Gardening for most of us is a hobby that goes beyond the simple act of digging holes and sticking plants in the ground. For me, it was the stress and getaway from the pressures of real life that sucked me in and got me hooked. In the twelve years I have considered gardening a hobby, I have always looked at it as my version of escape without a real vacation. It was valium, the Enterprise’s holdodeck, and yoga all rolled into one without the chemical dependency, technology challenges, and impossible contortions all rolled into one.

But now it looks like real life is breaking down the doors of my sanctuary and the troubles of the financial markets will impact horticulture and gardening in ways never seen in most of our lifetimes.
The economy was already stinking with housing values in the US (and now other parts of the world) tanking, the subprime mess, and the escalating cost of commodities. Though oil and other commodities have eased back from their July 2008 highs (due to speculator’s fears that demand will slacken), the latest investment firm fiasco with The US Federal Reserve Bank and Treasury playing “whack a mole” by putting out one major Wall Street fire after another has caused a financial crisis and panic not seem since the Great Depression of 1929. With the original money market fund “breaking the buck” last week (paying 97 cents on the dollar) which is unheard of, AIG essentially being taken over by the US Federal Government, and continued news of bank failures braking every day, this “[sic] sound fundamental economy” of ours as viewed by John McCain thirty-six hours before he recanted is starting to impact everyday life.

As people consider going back to stashing their cash under their mattresses waiting for the next economic boom to be dropped, people in the nursery industry are feeling the pressure as discretionary income is diverted from plants, landscaping, and horticulture to more mundane things like making sure the house paid for, there’s food on the table, and gas to put in the car to get you to that job that suddenly doesn’t seem as rock-solid secure as it did just two weeks ago.

I’ve spoken to a few folks in the trade in southern California and people who’ve been in the game since the eighties say this is the worse they’ve ever seen it. Some are wondering if they will make it to the end of the year. Add to that the water restrictions, widespread drought, and skyrocketing prices of commodities like fertilizer and 2008 is a year many growers can’t wait to end.

Up until the latest meltdown, people (at least in the United States) were already dialing back the budget for travel, opting instead for a “staycation” which means taking a rest within a few hours drive of your house (or more often, in your house). To make the staycation more pleasant, people were still forking over coin for amenities to add to the “escapist” feel—things like outdoor kitchens, patio tables, and accessories. Of course, plants were added to the mix because as all of you warm climate gardeners know, nothing says paradise like a palm frond rustling in the wind. Earlier this year, Business Week reported the big box stores ramping up the inventory and quality of the aforementioned goods and it definitely showed at my local big-box.

Now, this was bad news and bad news for our favorite growers, the independents. Yes, people did spend some money on home improvement, but they did it on the cheap which favors the Home Depots, Lowe’s, and Carrefours of the world. Instead of buying slightly-rarer, yet more costly specialty plants, the average buyer went with the big boxes. One local sold the exact same (new for 2008) bat-faced cuphea this past May for $4 more per plant that HD (differential due to volume purchases)—how can they compete with that? With the masses going with the cheap stuff, that leaves the enthusiasts like us to support them but we’ve all been screwed by the same greedy bastards on Wall Street. That means that we’re just as concerned, just as impacted, and just as tight-fisted with our money as the general public.

The big boxes will weather this financial hurricane but the same can not be said for the mom-and-pop nurseries out there that do it for the love of the plants. Unfortunately, many of them will not be around this time next year and we will be worse off for it. We can help by continiung to support these places when we can and spread the word that the plant palette is not just composed of carrotwoods, impatiens, and queen palms. In my talks, I am often asked what nursery sells a particular plant that my PowerPoint interested them in and 9 times out of 10 my answer isn’t Home Depot. I will try to do my part to use the website to make gardeners aware that these plants and vendors exist—I will use the forums, blogs, outpost and any tool at my disposal to make sure that the good nurseries continue to get some play. Unfortunately, we’re a bit small to have any real impact, but as we grow, my goal is to make this a clearinghouse for this kind of information. Obviously, I can’t do it alone—you all need to help out in anyway you can to keep the independents afloat because if you think that holy grail plant is tough to get now, just wait until 2010.

In the mean time, buckle your seat belts and make sure your seats and table trays are in their upright and locked position because our favorite haunts (as well as us) are in for some nasty turbulence ahead thanks to the free-market fanatics on Wall Street who thought they knew more about risk management and lending than the risk managers and lenders themselves.

©2008, Tropicsphere

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 at 10:52 by spectre and is filed under Plant Industry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.