Yesterday was windy and chilly in our area, so I stayed indoors and vegged. I did get up the energy to prepare dinner at the end of the day, a hearty tomato basil soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.
Today (4/13/21) was a much better day than yesterday. The wind was only a breeze; it was sunny and warm enough that the cool breeze felt good while I worked outdoors in a T-shirt. Andy and I went into town to run some errands - go to the bank, get some groceries, drop off a flat tire to be fixed, picked up prescriptions from the local pharmacy, and stopped in at Jackie's Lawn & Lube/June's Garden Center/distributor of Watonga Cheese. I bought a few seedlings (eggplant and cherry tomato) for our garden. June has the best, healthiest plants and a wide variety of not only ornamentals but also vegetables and herbs.
Speaking of plants and gardening -- I am boycotting Bonnie's plants because they are not an ethical company. A couple of years ago I was at a Lowe's store to pick up some seedlings for the vegetable garden. They had a table with several signs around the table that said "$1.98" for the 3" pots -- what a deal!! When I got to the checkout counter, the cashier rang the plants up at $3.98 each - which was the posted price on the plastic descriptive tag in each pot. I told the cashier that the sale price was listed on the table at $1.98. The cashier followed me outside to the table to confirm what I had told her, and then she explained to me that the sale price did not pertain to the Bonnie brand, even though the table only had Bonnie plants on it. I asked, then why are the sale signs there, where there are only Bonnie plants. The cashier told me that Bonnie and their personnel controlled where their plants were set up in stores, and the stores are not allowed to mark the prices down. In fact, she said all Bonnie plants that are not sold are returned to the nursery, actually picked up by a Bonnie nursery representative, no matter what condition they are in. I asked to see a manager, and the manager followed me outside to the "sale" table. Her explanation was that "some employee" must have put the Bonnie plants on the sale table because the racks Bonnie provided for their merchandise were full. Well, that's all well and good except for the fact that the employee left the sale price sign on the table, and there were no other plants on the table that were not Bonnie. The employee should have removed the sale signs if they weren't going to sell the plants on the table for the sale price. I told her, in a nice voice, that it was false advertising. The manager said "you can always contact the Bonnie nursery. We don't have any control over their marketing and plant placement on our premises." I was frustrated and fuming mad, but decided not to spend anymore time on the matter. I walked away from my cart that was full of plants and since then have refused to buy any more Bonnie nursery plants. Bonnie Nursery seedlings are sold everywhere, from the local grocery store to Tractor Supply and Atwoods (local businesses) But June Morris here in Watonga gets her seedlings from another nursery. While Bonnie charges $3.98 for a 3-inch seedling, June charges $1.98 for the same plant. June always culls her supply of damaged or half-dead seedlings, and will sell those for less than the marked price if a person asks.
End of my rant! In the afternoon I planted the seedlings I had bought at June's, planted some cilantro, mesclun mix, and parsley seed, and watered the potato bed and lettuces I have in pots. Then I spent an hour or so pulling up the spreading vinca (periwinkle) that had encroached on and covered up some other plants in the large "wild" area in the front yard. Jenna and I walked around the property to look at what was blooming and what was budding and what needed to be cut back or trimmed. Everything is so colorful outdoors right now! And we're getting some much needed rain today!
Next project, after the rainy days are over, is to go hunting for morels out in the woods!!
