You read my mind, so maybe you’ll read my blog

I recently received an email from Erin (oldest, SF, advertising) with a one word message and a link:

Jackpot:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/11/dining/11garden.html

Wow. Psychic! She must have read my mind. But I guess there are more than just a few folks who are picking up on the growth in vegetable, fruits and flower gardening. Just like Yogi always said, “you can observe a lot just by watching”. Suddenly it is all you notice. It’s just like when we bought our Prius. At first it felt a little goofy, but then we started seeing them everywhere and now I look prescient (big word points). The point is we started noticing what we were looking for.

Which get us back to jackpot girl…

As recently as two weeks ago she called with two bits of information: she wanted help to create an herb planter and wanted to start a “Victory Garden” when it comes time to settle down. Well you could have warmed up leftovers with the glow of pride. I don’t now if she could possibly remember but the first book that got me hooked on gardening was Jim Crockett’s original “Victory Garden”. His PBS show was the best, never to be equaled. So for my bouncing little girl to remember this is heart warming (or a coincidence). But the fact remains she was interested and despite a sub-par shopping experience (she would make a great mystery shopper) she must have gotten the bug. Now I get regular updates on everything from lemons to cilantro.

So like the flood of Prius tooling around in my unconsciousness (thanks Yogi), I went out making my regular rounds in search of new, fresh images. I routinely scour the city gardens, upscale neighborhoods and the occasional ‘Welcome to our Town’ sign for garden shots. As it turns out Hartford, CT boasts Elizabeth Park. A great city garden with a spectacular rose garden. Over the years I have taken hundreds of photos there. Both girls are familiar with it because as a condition of a walk, or bike ride we had to stop to take photos. So, earlier this week I was out there with my tri-pod creeping out the early walkers, but especially the help that comes in early to prep food at the Pond House restaurant. Here they are coming to work to find a guy hunched over in the garden beds taking pictures. The Pond House is really cool because it is located in the park and is planted up with tons of flowers, perennials and now a little organic garden for fresh veggies and culinary herbs.

Earlier in the spring I noticed they were creating raised beds for a vegetable garden. Great idea for an urban restaurant of sorts, but it is also a great idea for garden centers, but particularly landscape garden centers. As a customer what would you say to a landscape company that could come in and install a series of raised beds, mulched walkways and perhaps a garden features such as a fountain or sculpture to serve as a focal point for some geometric pattern.

With that in mind I had the same conversation with Dan from Fraleigh’s. A quick aside: Isn’t funny how we become Kurt from Sunrise, or Rich from Krikit’s. I suggested that maybe we should feature this concept for the landscape company. The more we talked about it, the more excited we both became with the concept.

So, when I looked at my e-mail and saw her link I knew I was on to something big. You see while some will raise vegetables to save enough to buy gas (are we still in America?), many others are interested in the ecological and health benefits of growing your own. There is no surprise that the New York Times has picked up on it, isn’t it about time that you and your garden center step in to help your customers and your communities. Looks like three cherries to me – jackpot!