Rushing the Season

So what is it with garden centers selling vegetable plants earlier and earlier each spring? It's April 2nd; we had a hard frost this past week. It's cool today and very windy. Granted, temperatures are expected to rise again into the 70s but hey, it's April in good old zone 6b.  Frost free date is May, okay?  So why was Lowe's stuffed to the brim today with....tomato plants?

The poor tomato plants looked like they were shivering in their pots. So were the basil plants. I almost fell over when I saw they were selling basil. Anyone who plants those outside today better have some kind of cloche or cold frame, because it's dipping back into the 30s tonight. Unless you like your basil browned, that is...

I do "get" why garden centers are selling plants earlier in the season. I worked for a large garden center for two years, and the period of April through Memorial Day in May is the time of year when the center makes all of its money.  It's a make or break period in the home and garden center industry, and I have read a lot of trade publications (I'm a writer, editor and marketing consultant by profession, with a strong background in marketing) how the busy season for the home improvement centers is spring. People are busy building decks, erecting sheds, painting houses and planting lawns.

So I do understand putting the plants out for sale, and yet I don't. On the one hand, they'll make a quick profit today. But on the other hand if you have a novice gardener who grabs a few tomato plants and plants them tonight, she's going to be really disappointed if a frost kills them, and then won't that discourage a potential gardener from coming back and shopping more?  Wouldn't you want a long-term customer who is really enthusiastic about gardening?

I think I'm over thinking this. I'm thinking long-term, get a new convert into the gardening hobby.

They're thinking make 50 cents profit.

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We sprayed the organic oils on the fruit tree this morning.  We have 30 fruit trees, planted less than three years ago from really tiny seedlings, so nothing bears fruit yet.  Everything looks wonderful except the plums. I have two Burbank plums and two Methley plums and they look dead. I think they just haven't broken out of dormancy yet, but John is convinced they're dead. He's become the resident fruit tree expert.  I think he's actually channeling his grandfather some days the way I catch myself channeling my dad; his grandpa was his gardening influence, my dad and Mr. Hoffman were mine.  Grandpa had fruit trees, mostly apple and pear, and tomatoes, and John excels at growing both edibles.  My own tomatoes tend to be disappointing so I am going to let him help me with planting this year.

We added four Romaine lettuce plants we picked up real cheap at Lowe's. Hey, they're not rushing the season - they're cool weather crops!  Lettuce prices went through the roof this week at the supermarket. I mean come on, $2.49 for a head of iceberg for crying out loud?  We used to joke around that the lettuce plants at the garden center were more expensive than buying fully grown, ready to eat organic lettuce at the store, but now the tables are turned.  For 99 cents we picked up four packs of lettuce plants; if each grows into a head of lettuce, multiple $1.89 by 4 ($7.56) and subtract out 99 cents for the plants on sale and we've saved over $6 in lettuce alone.  I know that sounds bizarre to some people but you would be surprised at how quickly stuff like that adds up.  It's part of frugal living - making sure your money goes to what is important, not into consumable stuff, and it's wrapped up in who we are and how we approach life. Not obsessively but with care and attention.  We let nature water the lettuce plants, give them good soil, and wait.  And then we get lettuce.

So that is what we've been up to. It's rained most of the week and I've been working a lot.  Thankfully, I have a lot of work coming in now from consulting.  I write for several websites, am working on two different nonfiction books, dabble at my novel, edit two major websites, and work on marketing pieces for my fabulous clients. 

When I have an evening free, I sit and play piano, working my way back through the two easiest Beethoven Sonatas, the opus 49 bits.  Opus 49 #2 was my high school project, but I'm in love with the melody in #1 now, and have been slowly groping and fumbling my way through it.  I am grateful there's no more pressure as an adult to learn pieces; no grades, no school, just the sheer pleasure of hearing a bit of the great master's music flowing from my fingertips, interspersed with a lot of sour notes.

Shadow sleeps to the side of the keyboard stand and every once in a while whines at me, but Pierre the cat is the funniest whenever I hit a sour note. He sits on the right and glares at me. If I hit the wrong note, he jumps up and tries to shred my leg.


Everyone's a critic!


Happy weekend, folks! If the rain holds out, I may tackle more weeding....or not!

Pierre "helps" me work.