Sunday, September 7, 2008

Three Down & Seven To Go

Today completed the third day of our ten day plant sale. The image above is from Saturday where we had record crowds and sales. Sorry no blog last night, I was in Chicago at a childhood friend's wedding. Today was beautiful weather and we did quite well overall. It's nice to see not only returning customers from past sales but also some new faces that just heard about the sale. We really do have diverse offerings at the sale and I see very few people leave empty handed. Some customers have to actually make multiple trips to pick up their purchases. Needless to say, we'll have to have a good week and weekend in terms of sales to make our goal. This income has become vital and an absolute essential at this time of year. Well, we're right on track with income thus far but the upcoming weather forecast might put a "damper" on things (pun intended). I missed the Garden Festival which ran Saturday afternoon although I hear it was a rousing success. The Master Gardeners did a great job as usual and kudos go out to Mike, Julie, Bev, Deb, Janice, Jim and the countless others that helped make this third annual event quite memorable. The hot peppers seemed popular and there were even some leftovers that we offered at the plant sale today (see below). An assortment of some of the heirloom tomatoes is also pictured. I believe this will continue to be a successful annual event. For those that aren't easily offended, check out the hairy balls in the bottom picture.Hairy balls (Gomphocarpus) is in the milkweed family and is an annual (4-5' tall) in our climate. I saw this at Olbrich Botanical Gardens (Madison, WI) last year and knew I had to grow it. They used it amongst tall ornamental grasses where the interesting "capsules"? become real eye catchers. A friend also mentioned a David Letterman episode where he and Martha Stuart were laughing at the common name of this plant which is also popular in fresh and dried arrangements. Definitely an interesting plant (and conversation piece...).

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