Saturday, March 14, 2009

My Kind of Garden Store

Yesterday was a very good Friday the 13th. I got my pails. In addition I also found a new gardening store in the area. I've been searching. My favorite one went out of business due to the high cost of heating their greenhouses. I hear it is going to be a condominium complex. Sigh. Lexington Gardens was not a large garden center, but whenever I needed something they had it. Well not last summer. They were trying to sell everything they had and weren't replacing things. It was so sad.

Last year I was trying to find a replacement. We have a huge garden center very close, Mahonies, but every time I go there looking for something in particular, they never have it. That isn't to say they aren't a fun garden center to browse, but when I was looking for a garden fork all they had was a pitchfork. When I wanted a 40 pound bag of greensand, all they had was five pounds. I like to buy big bags and use them over the years. It is much cheaper. A five pound bag doesn't last long. I couldn't find large bags of vermiculite or perlite. In the summer they don't have straw or salt march hay or anything I would use to mulch my vegetables. My old garden center had it all.

I kept looking. Finally yesterday I mostly found what I was looking for. In Belmont (about 15 mins away) is a hardware store called "Hillside Garden and True Value". Now they don't have all their summer things out so I don't know if they have wonderful veggie starts, but they have all the amendments I tend to use, all in large bags. I'm hoping they will have a mulch that I find acceptable. Though one guy did think I was crazy when I asked if they had 9 gauge wire (for my hoops), and sadly they didn't have a huge selection of seed.

It is funny how you get attached to a store like that. I still remember the pervious gardening store I used before Lexington Gardens. It was really a feed store, but they stocked large bags of organic amendments. They had straw and salt marsh hay, not to mention dog food that I needed to pick up every month. It wasn't glitzy and didn't have small bags of anything. There weren't any pretty plants or flowers. I still loved it. I got to know the proprietor and it had what I needed at a good price. It appealed to my practical nature. I miss it too. Hopefully this new store will have what it takes. Maybe I'll fall in love with it too.

4 comments:

  1. You're right, there's nothing like a great local garden store. Check out The Blogging Nurseryman for insider commentary on running such a business. Hope your new store turns out to be the goods.

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  2. Lucky you getting all those buckets! I came here via Marci and then Robin's Nesting Place. I saw your comment about your collage's being cut off on the side. You need to try one of blogger's "stretch" templates.

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  3. It is actually pretty sad when places like this close up. It certainly makes it very difficult to find specific items. If we didn't have Lee Valley within 40km of use I wouldn't be able to find many things.

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  4. Daffodil Planter, Thanks

    Dot, sounds like you are having fun blog hopping. Welcome. It wasn't my collages, it was Robins. I couldn't see the whole thing.

    Dan, 40km that is so far. I have some shoulder issues and have trouble driving more than 20-30 mins at a time. Luckily digging in the dirt and turning compost doesn't bother it.

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