Early April Gardening Fever Leads to Death

It is early spring and Oaks Gardens is gone. It died and will be born again as Oaks Shopping Center. But fear not for lack of garden plants and supplies for Lowe's Home Improvements is just a hop, skip and a jump away. They seem to be ready to fill your gardening needs.

On the last day of March, there were already flowers, 

vegetables, 

herbs 

and plenty of garden supplies out in front of the store.

There were mostly cold hardy plants but be aware of each plant's hardiness.

I remember one year, a long time ago, I got gardening fever. It was just after moving into my first home in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia. We had never had a garden in my parent's home in South Philly. So I wasn't savvy when it came to planting times.

It was very early April and I visited the nearby garden supply store in Glenside, PA. There before me were trays and trays of beautiful blooming plants. Plants that I just had to have. I was driven by desire and purchased quite a few impatiens and begonias. I spent a whole day spacing the pink, white and red plants perfectly in the front of my house. I stepped back and admired my labor and the beauty of the flowering plants.

Sometime around the sixth or seventh of the very same month a sudden snow materialized. Those tender plants were blanketed in pure fresh frozen whiteness.

All were lost.

I learned a lesson that year that I remember vividly to this day. Gardening fever may cloud your judgement and lead to death.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Garden Seeds

I planned to have three plantings for this growing season.  With my square foot garden plot plan finished, I purchased some seed packets at Lowe's.  I based my decisions on several criteria.

• Type of vegetable

• Planting time

• Days to harvest

• Height of foliage

• Easy to grow

Above is my early planting grid.  At Lowe's, I purchased bunching onions, carrots and snow peas along with their inoculant.  I liked the varieties of lettuce and radishes I saw in the Johnny's seed catalog.  So I will be online to purchase the other seeds at Johnny's Select Seeds.  I looked online at seeds from Totally Tomatoes and like what I saw there, also.  Here is the problem with mail order, shipping and the price of the seeds themselves.  The difference in the price of seeds isn't that great especially if I can only get those seeds online.  However, the cost of shipping must also be considered.  I think it is better to order all your seeds from one place to keep the ratio of shipping costs to seed packet as low as possible.  At a Lowe's store the prices are lower and there is no shipping (there is the cost of gasoline, though).  Plus if I made an error in choosing seeds, I can return them without spending money for return postage.  But, Lowe's doesn't have all the varieties I desire.  So, I will order some seeds from Johnny's.

The second planting will follow the above grid.  I purchased the melon, cucumber and zucchini seeds at Lowe's.  I still need lettuce, beans, peppers, and tomatoes.

The final planting will follow the above grid.  I will have enough seeds remaining from the early planting of carrots, lettuce and radishes.  I need to add broccoli and cabbage to my order.


Lowe's also sells vegetable plants when the weather warms a bit.  I like the plants sold under the Bonnie Plants label.  I perused their website and chose tomato and pepper plants that I wish to purchase.  I talked to the Assistant Store Manager in charge of the seasonal area at Lowe's to see if they can request the kinds of plants to put into their store.  I was informed that Bonnie Plants places their plants in Lowe's on a consignment agreement.  Which means that Bonnie Plants decides which plants to deliver to Lowe's.  I guess I need to contact Bonnie Plants.


Here are the Bonnie Plants I would like to purchase for my garden.


Tomato
• Mortgage Lifter 
• Black Krim 
• Black Cherry 
• Super Sweet 100 
• Sweet Cherry

Pepper
• Cajun Belle 
• Cubanelle

That is my plan.  I have about one month before my early planting.  I will order the seeds from Johnny's and they should arrive in time. If not, I will look for seeds at other local stores.  I am sure I can find seeds there that are close to my criteria.


I will email Bonnie Plants and see if I can request the above plants delivered to my nearest Lowe's.  I have one month to ready the soil and prepare my supports and stretch string to delineate the grid.


Are you planning your garden?  Leave a comment and tell us about your 2012 garden.


PS - At the last minute I found a free shipping code 12-1005 that saved me $10.00 at Johnny's.


©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved