Well, Mother’s Day weekend 2009 is history.  Lots of hanging baskets and other beautiful flowers went riding home to moms all over the Ohio Valley this weekend.  But if you didn’t get yours yet, don’t worry! There are still more to choose from at Ferda’s Garden Center.  Also lots of bedding plants, vegetable plants, trees and shrubs.  The season has only just begun.

When you are looking around your yard, trying to decide what flowers and shrubs you would like to plant, don’t forget that we have a We Plan/You Plant program that can help.  We come to your home and talk with you about your wants and needs for a specific area in your yard, and leave you with a sketch and plant suggestions for the space.  The cost for this service is $100, payable before the appointment.  With your sketch, we give you a coupon for $50 to use on the purchase of your plants for the area– minimum purchase $200– so the program ends up costing you only $50.  If you decide that you want us to install the landscape, then we apply the entire $100 to the cost of the installation.

Call today for details and to set up an appointment for your consultation. 

In Ohio, the old saw about the weather really applies.  “If you don’t like the weather, just wait– it’ll change.”  Yesterday it was snowing, in the next couple of days, it’ll get back into the 60’s.  Indian summer?  Or just some more evidence of global warming? 

The landscape crew is still doing installations, as long as the weather cooperates.  And when that ends, Dawn will still do We Plan/You Plants for next year’s DIY’ers or for installs in 2009.  So call and make an appointment ASAP!

January 25th.  One more week and January is history.  I’m not a winter person at all, so January and February (especially February) can’t go too fast for me.  During the other months I am continually saying, “Slow Down!”  But this month and next I am saying, “Hurry up already!”

Seed catalogs are piling up; they are my winter salvation.  All those beautiful flowers and succulent vegetables!  This will finally be the year when the weeds and the bugs and the #@*! deer won’t get them.  The season is ripe with possibility!  All gardeners are, by their very nature, optimists.

At the garden center we are still ordering and redecorating– plants don’t begin to come in for another few weeks.  (And I’m certainly glad of that when I look at the nighttime temperatures and my propane bills!)  Our landscape team, Dawn and Chris, attended talks about landscaping at the recent CENTS show, and got some new great ideas.  Dawn has already done a We Plan/You Plant visit this year.

Written by Lynn on the slope of Teasel Hill where it is cold and the ground is covered with a light layer of snow.