Local plant nurseries closing
Two local nurseries, including the one where I usually buy tomato starts, have closed and the land on which they sit is for sale. One of them is right around the corner from my home garden, and has always done a thriving business in the past. I assume that the COVID economy hurt these businesses, despite all the gardening that took place last year.
It will be a significant drive to find a source of local plants this year, probably as much as an hour each way. I'll have to do research to find out where I can go.
Maybe a new owner will purchase one or both of these businesses and re-open them, but it's unlikely they would be ready to sell much in 2021. At best, that would help us next year.
Are you seeing local sources of plants closing in your own communities, especially in small towns and rural areas?
Comments
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I am actually shocked about this. Last year was the busiest growing season I have ever seen with every seed site I knew about selling out constantly!
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Our smaller businesses were not allowed to be open at first to help the bigger box stores and companies. My one friend was allowed to sell garden supplies only and another could not open until almost the end opn May, one month late! It could have been regulations and extra expenses that hurt the smaller businesses.
I try to do my plant business with the smaller local businesses
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That is so sad that the bigger chain stores were given such an advantage like that. Almost seems like they were trying to force small local businesses out of business :(
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I orderd all our seeds several months ago since they were so hard to get last year. Now, we are hoping to source some good compost and get several raised beds built. What compost we had been able to save up from our chickens we used last year. There will be a little more this year, but no where near enough.
There have been several issues slowing us down so far this year, but our biggest hold up right now is the 5 or 6 feet of snow still on the ground. This week we are expecting high temps near or at 50 so now we will have flooding.
We have a large number of baby chicks due to arrive the last week of May, my husband had to fly out around May 29 for a family situation, and we can't plant outdoors until June 1st. May have to buy starts instead of all my wonderful seeds as we just don't have room to start them in our house. Only one small shelf and a set of lights. Shelf can hold 4 trays, but I will need much more room than that as we will be selling greens this year to our local grocery store. Probably won't be able to cover all their needs, but they like to buy local when they can get it. Hope our nurseries stay open.
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@vickeym I don't think any gardener ever has enough compost. It is very difficult to produce enough on one homestead to give its garden all that it can use. Having chickens or ducks helps, but you still don't have enough.
We tend to buy a significant amount of it about every other year.
Is it possible you could start your seeds in an improvised cold frame outside? Maybe not this early, but well before June 1? Some gardeners have good luck with hay or straw bales surrounding the bed, and a simple glass or plastic window laid on top.
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I have been very concerned for our local Armstrong since it was completely closed for a while but luckily it is connected to the Carlsbad Flower Fields which has partially opened up.
One small nursery near me was supposed to close last March because MORE homes are going in but due to COVID was able to stay open until just recently. They are in the process of looking for a new location!
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I have learned a little more since my original posting. One of the local nurseries closures is due to the owner retiring after 30+ years. I don't blame her for moving on to the next phase of her life, but though wish someone else had bought the business.
It did a thriving business for many years. Perhaps someone else will purchase the buildings at the site and make a go of it.
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VermontCathy We have just hits temps above freezing during the day and at least for the next 10 days we will be high 40's to low 60's so things are gonna start melting fast. Will have a lake in driveway by the end of next week. But once the snow melts some I might be able to find a place to try starting some under glass outside. Right now even though it has been warmer the last few days we still have 4-6 feet of snow on the ground. And lots of ice in some areas. Hit a patch Sunday, of course I fell, smashed y elbow on the ground, landed in a large patch of ice and had to crawl about 10 feet to get to an area where I could get some traction and stand up. Definitely ready for it to be gone this year. lol
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@VermontCathy There are no cabbage seeds (or not many) here. Anyone know what that is about? I managed to get a Heirloom seed package but then could not find red cabbages. My current project is that I planted up a dozen sprouts from the core of a freshly purchased red cabbage. Variety unknown.
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I have barely done anything with cabbages. I just don't have the space. The larger cabbages are actually easier to grow, especially in cooler climates like this one, but very few large cabbages would fit in one of my beds. I consider them better suited to row gardeners in native soil, rather than raised bed/improved soil gardeners.
So I can't be of much help. Baker Creek does list several types of cabbage including red cabbages, so you might give them a try.
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@vickeym We went through exactly the same thing about 2 weeks ago. Now we're in a mild drought, where I have to water the garden every day. This is not normal spring weather in New England.
More snow is expected later this week, but it won't last long before melting.
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This is fairly normal for us. Just not melting this fast. Driveway has turned to mush. Got our truck stuck in the drive this afternoon had to be pulled out. lol
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That's surprising and disappointing. Thankfully ours seem to be doing fine. I'm sorry though, that's frustrating.
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I suppose due to the pandemic, many areas may be overwhelmed by the amount of demand for seeds, seedling, starts, compost sales, and the like. Some cannot keep up perhaps with such a high demand.
This is news to me, thanks for the post as i will be more aware of what’s going on with local nurseries
save the seeds
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Oh my gosh @vickeym - 5 feet of snow? Where are you? Alaska?
I believe our local (Virginia) nurseries have been allowed open the whole pandemic. They have had problems with getting products from out of state vendors. So sorry for them. I am trying to only buy products made in the USA (or USA friendly countries) even if it means a higher price and as local as possible.
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frogvalley Yes, actually I do live in Alaska. About 2 hours north of Anchorage. I live in the village of Talkeetna, Alaska. The town the TV show Northern Exposure was sort of based on. Did not live here back then. But have met several folks who claim such and such character was based on them or a relative.
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@flowerpower * I have red cabbage seeds if you want some. Monday is my catchup day for seeds and such so message me if you wants some Denise
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@Denise Grant Thank-you, I appreciate your offer. I think I will stick to my core sprouting project for now. After having had a marked preference for green cabbage I have started really liking boiled red cabbage. Does anyone think they taste different?
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@flowerpower * Let us know how your core project goes. What I love about gardeing is its alwasy a learning experience and somewhat scientific.
Yes, I think they taste different and have a different texture but it may all be in my mind. I just love the red color of cabbage. Coleslaw looked a bit weird and i did not do that again.
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Locally last year they were not allow to sale stuff, some got around it by opening their doors, you pick what you want, writing up a bill of sales and billing later. Or honor system you write down how much you put in the jar. Don't know how much they made and how many people ripped them of. But they were trying.
I also am trying to only buy local stuff, so many small business have closed.
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Its really too bad when nurseries close due to retirement and no one there to purchase or take over the business. We have a local nursery that might be in the same situation soon. The owners are getting up there in age and the property itself is very valuable. I have suspicions that it might get swallowed up by a neighbouring large ranch.
@Denise Grant I regularly make coleslaw with red cabbage. Don't mind the colour at all. I buy sauerkraut from a local producer and she makes a red kraut. Looks lovely in the jar.
In addition to all of the benefits of cabbage in general, red/purple cabbage is higher in antioxidants than green cabbage. It has anthocyanins (from the colour pigment) that green cabbage doesn't. Red cabbage is almost twice as high in Vitamin C and 10 times higher in Vitamin A than green. The only benefit that green cabbage seems to have over red is that it is twice as high in Vitamin K.
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@torey Kraut would look nice in jars.
I did not mind red or purple coleslaw when it was fresh but what I stored in the fridge, would have scared family.
Yes puplre red and black veggies are higher in most antioxidants, plus I love color
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Something like at least 25% if not more of small businesses have closed in America due to covid. We're going to end up like Idiocracy where everything is Costco, or it will more likely be "Amazon Costco."
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We have lost several of our local nurseries over past few years. Always makes me sad to see local businesses fail.
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I may have little choice but to buy my tomato transplants from Walmart this year. :-(
I have started some Black Cherry and Amish Paste myself, but I've had very poor results from my own tomato starts.
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@Denise Grant I collected 12 tiny sprouts and core chunks from one red cabbage core freshly bought from the store. I shallowly planted the sprouts in an 8 inch pot filled with potting soil. So far I have 7 sprouts. One has three leaves. The leaves are fierce looking green leaves with purple red veins and jagged edges. They sure look like survivors to me. 🙃
I am a bit of a color fan, loving red and purple carrots, but like you, I like my cole slaw green. A touch of red cabbage in a green salad is just the thing, though. 😊
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What does everyone think about setting up a seed swap area in the forums? I think we once had a marketplace setup just for that...
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@Marjory Wildcraft We already have a few on the forum set up by region. Yhe "by region" is meant to avoid the international restrictions & keep things within each jurisdiction for no swapping hassles.
Here is the link:
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@Marjory Wildcraft We already have a few on the forum set up by region. The "by region" is meant to avoid the international restrictions & keep things within each jurisdiction for no swapping hassles.
It also has some guidelines to hopefully keep swaps positive.
Here is the link:
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To everything there is a season!
Two local nurseries closed, but a new one is opening a few miles south of me. They have put up signs along the road with "Greenhouse" and arrows. I will check them out in a couple of weeks, and hope to find lots of tomato options there.
I expect we'll see the same thing happen with many small businesses. Many of the old ones closed, but new ones owned by different people will be created to meet the demand.
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