End-of-season garden clearance shopping
Published 11:11 am Tuesday, September 20, 2005
By Staff
I love this time of year, not only for the cooler temps and the rain, but also for the changing of the seasons.
It is never boring in our area. One minute it can be a sizzling 95 degrees, the next it's cooler with a dew on the grass.
This time of the year I love how the air smells.
I saw some geese flying in that V-shaped pattern and honking overhead.
I don't look forward to this because you know where most of them are headed - south.
But speaking of the things I do look forward to this time of year, late summer/early fall, it's now the time when most nurseries and greenhouses are having their end-of-season clearance sales.
Not only are there sales on trees, shrubs and perennials, you can also find birdbaths, benches, flowerpots, shepherd's-hooks, seeds, lawn ornaments, hummingbird feeders and many other items I can't think of right now.
So, seek out, scour a few of these shops on an early fall Saturday and browse around.
I'm a frugal-type person and there's nothing I like better than saving a few dollars. There's also the thrill of the hunt. You never know what you might run across.
I found a place that had geraniums for 50 cents apiece. Some have buy-two-get-one-free deals. Others mark down their plants $2 to $3 each (roses). How about a sale where you buy 10 for $34.95 (if my math is right, that makes the perennials what, about $3.50 apiece?)
One place in our area is having a 50-percent off sale (Sunny Acres), another is having a 20-percent off sale until the end of September (Nelson's Herbs).
Now is the time to plant. Be sure to look your purchases over carefully. Make sure there are no bugs or diseases.
Late summer/early fall is the best time to plant with cooler temps and, hopefully, more rain.
A gardener doesn't have to fret so much over newly-planted items, not like you do in the summer (sun, heat, dry, watering almost daily, bugs are also worse in late spring/early summer; mosquitoes are more plentiful in the summer, too).
So get out there, explore, see what you can find - and while you're at it, save some money, too.
I also have one additional comment. Sunny Acres Greenhouses and Yardening Center will be closing its doors for good, another small business squeezed out by the big businesses. Gary, Eric, Kim and crew, we gardeners out here who have infinite gardening questions now have one less knowledgeable place to go to get these questions answered.
Where can we now go in our area to get knowledgeable, professional answers? Plus, all the trees, shrubs, roses, perennials, annuals, pond items, bird feeders and hundreds of other items your business has offered.
It is truly a sad day.