Most places gardening activities stop or move indoors in winter. Big box stores and smaller stores put the garden merchandise away or discount them to reduce inventory to make room for Christmas decorations and trees.
Normally September is a good time to get some great deals on garden supplies as they are reduced for sale. But, this year it is different. Some things have been available only intermittently. Tools: There are no picks, long handled weeders and weed block has been harder to find. There are a few fruit pickers left but they are probably going to be gone soon too. There are a lot of leaf rakes. I guess they are useful in the mainland for the fall of leaves. However, I only have one deciduous type of tree - Plumerias. They will drop leaves and I can use the rake for that, but most of the other plants are evergreen. Only the ginger and turmeric will die back.
The store is out of snail bait. The snails have not been as much of a problem in the summer heat, but they will come out in the rainy season. Potting soil and perlite has been an ongoing supply problem. I have had to reuse more soil than I intended. I still have not figured out how much fertilizer to put in the pots. I did actually have to get some dolomite lime. Normally, I rarely use it.
Because it is the end of the season for most national companies, the products are inactive and won't even be sent anymore. When the stores run out of their current supply, which won't take long, there won't be anymore for months.
This is actually nothing new. However, with more people taking up gardening this year, the supplies have been flying off the shelves and there is no stockpile to last through the winter months. In a good year, it has always been hard to get soil over the winter months because things like peat moss and perlite take up a lot of space and they are shipped space available. Most of the space beyond the food and staples are being taken up by Christmas merchandise.
It is not unusual to find some seeds out this time of the year. However, some seeds have been out since May. Seeds companies ran out of seeds or were back ordered or not taking new orders earlier than usual. For months now, some seeds have been sold out for the year. Luckily, I ordered many of my seeds last November, but I still ran out of some seeds and could not get any more. I do have seeds saved. Some of them were too old so I did have to cull some, but I did have enough for the garden this year, although, it wasn't always the varieties I wanted to plant. Now, I planting my fall garden, but again, I can't find a lot of the seeds I would plant now. I was able to get some lettuce, tomato, and kale seeds. I got marigolds, but not the variety I wanted. I did have carrot, bok choy, and some other Asian greens. I ran out of the seeds for my favorite cucumber Soarer, so I planted Summer Dance instead. I have a hard time finding Suyo cucumbers. Kitazawa has had most of the seeds I want, but they increased the shipping box size. I have to find a lot of people to share an order to make the bulk pricing work for me. Even the nurseries that do sell plants and starters, look a bit overgrown. They do have young cucumbers, lettuce, and some herbs. But, I could not find as big a selection. I only found English thyme, no french or lemon thyme.
I will have to make do with what I have over the winter months and hope that supplies are better next year. I also have to get more creative on reusing the soil and I will need to step up the snail hunts.
I just planted more beans. They are snail magnets.
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applestar
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My main gripe is that somehow, Halloween has become as big a lawn show extravaganza as Christmas, and now, they pack up the gardening section even earlier than before to fill with Halloween paraphernalia. Then they turn the page directly to Christmas, leaving me to wonder why THANKSGIVING — a day to give thanks, with solemn soul and self searching...which is the way I was taught growing up — has become so irrelevant.
Hey, Christmas comes earlier every year. They started putting out the Halloween stuff in July. The overhead storage was cleared for Christmas boxes that arrived in August. Halloween was marked down early and moved to a small 4x10 section on Nov 1. Within a week most of it was gone. I was surprised the Halloween stuff did not start selling till the last week. That is when the decorations and artificial Christmas trees went up. Apparently some other stores had started Christmas earlier because we were getting returns before the display was even finished.
Live Christmas trees will usually go on sale on Black Friday, but last year Walmart had a soft opening and were selling trees before Thanksgiving.
I don't mind so much with people decorating the yards especially this year since Halloween wasn't going to be like it was before. Here you can't even go to the cemetery easily either, even they have imposed restriction on how many people can visit as well as funerals are limited to 5 people now. When my dad died, the lady at the funeral home said that they have over a hundred on a waiting list for funeral services. They are waiting until the covid restrictions lift to hold their funerals. When my dad died, only 10 were allowed to go attend the graveside and burial service. The funeral home did allow us to schedule viewing hours for the family that would not be allowed to attend the service. We had to schedule viewing hours for 10 at a time. Now, that has been further restricted to 5 at a time.
Some things are available online, but unless I get them on amazon, the prices are ridiculous.
I have some plants to repot. I am reusing the soil, which I don't like to do. I have gone out a couple of times, but no luck finding potting soil or perlite. There was some peat moss, but I don't need anymore of that yet. I could not find a lot of herb or vegetable starts at least the ones that I wanted. The seeds racks are being emptied again. I checked online Burpee sent me an email that the seeds I wanted are in, but the things I wanted from territorial is still out of stock. I only have 2 seeds from Burpee, I need to see if anyone wants to piggyback an order to help pay for the shipping costs.
One of the gardens that I volunteer at had a drive thru volunteer appreciation day. I got a pineapple (its in the freezer now for the next time I make a smoothie or fermented pepper sauce), A round point shovel,a bag of goodies (I haven't looked inside yet), and a finger lime plant.
Live Christmas trees will usually go on sale on Black Friday, but last year Walmart had a soft opening and were selling trees before Thanksgiving.
I don't mind so much with people decorating the yards especially this year since Halloween wasn't going to be like it was before. Here you can't even go to the cemetery easily either, even they have imposed restriction on how many people can visit as well as funerals are limited to 5 people now. When my dad died, the lady at the funeral home said that they have over a hundred on a waiting list for funeral services. They are waiting until the covid restrictions lift to hold their funerals. When my dad died, only 10 were allowed to go attend the graveside and burial service. The funeral home did allow us to schedule viewing hours for the family that would not be allowed to attend the service. We had to schedule viewing hours for 10 at a time. Now, that has been further restricted to 5 at a time.
Some things are available online, but unless I get them on amazon, the prices are ridiculous.
I have some plants to repot. I am reusing the soil, which I don't like to do. I have gone out a couple of times, but no luck finding potting soil or perlite. There was some peat moss, but I don't need anymore of that yet. I could not find a lot of herb or vegetable starts at least the ones that I wanted. The seeds racks are being emptied again. I checked online Burpee sent me an email that the seeds I wanted are in, but the things I wanted from territorial is still out of stock. I only have 2 seeds from Burpee, I need to see if anyone wants to piggyback an order to help pay for the shipping costs.
One of the gardens that I volunteer at had a drive thru volunteer appreciation day. I got a pineapple (its in the freezer now for the next time I make a smoothie or fermented pepper sauce), A round point shovel,a bag of goodies (I haven't looked inside yet), and a finger lime plant.
At some point in time, Halloween became a special holiday for young adults - complete with drinking, etc. Paaaaurtie!
I think that I may have been too old when I recognized the opportunity and went out - dressed as the Grim Reaper. That was about 1980. It was likely a poor choice for an outfit, has a tendency to put a damper on things. The entire evening was a damper on my enthusiasm and I just went back to bar crawling. Might as well have been 17 March.
Young people party down at whomever has a place of residence ... and, it looks like it contributed to the recent spike in Covid-19. Anyway, they represent an entirely different group buying this and that for Halloween. They are neither the hosts of the homes where kids visit nor the families with kids out trick and treating. Honestly, I think the kids might be sufficiently traumatized by the pandemic to have a completely different generational attitude coming out of 2020.
Steve
I think that I may have been too old when I recognized the opportunity and went out - dressed as the Grim Reaper. That was about 1980. It was likely a poor choice for an outfit, has a tendency to put a damper on things. The entire evening was a damper on my enthusiasm and I just went back to bar crawling. Might as well have been 17 March.
Young people party down at whomever has a place of residence ... and, it looks like it contributed to the recent spike in Covid-19. Anyway, they represent an entirely different group buying this and that for Halloween. They are neither the hosts of the homes where kids visit nor the families with kids out trick and treating. Honestly, I think the kids might be sufficiently traumatized by the pandemic to have a completely different generational attitude coming out of 2020.
Steve
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applestar
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There’s a part of me that thoroughly enjoy these fun and joyful events. Enjoyed them as a kid, enjoyed them as a teen, enjoyed them as young adult, enjoyed them as a mom of two children in providing as fulfilling experience as they could have. Enjoying them with my friends and family.
There is also a cynical part of me that view ALL of these commercialized holidays as marketing gimmick to whip up the gullible consumers into a frenzy — particularly dislike/distrust TV shows, etc. that promote all aspects of the events as some kind of competition to out-perform your neighbor’s, friends, and FRenemies.
Then, there is the beyond excessive excess of non-recyclable goods and wasteful energy usage. In my neighborhood, people light up their houses not only for December holidays, but Halloween as I mentioned and Spring holidays, summer and other religious holidays — it’s an unending light show and drama. Power usage offset by LED light strings vs. incandescent has been completely offset by house-side image projectors and larger and larger blowup figures, characters, and structures .... Buy-use-and-discard gift wraps and ribbons/bows, etc. etc. etc.
+Sugary and super-unhealthy foods competitively offered up as excused to eat....
Very tiny part of me that do recognize the economIc activity benefit to some .. but who exactly?
...sorry for the off-topic rant... I’ll get off my soapbox with my wet blanket now.
There is also a cynical part of me that view ALL of these commercialized holidays as marketing gimmick to whip up the gullible consumers into a frenzy — particularly dislike/distrust TV shows, etc. that promote all aspects of the events as some kind of competition to out-perform your neighbor’s, friends, and FRenemies.
Then, there is the beyond excessive excess of non-recyclable goods and wasteful energy usage. In my neighborhood, people light up their houses not only for December holidays, but Halloween as I mentioned and Spring holidays, summer and other religious holidays — it’s an unending light show and drama. Power usage offset by LED light strings vs. incandescent has been completely offset by house-side image projectors and larger and larger blowup figures, characters, and structures .... Buy-use-and-discard gift wraps and ribbons/bows, etc. etc. etc.
+Sugary and super-unhealthy foods competitively offered up as excused to eat....
Very tiny part of me that do recognize the economIc activity benefit to some .. but who exactly?
...sorry for the off-topic rant... I’ll get off my soapbox with my wet blanket now.
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Vanisle_BC
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I'm with you Applestar about the commercialization of cultural celebrations.
Where I grew up there was no commercial aspect to Hallowe'en. Even 'Trick or treat' was unheard of. Children simply went door to door (usually in unaccompanied groups) wearing home-made or cobbled-together costumes, and asked politely for 'their Hallowe'en'. The general idea was that if kids would perform for the house owner in some way - recite, sing, dance - they earned a treat. Of course this was not strictly applied. At most doors there would be a treat regardless, especially for the younger kids. But at other homes everyone would be invited in and asked to do a 'party piece'. The occasional grumpy owner would see you off if you had no piece to perform; in which case the odd trick or two were doubtless played. I don't remember any
.
Where I grew up there was no commercial aspect to Hallowe'en. Even 'Trick or treat' was unheard of. Children simply went door to door (usually in unaccompanied groups) wearing home-made or cobbled-together costumes, and asked politely for 'their Hallowe'en'. The general idea was that if kids would perform for the house owner in some way - recite, sing, dance - they earned a treat. Of course this was not strictly applied. At most doors there would be a treat regardless, especially for the younger kids. But at other homes everyone would be invited in and asked to do a 'party piece'. The occasional grumpy owner would see you off if you had no piece to perform; in which case the odd trick or two were doubtless played. I don't remember any
.I think I counted once. There is a hallmark holiday almost every month. I think Trick or Treat is only an American institution. I know it is unknown in other countries. All Hallow's eve
in the P.I. is spent going to the graveyard and cleaning up the cemeteries and spending the day praying , eating, and leaving food and flowers. I don't think they go out at night. So is Thanksgiving. Canada, Grenada, Liberia, Japan and Germany has its version of Thanksgiving but I don't know how many other countries have something similar. They celebrate on different days and for different reasons.
in the P.I. is spent going to the graveyard and cleaning up the cemeteries and spending the day praying , eating, and leaving food and flowers. I don't think they go out at night. So is Thanksgiving. Canada, Grenada, Liberia, Japan and Germany has its version of Thanksgiving but I don't know how many other countries have something similar. They celebrate on different days and for different reasons.
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Vanisle_BC
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Where I grew up I remember it as 'Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday" and a mainly religious occasion; the church decorated with sheaves of hay, colorful produce & flowers. The hymn comes to mind;
"We plow the fields and scatter
The good seed on the land..."
It wasn't a family get-together or even a special meal time, at least among folks I knew. I guess you could say the emphasis has shifted somewhat from thankfulness for the harvest, toward thankfulness for family & friends.
"We plow the fields and scatter
The good seed on the land..."
It wasn't a family get-together or even a special meal time, at least among folks I knew. I guess you could say the emphasis has shifted somewhat from thankfulness for the harvest, toward thankfulness for family & friends.