Friday, May 15, 2009

Family Friday - Staying Local

We have recently been working on adding a little color to the exterior of our home now that our snow is gone (finally!). I requested flowers for the pots we use outside for Mother's Day and we went together to a local nursery to choose them.

We have found many advantages to staying local with our greenhouse choices, as opposed to heading to a chain or big box store. We found the prices on the plants to be lower and the quality to be higher. Local stores seem to take much more pride in their work with and knowledge of the plants. And, you are ensured to get plants that will work well for your region. In our continued efforts to be green, we want plants that don't need that much water and will handle the temperature variations here (and we added mulch to this pot when we were finished to help retain moisture).


If you're looking to fill your flowerbeds or a few pots, I would urge you to check your local nursery first. And, don't forget to get the kids involved in picking out their favorite plants, getting their hands dirty, teach them to use some garden tools and how to care for your new plants.

-Julie

4 comments:

  1. I will keep that in mind, for sure. Going to get my gardens in order today with help from mom, gram, and toddler. Four generations!! Feel free to join us at www.snug-n-luv.blogspot.com

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  2. Great reminder! Going local, in general, is a fairly new thing for our family (and recent change) and we've been loving it so far - the food is fresher, better, and there's something to be said about knowing exactly where your food comes from. I can see how this would translate to the gardening experience, too. And,really, who is going to know better about what will do well in your area/zone than someone else who is gardening in your zone?

    Tgif, Brilliant Moms!

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  3. Thanks for sharing, its a great reminder!We just did this on Mother's Day. Such a great thing for the whole family!
    Please come visit me at my blog sometime, we have a lot in common!
    Shell

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  4. I need to do more gardening activities with my kiddos for sure - thanks for the reminder! :)

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