Organic fertilizers are selling!

I wanted to share an e-mail I sent to a friend in the nursery business back in New Jersey. She had written me concerning a new line of Bat Guano she was being presented with. She asked my opinion, as we have written about this before. Realizing that for many in the country organic fertilizers are somewhat new and untested I thought I would share the e-mail that I sent back. By the way, my nursery friend say's they may have just had their best March ever. Things are looking bright for small, locally owned garden centers! Here is my e-mail. "I get my bat guano from Sunleaves. That being said, bat guano is not my biggest seller. I will still carry it though, as it rounds out our fertilizer selection. I carry Indonesian and Mexican Bat Guano as well as Seabird guano. Bat Guano is the most potent of all manure products. You sprinkle it on dry, or make a "tea" out of it.

I would say bat guano is like a specialty fertilizer that sells, but never as much as your all purpose types like Marine Cuisine, or E.B. Stone Organics. I like carrying the bat guano because it sends the message that we are serious about fertilizers and about carrying a wide selection. I don't know about your area, but I have people who love to try out new fertilizers. Especially organics. Ever since I started carrying more of the fertilizers that the local hydroponic shops carry, my fertilizer sales are way up! I mean, why didn't I do this earlier? I have never sold so much fertilizer, especially organics. Now our local crowd doesn't have to travel 12 miles to Auburn or Placerville to get the same stuff. So, I cost a $ or two more. Travel time and the price of gas keeps them here.

I wouldn't want to steer you the wrong way. I do business in northern California where this stuff may be more accepted. I will say for me the increase in types of fertilizer has benefited us. I now carry almost 90% organic, and have finally weeded most if the Miracle Gro crowd out. For me its been a blast because I like fertilizer, and I like people who are interested in trying different things. I am counting on fertilizer sales this summer to keep the cash registers humming. It gets very hot here during the summer, so not much planting gets done. The only thing to do is water, (we sell drip systems) and sell fertilizer to keep those veggies growing.

Hope this helps,

Trey

I want a chicken now!

We open today, Easter Sunday from 10 to 2am. We usually close at 4pm on Sundays. We have to go the the nursery to check on water anyway so we have been open on Easter for the last few years. It's a time when people bring their relatives to the garden center. Visiting guests are always amazed that such a beautiful place exists here in Garden Valley, and the locals like to show us off. My "build a raised bed" workshop on Saturday was a hit. It is always well attended, but this year we we're packed with people interested in the concept. Here in the Sierras our soil is not always workable, so raised beds are a great way to get gardening right away.It's funny but people are so excited they don't want to wait for things to happen. I had a lady call the other day looking for a chicken. I don't know why she called us, but I said the hardware store across the street was selling baby chicks. No, she want's a grown chicken!She doesn't want to wait for the six months before they lay. She want's to live the lifestyle now!

This is very interesting. I had a call from a landscape firm in Granite Bay called,  peas and harmony. They design organic gardens. They called us a few weeks ago looking for fruit trees to plant for a home orchard they we're installing. I think this is a great idea. People do want to install organic gardens and orchards, but so many don't know where to start. I believe this is the single greatest growth area for garden centers or landscapers. People looking for information on making the lifestyle change to more home grown food. Not just growing food, but in enhancing the entire garden, be it ornamental or food bearing. People do want to "get back to the garden". They just need a guiding hand, and a full grown chicken.

I'm being followed by a box of fertilizer

I received a "follow" from Miracle-Gro at my Twitter account. They are not the first company to "follow" me, as it is "in" for business to get involved. I am not sure what these companies hope to achieve. I don't really have a problem with being followed by corporations. It's just I don't know who is following me. According to Scotts/Miracle-Gro their Twitter account will supply me with, "Updates from ScottsMiracle-Gro, Miracle-Gro's PR team and gardening fans!".  One of the things that keeps me interested in Twitter is the updates are from individuals, not corporations. I think Miracle-Gro's account would be better served if the CEO of Scott's Tweeted. Now that might be interesting. Do we really want to hear from Scotts PR team? No, I want to hear from Jim Hagedorn president of Scotts. That will put a personal face on giant corporation, and make for more interesting Tweets.

Thrilled to do business with you!

My last post elicited some interesting comments. The comment from greenfred is interesting for a couple of reasons. Greenfred say's he worked for a national seed company. He claims that if I, "truly want to sell this product to your customers, may I suggest spending a weekend building a peg-board display to hold the packs? Or perhaps try your hand at bending and welding wires and pipes together to fabricate your own metal spinner?" Excellent idea greenfred! Just what I wanted to do with my weekend. He continues, "The notion that a supplier should be 'excited' that you 'want to sell their…' is beyond condescending. And in today’s retail climate, your promise to 'be selling their seeds for years, helping build their brand…' is a joke. Suppliers today operate knowing that a huge percentage of their customers today may not even be around next season, let alone 'for years.' Why would I expect any supplier to be excited about selling me their product? If they are not, then I wont be selling their product. That's exactly what's so wrong about what greenfred has said. Yes, you should be thrilled to be selling your seed through my store. Greenfred continues, "This seed supplier has decided they need to charge you for your rack so that they can maintain their profitability. If you disagree, buy your seeds somewhere else."

Here is the bottom line greenfred. I am not carrying the seed companies seed that required the rack be paid for. Period. You want me to do business with a seed compnay because the,"seed they supply you costs them money to produce. But the packaging they design and print to hold the seed also costs them money. And the freight they pay to deliver the product to your store costs them money. And the marketing they do, and the display rack on which you mount the seed packs costs them A TON of money" So, because it costs the seed company money to stay in business I should want to do business with them? How about the costs I incure to run my business?

I am the customer! There are plenty of seed companies to do business with. I use Lake Valley Seed, and it's displayed on a rack I got from them so long ago I cant remember if we paid for it or not. I wanted to carry another rack, but since I decided not to pay the freight on the rack I guess Lake Valley Seed gets the sales floor for now.

My last post was more about how to get the customer (me) to create a long term relationship with a business (the seed company). Like most customers I believe the world revolves around me and my needs.  Satisfy those needs and we will do business forever. Whine at me about the costs of doing business, or how grateful I should be that your company exists and I am gone. Give me a spinner rack with your logo on top where my customers will be seeing it for years. Watch as we sell, year after year your seed. Just as Perry said, "From their perspective, if they send the rack out, they know that they aren’t likely to see it again, and they aren’t likely to get paid for it either. Ask them how much volume of business it would take to get the rack for free. Then… ask them if they want that only in one year, or over all the years that you intend to buy their product. Ask them for some other incentive to offset the cost of the rack (free product etc.) If they aren’t bright enough to take an exclusive deal with the ability to get more over time, they might not be there later anyway. Ask them if they recognize that a 1/2 loaf is better than no loaf at all. With things the way they are… can they afford to be starving? It’s their choice to make."

To say that, "the notion that a supplier should be 'excited' that you 'want to sell their' is beyond condescending." Condescending? Yes, greenfred, every supplier should be very excited to sell me product. They should provide me with all the tools needed to sell their product, spinner racks, handouts, etc. They should constantly remind me just how pleased they are to be doing business with me. Yes, they should be thrilled to be doing business with me or we won't be doing business for long together.

Here is the bottom line greenfred. We had better start getting a clue who is important here. The customer! There is no one more important in my store than the customer. We will just about do anything to satisfy our customers needs. If we don't they will shop elsewhere, and we may or may not ever know they could have been a regular customer. The small retail garden center is also a customer of the wholesale nurseries and suppliers. They should treat us just as we treat our customers. If they don't we shop elsewhere. Right now Lake Valley Seed gets all my seed business, and you know, that's o.k. Seed sales are great and I am not so sure now if I really need or needed that other seed rack from that other company. I'll just order, and re-order more from Lake Valley seed. No big deal, except for that seed company that could have gotten their seed in my store while we are growing our business.

The hidden costs of doing business

Why is it that seed companies, or at least the seed company I want to do business with, require that you purchase the seed rack? You know, the metal spinner that holds the seed packs. If I don't have to buy the rack then they require that I pay the freight to get the rack to my store. Why is it that I have to pay to have a seed company take up space in my store? It's their seed we will be selling. It valuable retail space that will be advertising their product. We will be sending them money on a regular basis. Shouldn't they be excited that we want to sell their seed?

The seed company is a good, family run company that we want to see succeed. It's just that we won't be carrying their seed because we don't want to pay the freight fee. What a shame. We would be selling their seeds for years, helping build their brand. I would think they would be excited to send us a rack to display their seed.

I know that paying for the rack, or freight to get it has always fallen to the retail store to deal with.  Why?

Store managers, this is how not to respond to disgruntled customers

I got a angry e-mail from some guy named Tim who say's he is a store manager at a Smith and Hawken Store. He want's to know why I am  down on Smith and Hawken.  He asks what happened at the Feb 3rd meting that was suppose to decide the future of the chain. He makes the point that nothing has happened, and that Smith and Hawken has spent thousands of dollars installing televisions in their stores. Why would they do that if they we're going to close? What I didn't like about the e-mail was the subject line, "You suck". The rest of the e-mail was in that vain. Here is some information for "Tim". I did not say that the future of the chain was going to be decided on Feb.3rd.  It was a commenter at the blog that said that. If you have a comment about my posts then why not post that at the blog, rather than sending me a angry e-mail. That way everyone can read what you have to say.

I have no idea whether Tim is actually a store manager or not. If he is, he should given a course in how to deal with angry customers.  I was one of Smith and Hawkens original customers, long before Tim was ever involved with the company. Better to have provided his input at the blog in the comments, minus the derogatory language.

More and more, business is going to have to deal with customers and others talking about how they feel about companies on their blogs. Is Tim going to fire off angry e-mails to anyone that speaks in less than complimentary tones about his company? What's the deal with the televisions being put in? Hearing that they are going to put televisions in the store makes me even more doubtful about the future of the chain.

Here is the bottom line. If you are a store manager of a nursery or garden store the last thing you should do is get involved in a war of words with garden bloggers. It solves nothing, and the history of your comments will be viewable forever. Better to have just disagreed with me, like many do, and left a comment. It would be the mature way to respond.

Independents moving in!

Here is a trend that I would like to see continue. According to Iconoculture, "Having been hit hard by the recession, many indoor shopping centers are seeing new tenant rates drop and national chains closing shop." We all know that, but what's interesting is who is filling the space. At one mall in New Mexico it is "filling those storefronts with mom-and-pop shops". This bodes well for quality independents. According to Iconoculture, "consumers see shopping at mom-and-pop shops as a way of keeping their money in the community and directly benefiting their neighbors." So there is a change in how people are spending their money. People are starting to realize that money spent and kept in the community, benefits the community.

Boy I hope this trend continues. You could take the same mall, and drop it in any town in America, and that's what we have now. It would be so nice to see regional differences expressed in these malls. It's really interesting to see the sea change going on with the consumer. If I we're a large chain this trend would have me concerned. It seems for once that the news is good for the small independents.  As Iconoculture said, independents are " connecting with consumers' interest in authentic and unique goods." I would add that connecting with the customers values is also high on the list.

Things are looking up

Before Christmas the mood in the retail world was certainly downbeat. I would say the mood is still rather downbeat, except for one notable exception, the retail garden center world. Over the last few years the reatil garden center business has been hit with a steady barrage of seemingly negative news. People just wanted someone else to put the landscape in, (DIFM). Generation X and Y are not interested in gardening. Celebrities told us that , "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!”. Boy have things changed in just a few months. Now it's "I'll do it myself", generation X and Y are embracing gardenng, and the celebrities? We'll, you decide. What is so refreshing is we have been talking about how wrong these "trends" were years ago. Here is a blog post from 2006 concerning, homogenized gardening.

I can't remember where I read it. Someone was thinking about opening a garden center. All their friends we're telling them they we're crazy to start a small business in this economy. I would have to say the friends are crazy! I can't think of a better time to start a small business, especially a garden center. What other business addresses the needs of people in these days so well? Start a "green" business? Can't get much greener than a place that sells plants and trees. Want to keep you money with locally owned small business? The locally owned small garden center. Want to grow your own vegetables and fruits? You have to buy them somewhere. The local garden center. Sustainable business? Our offerings not only sustain, but grow in value for the customer and improve the environment. Home values have dropped, so you can't sell you home anytime soon. Why not fix up the house and make it a home, complete with a garden that makes all the worlds concerns seem a "world" away? Who can help with this? The local independent garden center.

Not all boats in the horticultural world are rising in this climate. I would not want to be in a landscaping business in this area. Home building has slowed to a crawl and it looks like DIFM (Do it for me) is being replaced with IDIM (I'll do it myself). There are still lot's of wholesale operations that are in trouble. Those that depended on the landscape trade, and service the box stores are in trouble. The box store scene will in my opinion be dominated by one or two growers (Color Spot and Bonnie?). The box stores will have their own exclusive growers that service them, and most likely not the independents. We have been talking about this trend here for the last few years, and it seems to be playing out. Growers will have to decide which boat to board. Box stores or indies?

I am excited about the possibilities that await.  Who would have thought that one of the few growth areas in this economy would be the smaller independent garden centers? Some of the old timers told us that in slow economies people return to the garden. We we're are told that this time however things would be different. Gardening was on the way out, and garden accessorizing was in. Vegetable garden? Naw, give me a wide screen outdoor TV to put next to my built in BBQ. Add some throw pillows and your done. Times have changed.

Just Garden!

I love the argument about whether food produced from gardening is free, inexpensive, or expensive. Really, what does it matter if you enjoy doing it? No, Alice Waters is wrong, food supplied from The White House Garden or any other garden is not free. I am quite sure when all is said and done the food from the White House garden will be very expensive. Can you you imagine all the associated costs with having a garden in a place like that? Like any hobby you can spend as much or little as you want. George Ball will gladly explain how a garden produces much more in food than the costs associated with gardening.  I don't like the idea of using the costs involved with gardening, low or high, to induce people to garden. Can you save money gardening as opposed to shopping at the grocery store? Sure, after you have developed the garden over a period of years.  There is no way you can grow vegetables here in the foothills of The Sierra without a certain amount of work and money to get the granite to give back. Now after the soil has been conditioned, or raised beds put in, the costs can drop dramatically. But free? Never.

This is the argument the small farmer has been fighting for years. Ask any small organic farmer if growing food is free. I am a small farmer and can assure you growing food is not free. We work six and seven days a week, sometimes ten hours a day. I haven't had a vacation since I don't know when. This is what bugs me about the gushing going on with the current gardening scene. Telling people that gardening will save them money is not the first argument I would make. Peace of mind, exercise, being outdoors, fantastic tasting, healthy food, etc. are some of the reasons to garden.

I, as a small nursery owner love the fact that gardening is "in". Our sales are up and I feel much better about the year before us, than I did before Christmas. I actually like the fact that there is all this talk going on concerning costs associated with gardening. The blogosphere hashes these things out, people take sides, and we move on. All this attention is great for the small farmer and nursery.

I think Doug Green summed it up well.  "Not only do we now have breathless prose for Victory Gardening, we also have the pundits arguing about how much it costs to actually have a vegetable garden. Good grief." Like Doug, I remember the last time we had this type of hype in the 70's. " The last time this kind of 'debate' raged was back in the 70’s when we all knew it was tongue-in-cheek to cost out the roto-tiller, the fencing, the nanny to watch over the kids, the 4×4 to haul the produce to market etc etc etc. And equally spurious is bragging about how much money you saved on your garden."

Gardening has been around forever. Forget about what you will save on food by growing your own. What is more important is you will be growing healthy, great tasting food.  You'll have the satisfaction of having done it yourself. That's it!

And that's enough.

Don't feel guilty

I find it interesting that some of us feel guilty for saying we don't want all the attention for gardening. A couple of commenter's here preface their comments with, "I feel like a bit of a grump...', or "It almost makes me grumpy about gardening...", etc. Why do we feel this way? Because we have seen the results of over enthusiasm before. For many in the blogosphere, and elsewhere the idea that gardening is now hip is exciting. Some hope Oprah will grab a shovel and pitch in. After all, if she does millions will take up gardening, and the world will be a better place. They plant a vegetable garden at the  White House and Alice Waters proclaims "now everyone can grow a garden and have free food." 

There is nothing grumpy about watching the main stream media jump on the latest craze. We have seen what they can do with any news story and that's why we write and read blogs.  After all we have been talking about the increase in interest in gardening for years here. We've ignored the main stream media proclamations of "the death of gardening" for years now. Amy's Death of Gardening post was written in 2006. So why would we be excited when the same media tells us of gardening's new hipness?

So I don't find it "grumpy" to see all the attention gardening is getting and felling a little funky. It seems like when the main stream media focuses too much attention on a subject they ruin it. I can't wait for the breathless report from The Times about how, "gardening really doesn't save you money", or how "millions of Americans are now suffering from back problems", do to over exertion in the garden. What about over exposure to the sun?

Sit back and enjoy the show. When it's all said and done gardening will still be around, the celebrities will head off to the next cause, and we can continue the work we started here, and other blogs. Real people who garden, talking about their gardens and gardening. So refreshing.

 

Free Food?

My last post about the trendiness of gardening is somewhat tongue and cheek. I, like most nursery people love the idea that people are coming around to gardening. It's just that some people, especially celebrities say and do the strangest things. This article at Slate sums up the breathless nature of the new gardening scene. Concerning the White House Garden Alice Waters gushes, "To have this sort of 'victory' garden, this message goes out that everyone can grow a garden and have free food." Free Food? This is exactly the sort of thing we have been talking about here. There is no free food. The article quite rightly points out that gardening is sometimes hard work, but worth it. The time and money spent to grow food is well spent, but in no way free.  It's great that The White House has a garden, it's neat to have more publicity about gardening, but beware of the chattering class. I am sure Alice Waters knows gardening is not free. She is just excited about the prospects of more people growing their own. Never the less, as people come to embrace the 'idea' of gardening, we need to be truthful about the work, and joys of gardening. Our readers depend on us to tell the truth, since so many in the main stream media tend to masssage the truth to fit their expectations.

Oh, Oh, gardening is "IN"

Here we sit at the dawn of a new gardening age. It must be so since The New York Times and other main stream media tell us it's so. Of course, we have been talking about this here and other blogs for years. They miss all the real goings on in the blogosphere, since the blogosphere is now more influential than they are, and they don't like to admit it. Let's remember how most of the gardening magazines we're telling us that DIFM (do it for me) was the wave of the future. Wrong! We we're also told that young people had no interest in gardening. Wrong! We have been told in the garden center trade to keep it simple and not confuse new gardeners with to much information. Wrong! People are dying for information on gardening, and don't want is sugar coated.

It snowed here yesterday, and this morning it was 27 degrees F. I wonder how those Bonnie tomatoes are doing at Home Depot in Placerville. I wonder if the people that planted them are staring at little brown plants this morning? They had a special the other day, Buy 3-4”pots of color for $1. I wonder how those little marigolds and petunias are doing this morning? Of course it's buyer beware when it comes to the garden department at Home Depot. I have no problem with selling tomatoes now, as long as you provide people with the information they need to be successful. Our average last day of frost is the end of April, and tomatoes and other warm season vegetables always perform better when planted after Mothers Day. Oh well, what can a small garden center like us do except tell people we don't have tomatoes for sale until April. All last week we had people asking where our tomatoes where. Why? Because they see them for sale at places like Home Depot, where they are left on a rack, uncovered and exposed to the elements.

I believe that for a small garden center to be successful you have to gain the trust of the customer. I have to believe that some of the people we told last week about waiting to plant warm season vegetables now know why. Perhaps we have gained some trust on their part, and will be a regular source of information in the future. It takes time to gain the trust of the neighborhood. Sometimes years. We have been in business now for five years, and am just now starting to see the hard work paying off.

 Gardening is the same way. It sometimes takes years for the results to manifest themselves. Gardening can be hard work, and time consuming. Do most people have the will power to keep at it? I doubt it. It doesn't help that the new gardener is confronted with businesses that purposefully sell plants out of season, just to make an extra buck or two. This is not about giving the customer the information they need, and then letting them decide. It's about selling plants out of season with no information about local climate conditions here in the mountains. It's about having no responsibility when the dead plants will just be returned to the grower for credit (pay at scan).

 As gardening starts to become the “IN” thing, watch as the main stream media and various celebrities play catch up, and try to profit from the boom. There is one place that doesn't play catch up, and starts the trends we are seeing now. The Blogospehere. It's at garden blogs around the world that the foundation for the current interest in gardening continues to take root. It's real people, writing about real experiences that are making the difference. I really don't care to hear about Oprah, The White House Garden, or any other celebrity garden. Much more fun to hear from real people and their experiences. That's where the real action is.

Another large wholesale nursery files for bankruptcy

Green Valley Nursery, located in Willis, TX filed for bankruptcy March 9th. They ship mainly to Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Missouri. I know Victor at Plants for all Seasons used them as a local supplier.  Like Victor, I hope they come out of the bankruptcy and can get back to concentrating on whats important, growing plants.

Congress to kill farmers markets?

This is concerning if true. According to Knoxnews.com congress is has a bill afoot that will potentially, "force anyone who produces food of any kind, and then transports it to a different location for sale, to register with a new federal agency called the "Food Safety Administration."  The news comes via various blogs, including one that look's for conspiracies.  Never the less, considering the AIG bailout fiasco, one should not underestimate congresses ability to screw things up. The husband of the bills sponsor works for Monsanto?

Since this information is comming out of various blogs, I would want to find out more. According to one blog, cryptogon.com, the bill would" force anyone who produces food of any kind, and then transports it to a different location for sale, to register with a new federal agency called the 'Food Safety Administration.' Even growers who sell just fruit and/or vegetables at farmers markets would not only have to register, but they would be subject inspections by federal agents of their property and all records related to food production."

In the name of food safety, the government wants to make it harder on the local growers and farmers markets. Do not underestimate the governments ability to take a good thing and turn it into a nightmare of regulation, that forces some of your favorite local growers out of business. The food safety issue is not about your local farmers market, but large agri-business.  Most of these small farmers are just hanging on, and if forced with more red tape they will fold.

Does anybody know more about this bill, and it's affects on the small farmer and farmers markets? Is this much a do about nothing, or a potentially bigger problem? Considering this congress, and what it's done so far I would be very suspicious.

It's about more than price.

Interesting post by Sarah at Open Register, where she decides not to purchase a hanging basket flower at Lowe's, as a show of support for independent garden centers. The basket was beautiful, and her instincts said, "buy". She chose not to. Are there many people like Sarah out there? People who see the results of their purchasing habit's. Can see if the money stays local, or heads off to corporate headquarters. I believe there is a growing number of people who will base their purchasing on more than price and convenience. They will buy from stores that provide the best quality and service, but with a nod to knowing where there money is going. I believe this is a result of more and more people who are self-employed, and know how hard it is to compete in the marketplace these days. The independent movement is growing, and bodes well for the smaller garden center. I also watch where I buy my stuff for the nursery. I do not support wholesale growers who do business with the box stores and chains. If I am going to be truly different and independent, how can I offer the same stuff they have at my local Home Depot? It is about more than price! Finding others who feel the same way is one way for the smaller garden center to succeed. Find these people, get their permission to tell your story, and they will come. Certainly not the majority of gardeners, but the ones who's loyalty will pay off in the long run. Like right now.