One thing I’m discovering about rookie gardeners: They love gadgets, gizmos and accessories. Plants, it seems, exist only to justify the purchase of the items named above.
A good friend of mine is starting a vegetable container garden on her patio. And of course she tapped me for advice. I was on the phone with her for 45 minutes last week as she described her latest “garden” purchases: gloves, hand tools, three giant glazed pots, a drip watering system, potting soil, a trellis and fertilizer.
“That’s great!” I said. “Everything you need to get started. So, what are you going to grow?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I haven’t thought about it yet.”
Oy vey. Meanwhile I’ve got my cilantro and jalapenos planted in cracked terra-cotta pots partially sunk into the ground to keep soil from spilling out of the bottom. And I’m using the same old hand-cultivator that my husband had to weld back together last year. Clearly, for me, it’s all about the plants.
But I guess my friend’s penchant for gadgets is good news for the garden center she shops at. She has easily spent more than $300 in the past few weeks. Someone is reaping decent margins from her shopping forays.
Then there’s me—armed with my frequent buyer’s card and coupon for $5 off a $25 purchase. (And you can guarantee I’m going to find a way to use it.) A garden center scavenger—on the hunt for volume buys and no-fuss annuals that won’t have to be replaced for months.
Makes me wonder…who would you consider to be the better customer? Or is this a case of picking the lesser of two evils?
-- Sarah
sorry.gizmos not the be all this year.
Seed pack sales while up 33% YTD accessories to start them with/in up only 2%.
Posted by: greg draiss | April 13, 2009 at 03:18 PM
Sorry! I'm a retailer-- the gizmo lady wins, hands down. After she has all the "stuff", I hope she'll also come back to me for the meat and potatoes, and the info she'll need to be successful.
Posted by: Lynn | April 21, 2009 at 07:26 PM