centers are going to niche themselves, shouldn't we be looking to someone a little less main stream, and a lot less annoying. I'll take garden bloggers any day over her.

Anyway I have to keep reading as there is an article on Garden Antiques and how some garden centers are selling them in their stores. Ed Pasquesi, owner of Pasquesi Home and Garden in Lake Bluff, IL. says I might get a $30,000 length of iron fence work that's really spectacular. I'd bring it in on consignment, and I'd be satisfied to make $5000. If we sell it, fine, and if we don't fine. But I like having those items in the shop because it puts us on a different level. Yea, I'd be satisfied.

Survival of the Independent Garden Center

Over at Garden Rant its mentioned that 70% of all lawn & garden sales are made at Home Depot, Lowes, K-Mart, and Wal-Mart. That leaves 30% of garden sales to be split between on-line internet sales and your local independent garden center.

This really shouldn’t surprise us. The future of retailing is being mapped out as we speak. Look at the landscapes on any new suburban street, and you can tell where people are getting their plants and garden supplies. Lawn, three birch trees, a row of Escallonia fradesi, and you’re done! Cheap, convenient, and 'good enough', are what fuels these businesses.

No sense crying about the facts of the market place. If you want to run a garden center you had better figure out quick how you are going to survive. Make no doubt about it, its survival were talking about. We just lost one garden center in Placerville, about 12 miles from here. It had been in business for over 20 years! The new Home Depot that opened up a block away from this center is doing just fine. You are going to see more and more smaller garden centers going under.

Before we cry for these garden centers we should realize that for the most part they killed themselves. It’s easy to blame Home Depot for their problems.

What are we going to do about this? First thing is to realize that the 70% of lawn and garden sales that are going to Home Depot are going to stay there. Your not going to peal off too many of these people to shop at your store. They like shopping at the chains! It’s convenient, open into the night, cheap plants that are ‘good enough’, etc.

Let those people go! Don’t even try to get them to come to your store. It’s time for independent garden centers to differentiate them selves and focus their attention on the 30% of customers that don’t shop at the chains. I have a feeling that the percentage of people that might shop at independents is even smaller than 30%. You will have an audience of 10 to 15% of the gardeners out there.

How do we get the attention of that 10% of gardeners that would be receptive to our offerings? I have some ideas, but my watering person just called and said he can’t make it today, Saturday. Monica and I have to get some watering done before we open. Ah, the life of a nurseryperson. We’ll come back to this.

Spring Nursery Report

August is often the slowest time, excluding winter, in the nursery. It’s when we sit back and try to figure out what worked and what didn’t this year. Let’s sit in these chairs in the shade and discuss the nursery year so far. Let’s look at the weather this post.

The weather is the all important dictator of sales. This year it rained, about 80 inches, all the way through April. Reminder, our rainy season is from November to March. No rain in summer! Unlike last year where it rained right through May, we at least had a dry May to help out this year. Did you know garden centers make over half the money for the year in a three month period? March, April, and May are the key months. If it rains excessively any of those months you will never be able to make it up. Most of California experienced the prolonged spring rains; therefore I would be surprised to hear of any nurseries having a great sales year. Two excessively rainy springs in a row now. This winter we will see some of the financially weaker centers closing down.

Not much we can do about the weather. Most garden centers try to have a full allotment of plants for the three months of spring sales. So you might imagine it’s tough to watch your center full of beautiful plants just sitting there weekend after weekend getting drenched. It’s amazingly discouraging, since the bills come no matter what the weather. Now I have heard rumors that in the Pacific Northwest, where rain is part of the lifestyle, people go to garden centers and shop even in the rain. We’ll, here in California the public wants dry weather to shop. The busy season ends as soon as school gets out in June. No mater how nice the weather, once school is out it's vacation time, and gardening drops in importance.

All in all, this years spring weather could have been a lot better for sales, but was not as bad as the year before.

I am going to look over what type of plants we want to increase in numbers next year, and which we are going to drop or reduce. I have something to say about roses!

Air mailed plants, the sequel.

Here are the plants being packaged up for their helicopter ride to the high country ( see post below). They will have to close the lids of the boxes, so the plants will have to be stacked inside the boxes.

I thought at first this was for a photo shoot for the Jeepers Jamboree. Turns out it’s for the ad campaign of Jeeps new 2007 JK Wrangler. They have three helicopters bringing supplies from Tahoe and Georgetown. It’s a major production! Somewhere in this whole production the flowers will go.

They film movies and ads in this area on a somewhat regular basis. It’s usually because of the natural beauty, Sierras, rivers, or the history, with the old gold rush towns here.

There they go! Maybe we will see the flowers in a television commercial, or in a magazine. I’ll keep my eyes peeled. As for the fate of the flowers, we can only hope that someone involved in this production will remember that they need a little attention.

First tomato and air mailed plants.

We finally picked our first tomato! I was a bit disappointed how late the tomatoes we’re coming, until I read that May Dreams Gardens was just starting to harvest her tomatoes. So I don’t feel too bad, and it’s the price we pay for living in the mountains. It’s an 'Early Girl'. We also have planted Lemon Boy, Isis Candy, and Tangerine. They are planted in the raised bed we made at one of our workshops, way back in April. Workshop. The harvester is my grand-daughter Savannah.
She ate the tomato.

Yesterday we had an interesting request. We are just five miles from Georgetown, which is the starting point for the Jeepers Jamboree. This event has been going on for fifty years plus, and is considered the “granddaddy" of all off-road events. They start in Georgetown and drive the “back way” all the way to Lake Tahoe!

There is going to be a photo shoot at the Rubicon Springs Campground, and we were contacted to supply plants and containers to the site to dress it up. No way to drive the plants there,
so they are going to fly the plants in via helicopter! These will be our first “air mailed plants”.

Monica picked out two cartloads of flowers to fill the containers.

They will fly the plants, containers, and potting soil in, and plant them there. If I can get some pictures of the photo shoot, I will post them.

Blogs and business

A post at Garden Rant led me to The Washington Post article on blogging called "Barging into the Bloggers' Circle". Since I am a businessman, and blogger, it is an interesting read.

The nature of blogs is there are good ones, and bad ones. More and more business will try using blogs to reach their audience. Some will do this because they enjoy doing it, and really want feedback from their readers, or are trying to reach a specific audience. Others will try it as just another marketing campaign, with little or no place for comments from the readers.

Just like anything new, everyone will try the medium to see if it can affect sales, or to appear hip. The ones that really enjoy it as a way to express themselves, create two-way communication with their readers, or to reach an audience that conventional media is failing to reach will have success. You can just smell businesses that are using them as a sales tool. Most bloggers will sniff out these phonies, and find the blogs that really speak to them.

It’s the Wild West out in blog land. The blogs that will really be successful are the one that the readers have learned to trust. Trust is what will spread the word through the blogosphere, benefiting honest businesses, and toasting the phonies.

Tool Of The Trade

Inspired by May Dreams Gardens most recent post on “Sharp Gardening Tools” I decided to take a good look at the shears I use day in and day out. They are Felco #8 and I have had these so long now I don’t remember when I opened the package. The scabbard that holds them to my belt is older, as demonstrated in the picture, by placing it next to a new scabbard. I have replaced the blade and spring countless times, which is the beauty of Felco’s. They have parts that can be replaced!

The scabbard has acquired, with age, an almost magical ability to draw the shears to it.

Saying no to homogenized gardening.

Great post at Garden Rant about a possible upswing in gardening. I think Mr. Ball in The Washington Post article hit's it right on the head. I never could understand why gardening was thought to be in a decline. Like so many things, it goes in cycles, and I can't believe that entire generations would not feel the pull of working with plants. The idea that younger generations are not interested in gardening just dose not jive with what we see here at our garden center. We have younger, 20 something's, quite interested in gardening. Many seem to be interested in organic gardening since they have young children who they want to feed fresh vegetables and fruits. They are also interested in ornamental gardening, but not the suburban sameness that oozes from most new developments, but a unique garden that expresses their outlook on life. Many are completely bored, like I am, with the packaged, homogenized, garden center experience that is found at the home stores. Now that doesn't mean there are not lots of them that go to places like that, but the ones coming into my store do not. They want to be recognized as individuals, with a unique outlook, not following trends.

20th century advice for the 21’st century.

I thought we had made headway when I was interviewed by a trade magazine about blogs and their importance, or lack of, with garden centers.

Looking at an internet site put on by the same people who publish the magazine, I was excited to see an article with this teaser, "Consider this: You now have ways to communicate with your customers that will boggle the mind ... at least until next year, when the new ways will render the current mind-boggling ways obsolete. That's how it is with technology, and, as we noted last month, it's a challenge you must address to stay competitive". I could'nt wait to see the article, since I thought that maybe some up to date advice for small and medium sized garden centers was forthcoming.

Do you know what the cutting edge is according to the magazine? Watch more television! Yes, the answer for garden center owners is to watch the Saturday morning garden shows and be ready when the customer comes in filled with ideas. This way I can respond knowledgeably about what "so and so" said, and offer products that tie into that shows ideas. We are supposed to be able to speak to customers, as the article continues in their "native tongue that being the dialect of the six or seven garden shows that she watches. This way I will be able to respond when "your customer will be coming in talking about 'this great idea I just saw on television', you will have a jump on the competition when you can say, 'yeah, and we have (fill in the blank) that will make it work for you.'"

This is well meaning advice, if just a little dated. I don't know about other garden center owners, but I do not have customers coming in talking about these shows. If they are watching them, they are not saying anything. I have a feeling that the local Home Depot probably gets the majority of these kinds of customers, since they sponsor, along with the other mass merchants, most of these shows.

My impression with this advice is, while it's not unwise to keep an eye on the garden shows, it's foolish to watch them all. Some are boring, others are marketing tools for the sponsors, and others are not about our unique region. These shows are aimed at a mass audience in the middle, the middle the mass merchants own. I believe as an independent garden center you need to reach the edges. People who might watch one or two of these shows, but are looking for something other than the mass appeal these shows have. The only hope for the independents is to be aware of mass media, and then figure out how to circumvent it with your own targeted media, to get you message out. Why would I want to emulate the mass media/merchants when they already own that turf, and I couldn't possibly compete. I need to get my unique message out to the customers who will respond, and watching television is not going to do it.

Finally this gem from the magazine. "Even if you have a regular e-mail system in the works or a state-of-the-art Web site that shouts, 'my garden center is on top of it, technologically 'there's still no substitute for knowing your customer. She'll let you know what she' s thinking every time she sets foot in the store" (or on her blog!)

Small and medium size garden centers are fighting for a small piece of the gardening pie, and the advice we get is watch Saturday morning television to get to know our customers better. Yikes!

The Lotus Position

Carol at May Dreams Gardens had a post titled “One Container: One Plant”, where she mentions that sometimes just one plant in a pot can make a statement. We have this Lotus plant which we have always thought makes a cool container plant all by it’s self. If you have never seen Lotus bloom it’s something else, spectacular. I will post pictures when it does. It’s in a container that we sunk into the wine barrel, which is full of water. I do put a water hyacinth or two in the water with it to help keep the water clean. Biological “Mosquito Dunk’s” keep those pests under control.

This is Sha′, she is the driver for ‘Blooms of Glen Ellen’, one of our bedding plant suppliers. Recently when we needed bedding plants and had missed the cutoff time she volunteered to extend her driving time, and make sure we got our flowers for the weekend. It’s people like her that make small nurseries happen. Thanks Sha′.

She has a collection of hats, and you never know what she will show up in.

"The Heimlick Manure"

It's Saturday, and time to check out the garden sections of local newspapers. I happened on The San Jose Mercury News garden section .

They published a list of 10 new products for the garden, and their reviews. One that stood out wasThe Heimlick Manure .
Here is what the Mercury said "Perks up plants in distress. Amuses serious gardeners but may give hope to those with black thumbs. `Garden, home or office, the Heimlick Manure saves lives,' crows its promoter, San Franciscan David Neumann, on his amusing Web site, http://www.sayplay.com/.

The Mercury continues "At $9.95 for 16 ounces (includes shipping), this would make a funny gag gift for a gardener, but not a serious item to stock in your shed. You could buy a whole bag of organic compost at SaveMart for $1.99, add some steer manure and mix it up yourself. Of course, it wouldn't be in the cute bag with the even cuter name. Neumann also sells T-shirts that tell the 'story' of the Heimlick Manure ($19.50 for short sleeve or $29.50 for long sleeve).

This is just like "Poo-pets" that were so popular about ten years ago. Cow manure shaped into different animal shapes, frog, duck, cow, etc. We couldn't keep them in stock, people thought they were so "cute".

Would you sell this, or products like this, in your garden center? Is this a rip off, or a fun product that deserves it's day in the sun, or both?

The nursery industry and blogging.

A nursery trade publication contacted me about the relevance of blogs to nurseries and garden centers. They had been researching the subject, and happened across my earlier post "Plant Trafficker". They had some questions about whether the nursery trade should be interested in blogs. According to them, the consensus amongst most nursery consultants was there is no relevance, and no reason for nurseries to be interested in blogging, or bloggers.

The good news is that the magazine is interested and took the time to check out some blogs. I receive this magazine and will let you know how it comes out.

The bad news is that the very nursery consultants that tell us gardening is changing, that there are not enough new gardeners emerging from generation x,y,and z, and that we had better change too, if we are to survive, are so unaware of the importance of blogging on our culture.

Genie has a post about an unfortunate incident she had with United Airlines. Imagine if she was so upset that she started a blog called “why I dislike United Airlines.com”, and invited others to post their own unfortunate incidents with United Airlines. Shouldn’t the airline be concerned about the fact that when you Goggle their name this web site might come up?

I am not suggesting that garden centers or related industries start monitoring blogs for negative press, but instead engage the gardening public using the medium. I realize most garden centers have a hard enough time keeping up with everything there is to do. I most likely spend way too much time blogging, but I enjoy it, and why not do what you enjoy?