Suddenly hydroponics is going mainstream, in Saigon!

Readers of my blog know we have been discussing bringing hydroponics into my garden center since July 2nd, 2008. Here is a list of articles I have done on the subject since then.  My latest post on the subject was just this week. It seems like the idea is somewhat less than welcome with a lot of my fellow nursery people. I can't blame them, since until now much of the hydroponic business has been done out of warehouses, and not mainstream garden centers. So it is welcome to see people outside of our businesses start to see the benefits of this type of gardening. Over at Garden Rant this article got my attention. Called "Urban Gardening in Saigon" it touches on the very areas we have been discussing. Check out this quote concerning who is doing this most of this urban gardening, "most of them are male, aged above 30".  Why are they doing this? "I accidentally learned from the Internet that anyone can grow sprout vegetable in their homes with simple tools and I decided to grow vegetables myself. The health of my child is the most important thing for me now."

So there you have it. People in Saigon, and the rest of the world are learning about this stuff through the Internet, and they are doing it for food safety. In addition, it's that illusive group of nursery customers known as "males", that are really getting behind this.

You heard it here first.

Garden Centers, Garden Clubs, and New Media

Had a great talk yesterday in Carmichael for the district meeting of the California Garden Clubs. We had people from Lake Tahoe, Truckee, the Sacramento Area, and Foothills.  Talking to this group, and others over the years one theme I have reiterated is to get a web page up. A lot of younger people might join a club, but often the meetings are during the day when people are at work. With a web page people can still stay involved without having to attend the meeting. This group has done a great job with their web page! They even have a page where you can type in your zip code and find a club near you. Entering our zip I see our local club, The Divide Garden Club still has no web page. We are a mountain area that still has areas where there are no cell signals, or high speed Internet.  Never the less they should have web page since it cost nothing to put up a Wordpress, or Blogger hosted site.  They will come around eventually. I am convinced that the way for any small business or group to keep people informed is via a web site. You can supplement it with a Facebook Page, Twitter account, or e-news. The e-news is the most effective way for us to reach out to our customers, who have signed up to receive the news. I use Constant Contact, where we currently send out over 1000 e-news every week or so.

We have talked in the past how conversations are taking place about you, and your business.  You may not even know it! I use Twitter the least. We live in a rural area where the constant give and take of Twitter makes less sense (to me) than in a urban setting. Still, I do check in now and then. For the first time I searched the word nurseryman to see what comes up. I thought my account name was nurseryman, but it's actually goldengecko. Wow, was I surprised! Up came all sorts of tweets concerning my last post on, What is a Garden Center and What is a Garden Center, Part 2. The other interesting thing about these people is they follow, and are followed by thousands of people. Unlike my self, who is a casual user, these are "Sneezers" Sneezers are the people who are much more likely to spread an idea. They are the ones who will spread the word (good or bad)because people follow, and believe what they have to say.

I had no idea that people we're referencing my post in their tweets.  Just realized a few months ago that your suppose to check the @goldengecko page, to see if anyone wants to get my attention. So now I check that daily, but had no idea the other conversations we're going on. Head over to Twitter and search the name of your business, your name, your occupation, etc. What do you find?

Doug Green wrote a good post on why he finds Twitter less than useful for his purpose. Not even sure it's a good media vehicle for our rural garden center. An urban garden center on the other hand should definitely be involved. Of course, by now you know I blog for other reasons than just promoting the nursery. Still don't plan on using Twitter any more than I do currently, but think I am going to go back after this post and type in a few more key words and see what comes up. Being involved in the conversation doesn't mean you have to do all the talking. Sometimes just listening will open your eyes.

What is a garden center?, part 2

Thanks for the responses to my last post. I wanted to address a couple of them, since I have also asked some of these same questions. As to Christian's concerns about an unsavory type of person buying this equipment, I am sure it happens. I wonder if nursery people back in the 70's had the same concerns about the long-haired hippies that we're coming in looking for organic supplies for their gardens back at the commune. Remember, it was not that long ago when "organic" was considered esoteric, and the realm of the " medicinal tomato" growing hippies. "Why carry organic?", nursery people would say. "It's for the hippies, and they will never be as good a customer as the 50 and 60 year old ladies we have now." Victor say's, "hydroponic use will become a distant memory if pot ever becomes legal. Until it does I believe that there is money to be made in 'indoor gardening'. Nothing wrong with selling hydroponics. Herbs and veggies are grown to some extent but the big movement to hydroponics is really about hiding an illegal crop." Hydroponics are used at Disneyworld to produce all the vegetables served in their restaurants. It is the source of "hothouse grown" tomatoes and lettuce you buy right now in the store. Hydroponics is here to stay. The question is about the home market for hydroponics. If all of gardening was about producing a bountiful selection of produce we would be out of business! It's about having a hobby. Most of us garden as a hobby, just like setting up a model train set in the basement. What practical reason does a grown man or women have a model train set? It's a hobby that fires up the imagination, and someone is making money selling model train sets.

Chris say's, "We have the same type of occasional customer in Cleveland. They are always looking for products to take care of their ‘indoor tomato plants’( wink, wink, nudge, nudge!)" So Chris has occasional customers looking for products for their "indoor tomato" plants. What does he sell them? Or are the asked to shop somewhere else? Realizing that there are more of those customers out there in Cleveland, where do they go now for their fertilizers and supplies?

I realize that here in northern California things may certainly be different than the rest of the nation (hey, quit that laughing!). As an example I Googled hydroponics in our zip code. Four pages of hydroponic shops come up in a 45 mile radius. Well over 40 shops! We are not blind to what the different reasons hydroponics can be used for. Any nursery person, or garden center that sells a bag of potting soil could very well be helping someone grow, "medicinal tomatoes", including those 50 and 60 year old ladies shopping at Christian's nursery.

Often the exciting new technologies, and resources that we take for granted start in the fringes of the gardening world. Remember, real change takes place in the fringes. Organic gardening, now all the rage, started with hippies living in the hills growing "whatever". We, in the nursery business pretty much ignored this movement as being "out of the mainstream". Some people saw the potential and jumped on the bandwagon. They are now called "visionaries". "Oh, please tell us how to sell organic fertilizer and pest controls", we ask.

One of the things that keeps me interested in this business is pushing the envelope. When the wizard say's, "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain," I want to look. In an urban setting where land for gardening is sparse, hydroponics will become an important way of producing safe, healthful food. It already is, whether you know it or not. During the winter when people suffer from the lack of light, having a indoor hobby that grows healthy food, and at the same time helps to wipe away the winter time blues is important. Just like the person who spends hours working on that train set in the basement, hydroponics can entertain someone for hours on end.

Hydroponics, like water gardening, orchid growing, home wine making, or growing "wicked plants", is not for everyone. Home Depot and it's like are there to service "everyone".  We need to find the niches that they don't address. That of course, is not for everyone.

What is a garden center?

It seems that often the "new" ideas and products that we sell at the garden center are not new at all. We jumped into the indoor gardening scene over the last year. This happened after I visited a local hydroponic shop in the middle of last winter. While my conventional garden center was in the winter doldrums, the hydroponic shop was jumping. Not only was it jumping, but it had many of the illusive garden shoppers known as males of generation x and y. Our industry is always asking where these people are, and why they don't garden. They do garden, and they are not visiting conventional garden centers! We talked about this a year ago, and the reasons for our entry into this market. Now many of us prefer the outdoors for our gardening. The less involved gardening is with modern technology, the better. That's fine, but there are lot's of people who enjoy growing indoors, and using modern technology to that end. Reading my morning Boing Boing I came across this post about Farms as Skyscrapers. As the article points out, "The concept of indoor farming is not new, since hothouse production of tomatoes, a wide variety of herbs, and other produce has been in vogue for some time. What is new is the urgent need to scale up this technology to accommodate another 3 billion people. An entirely new approach to indoor farming must be invented, employing cutting edge technologies."

This resonates with many people who ask themselves, if it has been done commercially for the last decade or so, why can't the same technology be used by individuals? It can, and is. What I enjoy about indoor gardening and hydroponics's is it engages a customer base that has not been a big customer of conventional garden centers.  It also can become an obsessive hobby that keeps the indoor gardener visiting the garden center time and time again, trying out all the new products and equipment. It's also is mostly a winter time activity which is traditionally a slow time for the nursery.

Like water gardening, this is not an area you can just dabble in.  If you are going to educate and sell indoor equipment you have to get into it in a big way. We are expanding our garden center into two units of a small strip mall in front of the nursery. This will increase our indoor space by about 900 sq. ft.,providing a place to showcase and demonstrate how the technology works. The key in my opinion is to have actively working displays to show just how this stuff works.

Many in generation x and y respond to the idea expressed in the Boing Boing post that indoor gardening, "if successfully implemented...offer the promise of urban renewal, sustainable production of a safe and varied food supply (year-round crop production), and the eventual repair of ecosystems that have been sacrificed for horizontal farming." Even if it is for reasons other than creating a sustainable food supply, it's an area that engages peoples imagination, and an area that traditional garden centers have allowed to be usurped by hydroponic shops that operate out of warehouses. I read in a indoor gardening trade magazine that the indoor gardening industry is recommending that hydroponic shops change their names to something more user friendly like, "garden center."

Did you get that? They want to call themselves garden centers! Not indoor gardening shop, or hydroponic shop, but garden center. You don't think that local hydroponic shop operating out of a store front is a garden center? Doesn't matter what you think! The people using those shops think of them as their "garden center." You just gained a whole lot of competition. Actually, that competition has been there all along. We just didn't know it!

Keeping the government out of our gardens, part 2

We support the Master Gardeners. Just this last week we donated a couple of hundred dollars in plants for their first plant sale. We have had the El Dorado County Master Gardeners come to our picnic grounds at the nursery the last few years for their annual picnic. The idea that somehow my last post was negative towards the Master Gardener program is false.  Just as Don Shor said in the comments, "California already has the Garden In Every School program, a great opportunity for local nurseries to make direct donations of materials and time and reap excellent public relations. I’ve donated to every school in our area, participated in plantings, talked to school groups, all in conjunction with this excellent state program." So have I Don! Why do we need another layer of bureaucracy from the federal government? Gardening is local and having federal programs just seems to me a waste of precious resources. Lester Loam comments, "Do you know the budget situation of Master Gardener programs around the country?" Yea, most likely it's like all of our budgets, under strain. You just have to deal with it the best you can. Lester says, "we’ve got the potential for an incredible increase in customers for seeds, plants and gardening supplies. Those customers need information about how to garden (and a supportive community to help them) or their initial forays into gardening will sour them for the long haul. There go your new customers." We already have had the incredible increase in customers for seeds, plants, and gardening supplies this year. Apparently the word has gotten out, without the federal governments intervention. Lester says, "master gardeners have been doing that for decades, and that’s why the program works." he continues saying that with more government involvement you are, "more likely to see networks of gardeners sharing information about what works in their area." It seems to me that that is what we are doing here, and other gardening blogs right now. In addition there are places called garden centers, run by people like me who are more than happy to fill you in on all your gardening questions and needs. We are local, need your support, and will keep the money here in the neighborhood. The resources are already in place.

I think Frank hit it on the head when he said, "Local govs can do more to get local farmer’s produce to regional markets. Farm policy needs to address water rights/irrigation, organics, subsidies, etc. Please, Fed Gov - I beg you not to consider my five pots of tomatoes agriculture!"

Keep it local.

Keeping the government out of our gardens

This last summer and fall we have seen an explosion of interest in gardening, for many reasons. Concern over food safety, economics, and just wanting to grow better tasting food has fed into the gardening movement. This has been a grass roots effort, mainly at the local level. Now we see a move afoot to involve the federal government in our gardening. Garden Rant had a post today about the efforts of Rose-Hayden-Smith, an expert on the history of the Victory Gardens of World Wars 1 and 2. According to Garden Rant, "Rose also met with folks at the USDA while she was in town and left convinced that next year the feds will implement a 'national gardening initiative', something she has been campaigning for." We are all for increasing the interest in vegetable gardening.  Why after this last year, where people started gardens and gardening on their own, do we see the need for the government in our gardens? The title of the Garden Rant post is, "Victory Garden Historian, 'There is a gardening revolution going on right now.'" The nature of revolutions is people standing up against government involvement in their lives. Why would we want more government in "our revolution?"Rose say's, "I've suggested to new Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack via the Huffington Post, thousands of highly-trained volunteer Master Gardeners (who serve under the USDA's umbrella, through land grant institutions) can be called upon to share their expertise with school, home and community gardeners." I thought that's what they already did. We have regular workshops hosted by The Master Gardeners on all sorts of gardening topics. In addition, our nursery puts on regular workshops promoting gardening and vegetable and fruit gardening in particular.

People turned to gardening this last year in spite of the government. They did it on their own, with little help from the state or feds.  Rose says about the Victory gardens of WWI and II, "But my take-away was the breadth and depth of government action promoting the home growing of food, which resulted in 40% percent of American production being homegrown.  Every community had a 'foodshed coordinator' who worked to make sure the right types of food were planted, all coordinated in a big-picture way."

I don't like the sound of that. A "foodshed coordinator" making sure the "right types" of food are planted, "in a big picture way?". Maybe in WWII, but not now. Who decides what food is "right", The Master Gardeners? I, like Rose am encouraged by the interest shown for gardening this year. It was done without government intervention. Why involve them now? I like to garden because it takes me away from all the "big picture" things that are going on in the world. The garden helps us to focus on a smaller picture, what we can do locally to further the gardening cause. Gardening is local. Let's keep it that way.

Naked gardening

Did I get your attention? According to Orange County Register, naked gardening is all the rage. "Alicia Silverstone, star of 'Clueless,' mows her lawn in the nude. She told Health Magazine: 'It probably started when I was doing my garden the first time. I'd be out there, and it would be scorching hot, so I would take off all of my clothes and garden.'" Like columnist Cindi Mc Natt,  I find " the naked models don't look like gardeners – they're too pasty, they lack the battle wounds that gardeners carry and none are wearing shoes. Serious gardeners know you can't dig the daffodils without your boots on."

I do find gardening to be sexy, and I can see being naked in the garden, but just not while you are actually gardening. I was so enamored with the idea of gardening being sexy, that I bought some domain names a few years back, and maybe now I can cash in on them. Available are, thesexygarden.com, sexygardeneronline.com, and sexygardener.net.

So to be clear , sex appeal and nakedness do not always go hand in hand. Sometimes a little clothing is a lot more sexy than no clothing at all.

Martha Stewart moves to Home Depot

No doubt you have heard that Martha Stewart is leaving K-Mart and heading over to Home Depot. According  to Home Channel News, Home Depot will start "carrying Martha Stewart Living products early next year in an exclusive deal announced on Sept. 14. The three product categories -- outdoor living, home organization and home decor -- will involve collaborations between Martha Stewart designers and Home Depot merchants 'that allow customers to easily coordinate decor and design elements when taking on home improvement projects,' according to the joint announcement." I would think that his just about seals the fate of K-Mart. Our local K-mart has gone down hill since Wall-Mart and Home Depot moved in.  As for Home Depot, this has got to help them become even more of the one stop home improvement shop. I know some people think Martha's stuff has much to be desired, but for the gang that likes to shop The Depot, this will be just right.

Having Martha is Home Depot's way to compete with Lowe's, which tends to get higher marks from female customers. Martha will lend a more feminine touch to The Depot. It will be interesting to see if, and how Lowe's responds. Who can they hire to compete with Martha?

New Facebook Page

We started a Facebook page for the nursery. While I love our local fans, I do get a kick out of fans that have never "physically" been here. They are all over the world! This is the promise of the internet, putting like minded people together, no mater where they live. Being a small, independent, locally owned nursery has never been so good. Have a nursery, start a Facebook page. It's easy. We have also added a badge on the right of this blog that will take you right there. Won't you head over and become a fan today?

What we're they thinking?

I never get sample plants or tools sent to me. I read other garden writers talk about this plant sample, or that plant sample, or this new tool. "Try it out and let us know what you think." After reading Farmer Fred's rant yesterday, I am not sure I would want to. Titled, "Proven Losers" it's about being sent Proven Winner plant samples. I am not sure Fred's reaction is what they hoped for. Fred has posted pictures on his blog. Why do wholesale companies send out samples of plants that are in the condition of the ones Fred was sent?  These are samples of plants they are proud to produce? All the advertising and good reviews can't undo the reality of being sent plants that are dying or diseased. Very strange indeed.

The plant with the fungus starts you thinking about the whole Late Blight of tomatoes that made the news a few months ago. With over night air, and plants being shipped all over the country, you can see how easily disease spreads.

The other thing that spreads is good, and bad news. Considering how much money is spent by Proven Winners to build the brand it's amazing how just one poor choice can ruin much of it. No longer can you depend on your advertising to spread the word. The word is spread regardless of how much money you spend. I will echo Fred's lament, "...why send obviously damaged plants?"

Good news

Here is a positive story of a garden center in Houston. Plant for All Seasons is owned by Victor Flaherty, who has commented before at this blog. He also has a blog titled, The Dirt. He mentions in the Houston Business Journal that sales are up 20% for the year, with a revenue expected to reach 2.4 million this year. While we here at The Golden Gecko are no where near that type of revenue, we are seeing the same type of growth this year.  I am also encouraged because, as the article said, "as with most start ups, the first few years were often difficult, but Flaherty was a studious entrepreneur. 'I would go home every night and read everything I could,' he says. 'The first 10 years were just surviving.'”

So here we are in our fifth year, paying the bills and staying in business. It's a long row to hoe when your in business for yourself, but you have to keep your eyes on the horizon and sail ahead. Keep looking for things and ways of doing things that the box stores are not. Give the customer what they want at a reasonable price, and a great attitude, and you will do o.k.

I believe the attitude is a huge part of the equation. People these days are looking for positive messages. I have learned to live by this quote from Rudyard Kipling, "“If you can keep your wits about you while all others are losing theirs, and blaming you. . . . The world will be yours and everything in it..."

These are the day's to "keep your wits" and ignore the doomsayer's. It's not easy, but we have no choice.

Beer and gardening

This information comes from Tim Hodson at Greenhouse Product News. Actually it's from his Facebook Page. He mentions Pinnacle Landscape and Garden Centers foray into home brewing. Actually the garden center hosts the River Valley Ale Raisers home brew club. The club has 29 paid members, and meets the first Tuesday of every month at the Pinnacle Landscape and Garden Center. They also sell the brew supplies!  "'We started selling wine and brew supplies in October of 2007,' said Garden Center owner Jim Taylor. “'We like hosting the meetings because it gives people a chance to learn more about the art of brewing.'” Brilliant! This has got to get you thinking about doing the same thing at your garden center. It could be home brewing, or home wine making, or any number of hobbies. What a wonderful way of diversifying the products offered through your store. This would be a great way to encourage people to visit during the winter months, when gardening tends to take a back seat to other interests. We are in wine country, yet I don't think there is a home wine making or brewing supply store anywhere closer than Sacramento, 40 miles away.

This is just the kind of thinking that will help smaller garden centers stay relevant in the community. Bringing people in that might otherwise never have visited your store. Now all Pinnacle needs to do is work on that web page a bit.

A positive attitude and virtual trade shows

Victor hit it on the head when he said, "you have to go into those shows with a positive attitude". My last post, "The dog days of summer" reveled my crankiness, and not so positive attitude. It's just that Chicago is on the other side of the country, and I have a business to run. Unlike some stores that have a crew to cover the bases when the owners are gone, we don't. That's why shows that are local are easier to attend. In addition the vendors are more likely to want to deliver to us up in the foothills. There are a lot of small garden centers who are in the same boat, and would love to see the show on the internet. Why not have a virtual show on the web that everyone can attend? That's the promise of the internet, bringing people from all over together. Sometimes we can't "press the flesh" and a virtual show would fill the bill. Why can't we look at the floor chart of the show, move our mouse over the vendors name, and up comes a sample of what they were showcasing at the show? We could even take advantage of show specials. Seminars? Where are the web casts? I realize that the show is a for profit enterprise, and people attending in the "flesh" pay the fees. An entrance fee could also be charged to virtual attendees. I remember attending trade functions where the owners would talk about taking tours of English garden centers, or travelling with other nursery people in Holland, or attending trade shows in Chicago, and wondering how they do it. Of course, these owners we're in charge of larger nurseries that were family run for a generation or two. Well established with the means to do these things. A smaller garden center with a crew of two or four has a harder time pulling this stuff off. That's why a virtual trade show would be better than not having all those smaller garden centers not attending.

Our Linkedn group, Garden Centers, Nurseries, and New Media is closing in on 500 members. We have 480 as of this date. Your invited to join. The group is, "A place for people who work for, buy from, sell to, or otherwise have an interest in garden centers and nurseries. An interest in the the use of new media to create a better future for gardening and gardening related professions is the glue which holds the group together." Other than creating the group, and approving members, I stay out of managing the group. I find it amazing that it functions virtually on it's own with little or no feedback on my part. Seems I am good at starting projects...

The dog days of summer

After blogging for over five years certain trends become evident. One is the lack of blog post from me, as well as other garden bloggers. It's hard to fight it, so I don't. As George Ball said of my blog, "...as expected, he blogs depending on time available.” Even though physically I have time to blog, mentally I need to take a break. The other reason there are not many posts this time of year is, nothing is happening worth writing about. Blogs like Garden Rant have "guest ranters" who fill in the spaces between ideas. I don't, so time passes between posts. Since I don't have any real agenda,  posts are at my leisure. I am not trying to build up my readership. Those who enjoy my writing will wait until I post again. In that sense I feel liberated from my sitemeter. 100 visitors, 500 visitors, it doesn't matter. The quality of the readership is more important than quantity.

The latest post at Garden Rant is titled, "Where is the Julia Child of Gardening?" The answer to that was discussed here back in 2006. A man named Mr. Flowerdew was the imputus for the post. Sorry gang, but a Julia Child of gardening is not forthcomming.

So the big IGC (Independent Garden Show) show was last week.  I know a lot of people attended, but I havent heard back on what the show was like. You would never find me flying accross the country to attend another trade show. Just looking at all those ernest vendors ready to show me why their product is the next big thing makes me cringe. This is not just the IGC show, but most nursery trade shows. I am just burned out on them. Besdies, visiting trade shows that are more local centric would be a better choice for most folks. Even the local shows around here, Nor Cal or Far West, don't intrest me much. So inspire me! What did I miss out on?

I think the best places to look for ideas is outside the mainstream horticultural industry. Here is a cool new product, Smart Pots, that I found out about from my customers. Maybe they had a booth at the show, but after walking through an auditorium filled with products, I would have overlooked them. A customer tells me to carry them, and I am all ears. That's what is fueling my buying this year. What do my customers want, not what the industry want's me to carry. I don't know if Foxfarm was there, but we sell a lot of their fertilizers. My color and vegetable growers we're not there, as they are way too small and local to need the large venue.

Be forewarned,  we are a small nursery just managing to pay the bills this year, and stay in business. We are not a top 100 retailer, and why anyone would listen to my advice is beyond me. The trade shows are put on by good people who mean well for the "industry". My personal reasons for not attending should not color your decision to attend, or not. Every nursery is different and should chart it's own course.

If you are a  garden center, or garden blogger and attended the show, did you find it worth the trip? Come on now, make me jealous. What was the one great new idea you came away with? Maybe a lot of important smaller ideas? Vendors with something new and exciting? Why will you attend again next year? Why not?

Predictabilty versus uniqueness, part 2

The comment from Sid Raiche at my last post was right on! Sid wrote, "...There is a certain level of predictability expected at the mom & pop hamburger or garden joint too, even your day care center. The minimum expectation at any garden center - chain or independent, is that you will have for example, bag mulch, at least one good planting trowel reasonably priced, a certain selection of basic plants appropriate for the time of year and your region, and so on. We call those the 'NEVER-outs'. But time and again I’m in stores where customers are being sent elsewhere for the basic expected items. In one store recently they told me they get calls regularly, 'is your bulk topsoil dry?'. At another, 'do you have a bale of straw?' These are not absolute necessity items for all garden centers, but can you think of ONE box store that would have either? We get too hung up on a lot of stuff that doesn’t matter that much to most consumers while ignoring some basic blocking and tackling retail competitiveness. And yes, if we’re going to sell something we must be just about as consistent about it as McDonald’s is with their Big Mac, and as the Cheesecake Factory is with their service. No excuses and take no prisoners." When I wrote predictability versus uniqueness, I did not mean we as smaller independents don't need to have a measure of predictability. Yes, our customers expect certain things from us. A friendly smile, courtesy, the right items in stock, etc. Here is the hard part though, we have to provide that and a measure of uniqueness that set's us apart. It's not an easy row to hoe. Of course, I would never tell you that running a garden center was a breeze.  One of the hardest things for me to do is put aside the 30 years of garden center experience and take a fresh look at our business.

That's what we did this last winter when all around us retail was sinking. What did our community want? What had we insisted on carrying that the community didn't want. We needed to let those thing go, and build on the other. It's not as easy as you think, especially when you have been in the business so long. Thank goodness we started to surround ourselves with people who had an interest in gardening, but we're not "in the business". They we're able to show us things, and way's of doing things that we had missed. We beefed up our selection of specialty fertilizers, and soil mixes. We are expanding our nursery into a  couple of the units we lease out in front, and will have a coffee/smoothie bar there. It will be run by a young couple, with a lot more enthusiasm than Monica and I can muster at this time. We are now your indoor gardening experts with all the lights, and other necessary items to do it right. Beefed up the selection of smaller 4" sized perennials and annuals, and reduced the amount of 15 gallon and larger plants's, which are just not selling this year.

Sid's comment was timely, as garden centers everywhere are looking to re-invent themselves into a vital must have resource for the community. Our mistake in the past here, is not having enough of those "must haves" when people want them. It's so hard to keep the inventory up during the season, especially when we have to buy the plants, and don't work on a pay at scan program. Our local Home Depot has that distinction as they always have the common stuff that people buy time and again. They have suppliers constantly taking out the old, and bringing in the fresh, since there is no expense other than labor for the box store. That's no excuse for us, though.

When you get down to it that really summarizes the reatil experience.  Give the customer what they are looking for at a reasonable price, and they will shop with you forever. What does our customer want, as opposed to what we think the customer should want. There is a lot of ego involved, and it's not always easy to let go of ideas and things that have worked in the past, but don't work now. That's the challenge.