Thursday, December 17, 2009

PUPPET BARBUDA GARDEN CENTER SHOPPING

PUPPET BARBUDA, landscape critic, was invited by a dear friend to a soiree at a bonafide retail garden center this week. PUPPET was sooooooooooo excited. In PUPPET's world plants are wholesale & arrive in trucks with vigorous helpful men. Retail garden center experiences are rare. (Yes, PUPPET purchases from big box hardware store plant departments 3-4x's/yr. Are they garden centers?) PUPPET BARBUDA's mental math, "What is my spending cap at the garden center today?"
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Instead, a preening tragedy. The garden center, inside, was dramatically static, by a decade, or more. Garden merchandise is more tempting at TJMaxx or Marshall's or Ross. (PUPPET shops those places for her garden many times/year!)
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How to fix this? PUPPET BARBUDA wishes Atlanta interior design blogger, Things That Inspire, would be invited to decorate/merchandise inside the garden center. In exchange? Promotion of her work & blog. The garden center is tight on money in a tight economy, understandably.
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PETERSHAM NURSERIES in England is where PUPPET BARBUDA vicariously shops. PUPPET is on PETERSHAM's email list & adores each missive. Their pics (they're on Flickr too) have her smitten. At least the distance to PETERSHAM's saves PUPPET money.
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PUPPET BARBUDA is horrified a new gardener, or non-gardener, would enter the Garden-Center-of-Preening-Tragedy and think, "This is what gardening is about?" Though a fabulous remnant remained from another era, CUSTOMER SERVICE. Oh, the poor dears had not much to sell.
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When PUPPET BARBUDA saw the pic, above, via Dust Jacket Attic, she thought it had more to sell to gardeners than the garden center stuffed with merchandise she visited this week. PUPPET BARBUDA's heart is on her sleeve about gardening & wants each element of the profession, & you the gardener, to prosper.
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It should be easy to have a sustainable, eco, organic, low-maintenance, spirit filling, beautiful garden. PUPPET BARBUDA would survive without hers but she wouldn't THRIVE.
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Life is short, thrive.
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Garden & Be Well, XO PUPPET BARBUDA aka Tara
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(Mental math? Thrifty PUPPET BARBUDA was willing to go $200 max, instead, ZERO)
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4 comments:

  1. Brenda PruittDecember 17, 2009 at 12:31 PM

    Oh, I wish you could see my favorite nursery, Blue Moon. It is on this big piece of land with little houses dotting it, which are shops. You are out in the country, so the scenery is fantastic. It is a place to relax and commune with nature.
    Brenda

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  2. Things That InspireDecember 17, 2009 at 9:18 PM

    You are too kind! I actually see myself as an arbiter of taste, but not really one who can set things up to be tasteful. I would probably nominate my new blog friend at Yummy Scrumptious as the designer to redo this garden center (she did an amazing job at the Christmas showhouse), and we could be her assistants making sure that everything was just so.

    I have been really enjoying the posts of Doug from Tracery Interiors, who has been decorating the homes of his clients for the holidays. I can't imagine a more luxurious thing - having your favorite designer help you decorate for the holidays.

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  3. TerryDecember 18, 2009 at 12:30 PM

    To Habersham Gardens to restore a bit of your retail hope. As I blogged, "We want to live there."

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  4. Tara DillardDecember 21, 2009 at 11:27 AM

    You are correct Terry, I wasn't at Habersham Gardens.

    Do you think I should have named the nursery in question?

    Wish we could go to Blue Moon with Brenda!!

    Can't wait to check out the sites Things That Inspire mentioned.

    XO Tara

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