Ian's Bits & Bobs: The Blog

canned

Fall is for … Preserving?

I am delighted to report that there has been a welcome upturn in the conventional garden business. In other words consumers are buying flowers, veggies and lawn food again – hooray for that. There was a moment in July when it looked like the American householder had forgotten that their yard, garden or patio traditionally involved buying, replacing or maintaining some type of plant! Most retailers I know had “horrible” Summer numbers, not just in sales figures but, more worryingly, in transactions or register rings (some people call it “Customer Count”). This was not just a local thing in one area with bad weather, it seemed national in scope with comments like “No one showed up” or “Business dropped off the cliff from mid June”.  So to hear that September was up substantially in sales figures, on an admittedly poor 2011,  pretty much across the country in all retail channels is nothing but good news.

What would be even better news would be knowing what is driving it.

To some extent there is no choice for many homeowners.  After 4 years when spending on the garden and patio was pushed down the priority list in many households, they can see that their biggest asset, their house, is starting to look tired and less attractive to a buyer. So at least that will drive people to a store to buy flowers, a few containers and some lawn food, maybe even some pruners to attack those tryphid-like shrubs. Consumers realize that the least they have to do is to protect and preserve what they already had or owned.                                                                   

Is the home-grown, fresh veggies boom driving some traffic?  

I think so, especially in areas of the country where (if you know how) you can get a late crop of all sorts of fresh greens, winter squash or root veggies and a great start on next spring before Jack Frost arrives.  Also, now that many feel competent about growing a juicy tomato, the intrigue of preserving some of that summer bounty might be catching on in younger generations who didn’t learn it from their parents like I did. When I was a kid in England I was cheap labo(u)r for everything from painfully picking gooseberries to cleaning countless jam jars. From June to October the house always seemed to smell of jam or chutney!

Riding the Trend Wave

Some retailers I am glad to say have encouraged this food-preservation trend with tasting events, classes and supplies, others have not. One garden center owner complained that he couldn’t make money on canning supplies but his store just had a shelf or two of jars and lids sitting there for those consumers who knew what to look for (and probably knew their prices as they bought them somewhere every year). There was no promotion, tastings, eye-catching merchandising, cute signage, themes, events, classes, experts on-hand or items bundled into E-Z success-kits like “Make your own Pesto sauce” or “Preserve your luscious tomato flavor all through the winter” and so on.

It takes some imagination and a bit of work, but if we have managed to win the consumers’  trust to grow their own, we can surely be the credible “How-to” center that helps them keep those wax beans, onions or hot peppers on-hand until next summer. Why not use their own tomatoes for those winter pasta or pizza evenings instead of buying a can?

The fact is that consumers have spent on what made them feel good all through the worst recession in recent times. One of those feel-good themes is eating out. (Have you tried to get in to a decent restaurant on a Friday night lately?) Meanwhile the press coverage of better food for kids and the number of cooking programs on TV continue consumer awareness of eating local and better. What could be more local than their own backyard or better than their own basil?

Here comes a softball…

Retailers should be constantly watching the market looking for new opportunities, doors opening. The door labeled “Food Gardening” just offered yet another chance to re-connect with the consumers who are jazzed by their tomato success but are mystified by tales of preservation, canning or even worse “Putting Up.” It is on-trend, not executed well by the supermarkets or boxes, and a natural extension of the core of gardening. In the constant game of looking for one-more-visit-per-household-per-year, the Lawn and Garden industry just got a nice soft delivery thrown its way.

photo credit: Lisa Baldwin (from our harvest!)

Oct 12, 2012 11 Comments
Chihuly Glass

It Takes a Garden

I was with an industry group in Columbus, Ohio last week touring the very impressive Franklin Park Conservatory & Botanical Gardens, talking with Bill Dawson, who runs the beautiful 80-acre downtown site. (Industry veterans may recall Ameriflora on that site in 1992 which is how Bill got involved in the first place.) I remember I loved the inspiration of Ameriflora,  America’s one (and only, thus far) attempt to have a 6 month long European-style garden festival, so I was inspired again 20 years later by Bill’s current work.

Bill is especially passionate about their 5-acre Community Garden Campus, built with donations and lovingly tended by his team and a whole flock of community volunteers. I was amazed to hear that the greater Columbus metro area (population 2 million) has around 250 community gardens with 12 major “hub” gardens around the area.

Everyone in the garden business should plan a visit there to see how the local community has become a true partner in the use and direction of the whole park.  Set in mature botanical parkland in what was a run-down part of the city, the huge Victorian Greenhouse gets immediate attention – but this place has so much more.

From exquisite Dale Chihuly glass to stunning Aurora Robson art from recycled plastic bottles (the current temporary exhibition), there is a lot to see, but from our point of view the 5 acre Community Garden Campus (sponsored by Scotts Miracle-Gro) is the place to focus on.  This place has the expected Community Garden plots plus a rain garden, pollinator garden (and a thriving educational bee exhibit), tai chi garden, fruit, vegetables, herbs together with every educational tool imaginable from composting to an indoor cooking theater. They even have 5 types of outdoor cooking “fires” to learn about and use. Locals often just bring their dinner in with them to hang out enjoying the summer evenings: there’s no fence around this garden.

The Fall events schedule lists a dizzying range of things to do:  from environmental behind-the-scenes tours to craft workshops and cooking classes. Locals are involved at every stage and every minute — it’s their park. That, and generous corporate and private funding, is the secret to such a vibrant place.

Being the local garden products company (with almost 150 years in nearby Marysville, Ohio), Scotts have supported this horticultural gem for a long time, but recently the community garden became a model and rallying cry for a very-welcome corporate goal to “grow the gardening category”. As the biggest player (by far) in the L&G industry, Scotts can really punch their weight – so when they get behind a movement like community gardens we should all take note, and see how we can ride the wave. Through the magic of Google I see that Scotts have announced a goal of “1000 Community gardens in North America and Europe by 2018,” the 150th  anniversary of their company. This initiative has already been adopted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, while Scotts have created a generous grant fund for the purpose of helping start-ups.

As a public company, Scotts have staked a flag in a long-term initiative that would at first sight seem at odds with the usual Wall Street short-term expectations, but their vision is to be applauded and all companies in the L&G business should lend support, however small, to this “Grow The Category” mantra. We all know that “different days” are coming, if not already here, and this would be a great way for any garden business to walk the talk.

So the obvious question of this posting is: What are you doing to encourage, create, expand, train, support, lead and become synonymous with local community gardens in your market area?  Let’s hear it!

Thanks for tuning in!

(photo credit: Allen Conant)

Sep 24, 2012 5 Comments

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