Musings on the Open House

Piece of garden art at Sage Advice Nursery

Part time employee Vicki and I just finished holding an open house at the house which is also the nursery. We had a great day with a few customers and even more friends showing up. Ate almost all of the food I made and all of the cheesecake bars and had a great time at the party. Hope to hold some more open houses next year. Vicki was a great help ushering friends and customers throughout the garden while I held down the grill. Had a nice fire and enjoyed the cool day.

Sales have been slow at the markets. You would think with the giveaway prices of a dollar a pot, the plants would fly off the benches, but people get tired of gardening in the late summer and a number of people tell me they still have to plan out their garden areas. I have been boosted by a couple of regular customers and I thank all of you for supporting my business in its infant first year.

Hope to continue at the markets for another couple of weeks - even though sales are slow, I need to clear out a few more pots as I am so limited in what I can carry over for the winter. Employee Pam is coming tomorrow to start potting up the carry overs into one gallons and we will make a road trip up to Hortmark Greenhouse suppliers in Capac to get some more pots. I hope I bought enough soil at Telly's Greenhouse to last us, but the one gallon pots gobble up soil quickly.

Still waiting for the bulb order to arrive. I plan on potting those that I can't sell or plant and trying to force them for early spring sales. I hope to get a real jump on the season next year and plan on going to the markets in April. So far it has been a great experience running the nursery. Gives me an outlet for my horticultural knowledge that has been lying dormant for so many years. It gives me a chance to meet people and get out of the house and gives me a chance to grow plants that I really covet and want to grow. I hope others can follow their dreams no matter how far fetched they are and find their passion eaith early or late in their lives.