Some people are dumb

[TZ -OH6]

I just went out to a nursery in the middle of Nowhere (half way between Cornville and Farmertown), to find decent potting mix so that I wouldn't have to buy wet MiracleGrow mix from the Lowes in town. The proprietor of the nursery asked me what I needed the mix for and I said to start my tomatoes. He looked at me like I was a genius and said "People are so dumb around here!". It seems that people commonly try to buy tomato plants from him this time of year (he was just planting their tomatoes too, and of course had none to sell to the dumb people). He said "and they aren't young people either. They should know better" He also went on a humorous rant about people wanting sweet potato slips. BTW we are having our end of March last snow of the year here today. Last frost is mid May. And, did I mention that they hold an annual tomato festival in Farmertown every year.

I thought that the local Lowes, Walmart etc got their tomatoes and other garden vegetables in early just to make a buck off the suckers, but it might just be the other way around, ...demand from the dumb people who get all hot an bothered to garden as soon as the February snow melts. I suspect that these are the same people who will pay $10 for an EarlyGirl plant in a one gallon pot.

On a more bizarre note, a couple of miles up the road from the nursery we drove past a sign that said "Maine Lobsters for sale" ...over 500 miles from the ocean, and 10-20 miles from the nearest town with a traffic light. It's an odd day when a llama in a barnyard seems like a normal thing normal around here.

Luckily, I live on the edge of Nowhere on the road leading to Farmertown, so I'm happy that I have a new "place to go for stuff" nearby since my usual nursery here in Smalltown shut down last year.

[DoubleDogFarm]

Shouldn't that be Nowheretown.





Eric

[Duh_Vinci]

I hear you!

Our local big stores already had their tomatoes for 2 weeks, last frost date is not until the very end of April and entire last week night temps never went above 30 or so... Two days ago, was down to 24F. Just happened to stop by during the lunch break today by Lowe's to exchange defective water timer, had a walk through the veggie section. I'd say about 80% of tomato seedlings are lost to the frost. And yes, the prices! They don't even seem to sell small cells of 6 anymore, everything I've seen $5.99 and above for tomatoes!

Regards.
D

[TZ -OH6]

Its Nowhere County actually. You can look up Centerburg, which is a real town in our county. Center of Ohio, not center of Nowhere County, Smalltown is the geographical center of Nowhere County.

The big Llama farm is a few miles west of town.

[applestar]

you are being serious??!! I thought you are giving comical euphemistic names to all your locations.

Oops, sorry, no offense to those who live there.

p.s. Got the seeds. Have not had the courage to spread them all out and look at them, let alone count all the varieties. Not sure if I have enough fingers and toes. Did find Wes. should have heard my DD laugh when I told her THIS is the seeds I asked for..... Thank you.

p.p.s. There's an Alpaca farm near my favorite nursery. They are so cute. Before all the horse farms got sold and McMansions were built, one of them tried raising Ostriches. We could see their long necks over the fence from the road....

p.p.p.s. What's the funniest name town in your area? I know one but have to look it up again to get it right. I thought towns were named like that only in novels.

[DoubleDogFarm]

[TZ -OH6]

Only Centerburg is a real name. Everyplace else has boring names found in most other states: Mt Vernon, Amity, Butler etc.. The rolling wooded farmland would have been picturesque today if it wasn't for the near whiteout, curvy roads, and depressed looking cows thinking it was supposed to be spring.

[sixshooter]

People are people. At least theyre trying to grow their own instead of buying at walmart.

[applestar]

Aww. It would've been SO funny if it were true. Now I HAVE to find that town. I came across it while getting a map for directions to somewhere. I'm not remembering it right because it's not coming up in a search, so I'll have to see if I can find it again.

For now, not so funny, but there are the usual suspects. There's a place called Mt. Misery. Not sure I'd want to live there.

[Dixana]

No plants here yet, but the local wally world has had the MG stuff and wood chips, etc in the parking lot for close to a month already. It's gotten snowed on twice and rained on once since

On another note we have odd names for cities here in WI. It's a good laugh listening to out of staters try and pronounce them. Kaukauna, Weyawega, Menominee, Ashwaubenon, etc. But a large majority of cities have Indian names so that's what makes it complicated I guess.

[Yogas]

I went to a suburban nursery in Chicago today and they had tons of tomatoes. For the last few years, I've planted a small number of tomatoes outside in March with those water teepees. Now in the middle of the summer the tomatoes planted in March were indecernable from the ones planted in late May - but it was a lot of fun for an impatient gardener! Ha ha

[Yogas]

I went to a suburban nursery in Chicago today and they had tons of tomatoes. For the last few years, I've planted a small number of tomatoes outside in March with those water teepees. Now in the middle of the summer the tomatoes planted in March were indecernable from the ones planted in late May - but it was a lot of fun for an impatient gardener! Ha ha

[Gary350]

The stores around here have had plants for about a week. I know it is too early to plant but sometimes I buy plants early just to make sure I get the plants I want. I like Beefsteak and lots of other people do too if I wait 3 more weeks to buy they may be sold out of the plants that I want. If the weather gets dry enough to till and plant I may even plant too early too. But I will have to cover my plants every night to protect them from frost. I like to have fresh tomatoes as soon as possible sometimes if I get my plants in early enough I have tomatoes the 3rd week of June. Past few years I have been taking life a little easier and don't plant until the last week of April then I have tomatoes about the first week of July. I have found planting my garden a little later in the spring gives me more time to go camping. I want to camp about 2 weeks out of each month April, May and June when the weather is still nice. I hate camping in 100 deg weather humidity is 100% and pretty bad for camping in the heat.

[stella1751]

The Home Depot in Cheyenne, Wyoming, was the butt of many a joke among serious gardeners when I lived there. Desperate to be the first with nursery plants, they would bring them in at the end of March; I kid you not. Even wheeling them into the solar-paneled garden section at night does no good when the temperatures hit 10 or 15 degrees. I can't tell you how many times I went there for some garden supply or another and saw plants coated with frost and dying.

Other times, they would leave the plants outside at night in May. If we wanted seedlings, we'd scurry to purchase them before the next cold front moved in, keeping them under lights in our homes until it was time to set them out. Otherwise, we'd wind up fighting to find the plants we wanted. I'll bet they lost three or four complete batches of plants each spring.

The Home Depot in Casper, Wyoming, is more responsible in that respect. However, they order in some odd varieties at odd times, like 120-day seedlings in June or any seedlings specifically geared for extremely hot regions.

[Rogue11]

I think Home Depot in general doesn't seem to do well with plants nor seem the people working in their garden section to have any knowledge about gardening.
I remember going there last year, after moving to our new house and noticing the sad state the citrus trees are in. I asked one of the people there for advice on citrus fertilizer. He looked at several fertilizers and told me I probably should go with something with a lot of acid. "They are citrus trees, you want them to be sour, right?" was his explanation.

Last week when I was buying some tomato cages I strolled through their tomato section and noticed that all of there Heirlooms were covered with black spots that looked a lot like early blight.

[Dixana]

Yep, all those reasons are why I don't shop t the big box stores for plants, that and not knowing where they came from. Our nurseries start 80% of the plants themselves, know hwo they were grown, what they're planted in, fertilized with, etc. Not to mention the plants are meant for this area and the workers can and will tell you what's good, what's grows faster, what spreads and so on. People at the big box stores give you a blank stare if you ask them something beyond what you might find on the plant tag and half the time don't even know what certain plants are.... I find it a bit annoying TBH.

[annastasia76]

yesterday I went to the stores looking for pepper plants, since I never have any luck getting them to grow from seeds, but the stores don't seem to have any variety this year, in the way of peppers all I saw was jalapeno and green pepper, didn't even tell me what variety. In the way of other plants there was tomatoes but I didn't even look at them since we are not ready for them yet, I saw some corn, broccoli, lettuce, cauliflower, and other cold weather plants (it's getting to warm for them here now) but nothing else, I would have liked to pick up some egg plant but that was only available in the large containers, I would have liked some other varieties but they didn't have any, I didn't even look at the ones that were individually potted though because those were about the same size as the ones in the pack and I wasn't going to spend extra money for the same exact age plant (no the multi packs were not root bound, I just planted them today and the roots had not even made it half way to the bottom.)

[petalfuzz]

The stores here don't have live plants in yet, thankfully! Our last frost is late April/early may.

It must have been 40 degrees when I bought my manure and I was the only one in the garden section. We had to wait 20 minutes for someone to come and open the cash register so we didn't have to haul 1000 pounds of manure through the whole store. That would have been fun!!

That's the only stuff I buy at the "box stores" I mail order my seeds, and try and avoid fertilizers, et al. Not sure if there's any real nurseries around here, now that I think about it.

[Odd Duck]

I always have to look through the garden center when I go the box stores (like staring at a car wreck, you just can't look away). I've been planning a blueberry bed, so for grins I looked at the variety names they had. After several months of research on varieties for the south, you'd think I'd recognize a few names from the tags - nope. Not one single name that has come up in my "blueberry varieties for the south" research. So, are they making up their own names or are they just sending whatever varieties they can get to any store that orders them? I saw no mention on ANY of their tags about "rabbiteye" blueberries, which is what's usually recommended for my locale. I have also researched south/heat adapted lowbush-type blueberries and didn't see any of those names, either.

Things that make you go, hmmmm.

[applestar]

Re: Blueberries -- I just received Blueberries I ordered on-line. One variety is called "O'Neal" (SG:SG1 ). I hope this selection turns out as super *performer* as the "Enterprise" apple tree. I also have a dwarf pear tree I'm styling as espalier called "Magness (Magnus)"

...actually I do read and research the varieties quite a bit before making purchases.

[Bobberman]

Those same dumb people actually drive!

[annastasia76]

I wish I could order live plants online and have them shipped to me but unless they were grown in southern ca then they can't be shipped here, so I have no choice but to buy what is available locally (which isn't much) or at least that's the way it seems because every time I go to order something it says it can't be shipped to my area.

ordering seeds online is so expensive, I spent $2-$3 per packet of melon seeds that only contained about 8-10 seeds in each.

[stella1751]

We have only one local nursery up here. The plants are ideal for our area, and they are started locally, so they get a nice start. However, each year they trot out the same three varieties of cucumbers, six varieties of tomatoes, two varieties of pumpkins, and so on. I know what they have before I even walk in the door. That's why I prefer the box stores. The Home Depot and WalMart up here have a huge variety, a dozen, at least, of each plant.

However, the local nursery has a 50% sale (or better) at the beginning of July each year. If I have a gap in my garden, I'll run in and buy some leggy 3' tomato plant for $4.95. By mid-July, it's begun to produce, and I can get tomatoes off it until October

[Rogue11]

I wish I could order live plants online and have them shipped to me but unless they were grown in southern ca then they can't be shipped here, so I have no choice but to buy what is available locally (which isn't much) or at least that's the way it seems because every time I go to order something it says it can't be shipped to my area.

ordering seeds online is so expensive, I spent $2-$3 per packet of melon seeds that only contained about 8-10 seeds in each.

Actually there are some places that do ship to California. I know some plants,e specially citrus can not be shipped, but I have ordered peppers and tomatoes before (I think they came from Ohio) and blueberry bushes (bare root) from Washington state.
PM me if you want me to check where I ordered the tomatoes and peppers. It was last year but I still have the invoice somewhere.

Shipping for plants can be expensive too, though. But the shipping price per plant usually gets cheaper if you order more.

[gardenvt]

Home Depot is definitely not the place to shop for tomatoes.

It does make one feel a bit like a genius to start plants from seed - save all that money, know how the plants are cared for and grow varieties that you can't find for sale locally.

And when friends/neighbors admire the garden/plants, one can feel really good about the effort it takes to grow from seed.

[farmerlon]

I think Home Depot in general doesn't seem to do well with plants nor seem the people working in their garden section to have any knowledge about gardening.

I heard that Home Depot and Lowes "contract" with the nurseries, and the stores only pay the vendors for the plants they sell. So, it's actually the nurseries that are bringing in and servicing the racks full of plants. That's why the stores don't care if the plants get frozen, because it's no loss to them.

I have no way of knowing if that's true or not; so my apologies if I'm passing on bad information.

[lily51]

People get anxious to get their garden going, especially when they see plants in stores. It's the thrill of spring syndrome we gardeners have. I've learned the difficult way to be patient as possible to set plants out since we live in the coldest clime in ohio.

As for box stores, I didn't buy anything from there until recently, have always gone to greenhouses and nurseries. They seem more reliable to me, plus I love the atmosphere. What I have purchased at the box store has been very little, can't say those plants did any better or worse.

I know several people who have a 'frost proof" way to get their tomatos out in the garden early; they all lost their first plantings last year. Hey, I've done that, too!

[gardenvt]

Our Home Depot, Walmart and Lowe's have people who work in the garden area attending the plants - people we see all year long. They get frost bitten or so dried out that there is always a rack of plants that are nearly free and practically dead.

I know some folks don't have the setup to grow their own plants from seed and one hopes they get their plants early so they can take care of them. I do prefer the garden centers because the ones I shop at do a great job taking care of the plants. (Even though I start my plants from seed, I can't resist an occassional unusual perennial.)

The nurseries are more expensive so people do what they need to.

[Dixana]

Some people don't have the setup to start their own seeds? What setup... last year I started mine with a $2 plastic jiffy kit and a bag of seed starter. No lights, no greenhouse, just that and a window. You don't really need the extra stuff (lights, etc) It just helps you have stronger plants. I bought a light this year, but even that only cost $15 with the bulbs and a small space on a shelf in the basement.
You don't need a lot to start your own seeds and not only does it save a lot of money, there's no limit on the varieties you can have.

Then again not everyone becomes an addict like me

[ruggr10]

My wife says I'm an addict, too!

No way, I could stop anytime I wanted to... I just don't want to!!!

[gardenvt]

I have some friends who don't use lights and I usually share some plants with them. My plants are quite vigorous at planting out time and theirs generally lag behind.

You don't have to have lights. It does make a difference.

[gardenvt]

Just as a note, I already have more than 600 seedlings going and have one last round to start later this months - plus what I will start outside.

Fair to say that I am addicted to gardening.

I couldn't do this without the lights.

[gixxerific]

So does that make me a stupid people because I have tomatoes growing? (Inside that is)?????????????????

If so than.....................

[TZ -OH6]

Not unless you have ready to plant plants and it is snowing outside.

[DoubleDogFarm]

If so than.....................

So does that make me a stupid people

I keep asking the guy in the mirror the same question.

I have about 500 tomato plants started. People at our market buy some tomatoes, squash and cucumbers at the end of April.

Eric

[Dixana]

It's funny you mention the market DD. My DH commented, after seeing my trays of seedlings, that I could probably sell some of them at our rummage sale this spring.
I was like :shock, SELL THEM??? You want me to sell my babies to random strangers who might kill them? I'm sure he thinks I'm cracked in the head, especially after I already killed my blacktail mtn watermelon....

[gixxerific]

Not unless you have ready to plant plants and it is snowing outside.

It COULD very well snow again.

I saw tomatoes at Lowe's (probably Home Depot and Wal Mart as well) 2 maybe 3 weeks ago. I was a little shocked. Oh yeah they had to move them inside cause we got 4 inches of snow a few weekends ago. Go figure I always see WAY out of season plants there like potatoes and such in dang near Oct.

[soil]

I started most of my seeds later this year, I'm not in a rush on getting the bulk started and am concentrating on better growth once in the soil. I do however have about 15 tomatoes in the ground already, at least a month early. going to test out some new cold frame/hoop house deals.

[DeborahL]

I once saw roses covered in aphids for sale at Walmart. I told someone, and hopefully the plants were treated or removed.