Milk, Corn and the Next Generation of Gardeners

“At home I serve the kind of food I know the story behind.”~ Michael Pollan

Do you know where your milk comes from? I do. I’ve been to the farm and seen the cows being milked. I know the farmer, I know the guys who sell the milk each week at the farmer’s market. I even know what the cows eat. I feed this milk to my family. We also use butter and cheese from these same cows.

Do most American’s know what the cow that makes their milk eats? Do they care?

Local food is hot right now. Grass, not corn fed, cows are another really hot topic.

I’ve been a little bit crazy about this stuff for 10 years. I almost lost my husband on our first date when I told him I wouldn’t even feed my dog meat that had antibiotics in it because I thought that could cause cancer. We were sampling beers at a microbrewery. Great first date right? All the guys are saying, “Heck yeah!” Then we started talking about food. I had just recently lost a beloved dog to bone cancer. Back then – critics said it was the antibiotics in dog food that were causing this increase in cancer. I believed it was something in the food, but I didn’t know for sure, so I grasped onto this theory. He thought I was certifiably crazy…you could see it in his eyes. He must have been intrigued enough though because we went on a second date, and were married a year later.

He now says it was the beer…

It’s ten years later and now my husband won’t eat meat that was fed corn. Our dogs eat no grain except brown rice and we only drink milk from cows that eat grass. These days I fully believe we are all (pets and humans) dying of horrible, preventable diseases simply because we have been fed too much corn. Corn in our meat, corn in our milk, corn in our fish, corn as a sweetener…I could go on.

I blame corn and so does author Michael Pollan and many other critics of the food industry. I’ve heard folks say, “You are what your food eats.” If that’s true…we are corn.

“In corn, I think I’ve found the key to the American food chain. If you look at a fast-food meal, a McDonald’s meal, virtually all the carbon in it – and what we eat is mostly carbon – comes from corn.” ~ Michael Pollan

Where am I going with this?

Well…I heard that one of the big box stores is starting a new “locally grown” (not their words…mine) producer program for their plants. I’ve been thinking about what this means for a few weeks. My question is…

Do people who buy plants want to know where their plants were grown? Do they care?

What is the advantage (besides a smaller carbon footprint due to local shipments) for the big box to buy plants from local growers? Wouldn’t this mean the mix would change for every locale, making the selection dependent on what the locals are growing? Or does this mean big boxes will dictate what is grown, like they do currently?

The advantage of buying locally grown food is supporting local farms and knowing where your food comes from. I suppose it’s the same for nurseries. Is it a way to save money on shipping costs? Are they planning to market the plants as locally grown, to capitalize on the current “Buy Fresh, Buy Local” campaign used by local farms?

I kind of like that, but I sort of don’t at the same time.

My guess is they are trying to make big box stores more like independent garden centers. What does this mean for the independents? For years, I’ve been hearing experts say the way to differentiate, as an independent, is to have locally grow plants and high quality products. How will they differentiate themselves if they can’t tout their locally grown plants as unique? Do you suppose the growers who decide to participate in this new program will grow two versions of their plants? Does this mean high quality for the independents and lower quality for the big boxes? Otherwise, how will they meet their demand for lower prices?

I suppose many retailers already do this. We have Old Navy/ Gap, Nissan/Infiniti, Honda/Acura, etc. Each one of these popular retailers has a “high end” as well as a cheaper version, so this isn’t big news. I just hate to see this happening in the nursery industry.

Do our independents need to be more Restoration Hardware-like to differentiate in this market? Should they be targeting high-end customers? That’s what Terrain at Styers, a garden center outside Philadelphia, is trying to do. The store is gorgeous, the café is inviting and serves the most delicious food, but are customers buying plants?

I’m not sure they have the mix completely figured out after two selling seasons, but they sure are trying. They are definitely the Restoration Hardware of the garden center world. I suppose I am their target shopper, but I can’t afford most things in the store (much like Restoration Hardware). But I do love the place.

Since experts in our industry say our selling models are not working, why not follow the model that has made URBN Inc. tons of money? URBN Inc. owns Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Terrain at Styers. They know their target audience. Perhaps garden centers should focus their stores the way URBN does. Urban Outfitters is for generation Y (maybe X) and Anthropologie is for wealthy gen X and Y and even younger boomers with money. Not very many older gen X and younger boomers would shop Urban Outfitters, I might be wrong, but the products are super-funky and geared for twenty-somethings and younger.

Anthropologie has very fun, yet upscale home products and fantastically unusual clothing. Nothing is cheap, but you can’t find clothes or home furnishings like this anywhere else, so people shop there…a lot. They all have the same successful business model behind them, but the stores look and feel completely independent of one another. It’s kind of like the difference between McDonalds and Chipotle. It’s still fast food, but the experience is so totally different. Chipotle uses farm fresh meats and locally grown produce, McDonalds doesn’t. Chipotle is clean and fresh with funky music playing. McDonalds is stale with greasy floors.

Why don’t garden centers focus on selling to different generations? We know most Gen Y and some Gen X don’t even have houses yet. They might have patios or balconies, but most don’t have yards, so why are we trying to sell them the same stuff we sell to the average homeowner?

Sell them potted plants and flowers, like they do in any European city. Sell them “garden” decorations for their house. I guarantee they are not going to buy 5 junipers, but they might buy a few pumpkins and a mum for Halloween. They want to be involved. They want green products for their homes. Why not sell them funky garden art for their flats that they can keep until they do have a garden?

That’s how I got my patio set, a lot of my gazing balls, and a whole heck of a lot of my garden art. I loved it, but had nowhere to put it so I bought it to decorate my flat and now that I have a house, they are all living happily in the garden.

Hmm…we wonder why there are no cut flowers and potted “gift” plants sold in the US (compared to Europe and Canada). Here’s why – only grocery stores sell them! Ugh! I go to the grocery store for food, not flowers. I might buy flowers while I’m there, so I’m not saying don’t sell them in the grocery, but let’s have a cool, upscale destination for buying flowers and gift plants. How cool would that be? Staff it with experts and cool ways to wrap them for immediate gift giving. In every European city there are plant shops in every section of town that sell potted plants for patios, garden art, home decorations and cut flowers galore. They even sell the coolest gnomes. Why don’t we have these?

Maybe this new generation of Eco-loving, earth and body mindful adults will be the generation that brings back the importance of flowers and plants in the home. Someone needs to start a marketing campaign now! Can you smell a new macramé generation? My mom had spider plants and ferns hanging in macramé hangers all over the house in the 70’s. Perhaps the Gen Y’s will use hemp for their macramé, since it’s more earth friendly.

I’m going to open a garden center for people who have no house. That would be a fun challenge. Independents look out. You need to change the way you sell and what you are trying to sell to these different (in every way…) generations. Take heed…the perfect garden center is in the works and it’s coming. Don’t you want to be the one who opens it?

If the big boxes all start selling locally grown plants – they’ll take your mojo, so you better find a new one pretty quick to stay in the game.

Until next week…

Happy Weeding,

Angela Treadwell Palmer
President, Plants Nouveau