Ladies Who Lunch - Round Two

It just had to be done, the 'ladies who lunch' struck again :-)

Once again at the Wyevale near Mum's the offers were waiting for us.  Everything was down by 70% and the 'Maypole plant supports' that I had been keeping my eye on since they were first put out at half their usual £18.99 price tag were reduced to clear at £5 each ... so I got two.

They will be brilliant on the Veggie Patch next year for the broad and runner beans.  I also managed to find another tomato hanging basket at just a pound, it was lurking on a shelf all on it's own ... so I rescued it!!

There was only one thing that fell into the trolley that wasn't strictly useful, and that was this glass sign ... I just had to have it ... and at just £2 it would have been rude not to.  Between us we got £71.93 worth of goods for just £11.76.

Mum was very restrained this week and she just treated herself to a little solar powered owl light, to light up her tiny garden at night, the neighbours watch in amazement as she squeezes so many lovely little plants and accessories into her tiny patch, it looks wonderful.  I'll get a couple of photos next week if I remember to take my camera.

That should be it for sale goods at the garden centre now .... I think they are making room for all the Christmas decorations that are no doubt waiting in the wings ... there I said it ... the dreaded C word.  I'll go and stand in the corner and repent  ;-)

Sue xx

Selling the Surplus

For the past three weekends we have been selling the surplus home grown plants at the farm gate.  This year I'm not looking to make huge profits just to get my money back for the compost, pots and time that I've spent sowing the seeds and potting them on.  I'd rather see the plants go to someone who needs them than end up on the compost heap.

I made sure that the plant pots they were sold in were the oldest and most varied,  and I also checked and double checked that we really didn't need any of the plants for ourselves.  As it is I have far too many tomato, cucumber and aubergine plants growing in the poly and net tunnels.

It's a good way to get people used to stopping here for some small sales too, as in the future we are hoping to be able to do this on a slightly larger scale with the things that Lovely Hubby will be producing in his workshop also for sale.

It started off small the first weekend, just like this ... then I added a tray of homegrown herbs, then there were some houseplants, and then this weekend we added a basket of free range eggs.  So it turned into quite a display.  

We are collecting the money with an Honesty Box system and it seems to be working very well.  We thought we had had some plants stolen during the second weekend as four were missing when we got back from the cinema on Saturday night, but then £2 worth of change appeared on our doorstep on a day when no plants were sold, so the person that took the plants either had a guilty conscience or simply hadn't had the right change with them when they called the first time.  Either way the money appearing restored our faith in the honesty of folk.

Lots of people stopped and made purchases this weekend, and some had a little chat with us if we were nearby.  There is a lot of interest in the work we have done to this place since we moved in.  We've changed the look of the hillside tremendously and everyone that we spoke to said it was for the better, which was nice.   One couple stopped, bought six plants and then said they were starting something similar to what we are doing on the other side of the valley and had just got themselves two chickens after seeing our girls suddenly appear on the hillside a couple of months ago.

It's nice to know what we are doing is going down well with the locals and the regular visitors to the area   :-)

Sue xx