Ep 193. Don't Get Fooled at the Plant Nursery (and What to Watch For)

Hello friend and happy April. It may be after April Fools Day, but I don't want you to

get fooled at the plant nursery when you are buying things. There are some things that

I have been fooled by recently or almost fooled by at least. Luckily, this time I didn't

pull the trigger to buy the money, buy and spend the money, but I've definitely been

fooled in the past and there's some ways that you could be too, whether you're new to

this or you've been doing it for a long time. I feel like it's always a good reminder to

remember that especially the big box stores are there to sell you things and we are all

a sucker for a good plant. Am I right? So I'm going to be talking about, I think I have

12 ways that you could be fooled at the store and hopefully you don't get fooled this year

and if you do, welcome to the club.

You're listening to the Homestead Challenge podcast where no pressure homesteading fits into

your real life. I'm Brittany, kind of crunchy momma and city homesteader helping you grow,

make and prepare without the burnout because I have been there. But I've also discovered

a way to integrate homesteading into my modern, busy life in a way that feels balanced, fulfilling

and joyful. Whether you're working with a backyard, a farm, or even just a balcony,

pour yourself a cup of coffee or homegrown herbal tea and settle in. It's time to dig in and grow.

So the first is look, it looks healthy. It's really a big lush plant. It's like the biggest out

of any of the ones that you're looking at of that type of plant. But actually if it's really,

really big, it could be super root bound or stressed. So that is definitely something to look out

for because it could struggle once you transplant it. Bigger is not necessarily always better at the

plant store. And of course, when I'm talking about these, I'm often talking about the big box stores,

but I did find one of these at a local nursery. I'll talk about that in a little bit. But if you're

looking for very specific things, your local plant nursery is usually the way to go. But I am not

somebody that's like, you only have to shop at the other stores. I do understand because I've lived

in areas before where Lowe's was my only option. There was another plant store that was a beautiful

local nursery that was 45 minutes away. And trust me, I spent plenty of money there. But I couldn't

spend all of my money there because one trip spent, you know, it was like whole paycheck every

time, right? So sometimes if you're in an area like that, the big box stores are your only option.

And Walmart might be your only option. That was the closest place to me with a nursery. And that is

okay. I am very blessed now that I have some smaller local nurseries that are actually affordable,

which is a huge blessing. But yeah, I just know that it's not possible everywhere. So know that you

could run into these anywhere, but you are more likely to run into them at the big box stores.

Number two is a price size comparison. So I was actually always my local discount store the other

day. And I got super excited that I saw it was the pink bag mirror who grow organic soil,

which is what I'm mostly using this year. I know that a lot of people still hate miracle grow as do I,

but this is what my budget is allowing this year. And the pink one, as opposed to the other ones,

is at least third party tested. So I'm just going to hope for the best. And I don't want to hear

about it because this is what I'm doing this year. And this is what I can afford. So anyway,

I was super excited. And I was like, oh my goodness, this bag is cheaper than it is a home depot.

Yay, like great. And then I looked and it is only one cubic foot as opposed to the home depot ones

that are 1.5 cubic feet. So that's quite a big difference. And it was actually not cheaper.

So don't get excited like me and think you're getting a great deal on soil without comparing the

size of the bags because not all bags are the same size. Next is more probably for my newbies here,

but buying what's already blooming. So you might get super excited in the store and be like,

this one looks the prettiest. It's blooming, but you actually don't necessarily want to choose

plants that are in full bloom, aside from like your annual flowers and petunias and things,

they don't really matter. But I'm talking about, right now we're in the spring. So probably don't

buy tulips that are already blooming for sure, usually who actually plant tulips in the fall,

which is a whole nother episode about fall planting that we'll do later in the year. But

you'll definitely want to choose things that are not flowering yet whenever possible. And wait until

the flower in your yard, you'll definitely have some healthier plants that way, have better blooms

in your garden that way. Next, buying too early. Yes, people are getting excited to buy plants.

I'm sure that wherever you are, you might already be able to. I bought flowers too early knowing very

well that I may have to bring them in or they may die for sure. And that just is what it is.

But I saw people on marketplace already selling tomatoes and things like that. And in North

East Ohio, you can buy a tomato plant, but do not put it outside, like absolutely not. So just

because people are selling it or because your store is selling it doesn't mean that it's your time.

You have to do a little bit of research, which can be no fun and can be really confusing for a new

gardener. So I do have my seed starting guide on my website. And even if you're not seed starting

inside, it gives you a really good idea of when things can be planted. I give you all the tools

you need there to be able to figure out when to plant everything. So you can just go to the homestead

challenge.com search seed starting. I think it's also in the home page right now. And that might help

you if you need help with that. But with that being said, I find that even worse than buying too early

is thinking that your season is over and not buying late enough or not starting seeds late enough.

So many of us in the United States at least can get a second succession of a lot of different

crops. And I've noticed that once back to school hits, all of the plant nurseries just close up.

Of course, the local ones are still selling things. That is the place to go at that time for sure.

But home depot and lows, they start year enough for their Halloween stuff and they do not care

about your gardeners anymore. And they truly just because sales declined so much at that time

when it's August, they don't sell things anymore. And oh my goodness, you can still plant so much here

at least in Ohio at the end of July. I'm sure that if you're even more south, you can plant things

at it up to August. I mean, it's going to depend on your frost your first frost date at that point.

And just counting backward to make sure that you can get a harvest before that frost date. But

you can still plant so much. I mean, my garden goes through to like November. And I know that my

dad is like that too. He'll already have pulled up everything and he's like done and just like,

okay, it's fall now. But you can totally keep on planting. So don't let what the stores are selling

and dictate what you're doing at that time if you want to keep planting, keep planting. But you

might have to sew those seeds yourself because a lot of stores just don't have the plant starts anymore.

Next are perennials that aren't actually perennial for you. And I just saw this at a local

plant nursery. And here's the thing, it's actually okay. You can even if it's a perennial plant

and it's not perennial for you, you can treat it like an annual. And we do that in the colder zones

quite a lot, which is totally fine. But if you just read that it's a perennial plant and you get

super excited, you can be really disappointed. The thing in question that I saw was a bay leaf tree.

I am guessing that they had this because they do this is a very high-end garden center. A lot

of people are probably master gardeners and whatever. People that really know what they're doing

might be buying these plants. And you might be able to bring it inside. You might be able to bring

it in a greenhouse. But in my zone, that is not a perennial. I believe it's a perennial for

zones eight and above. But it that's okay. Like you can still buy that. But being a new gardener

and if you don't ask any questions or you don't really know what's happening, you can get fooled.

And to buying these things, thinking that they'll come back year after year without taking the

extra care. And so I'm not faulting them for selling these things. But if you don't know what you're

doing, you can just get really disappointed. If you're okay with it dying, then that's also okay,

too. I have plenty of things that I mean, hello every vegetable that we grow for the most part,

right? They could be perennial somewhere, but definitely not here. So I know that people have

like overwintered pepper plants. And I'm pretty sure that in the deep south and then into South

America, some like peppers are perennial. I don't know much about that. Definitely not here. I know

you can try to bring them inside over winter. I'm not doing that. Maybe if I ever have a greenhouse,

I'll try something like that, but not right now. So anyway, just don't be fooled. It might be a

perennial, but it might not be a perennial for you. All right. Next, I'm going to talk about

the label pollinator friendly because we all know that we want to bring pollinators to our garden.

It is super important to do so. And most of us want to plant in a fairly organic way and

bringing pollinators in is super important. So we can see the pollinator friendly labels,

or maybe it says bees love this, or I don't know, there's all sorts of labels that things have

now because they know that we all want to have those pollinator friendly plants, which is because

something is pollinator friendly. One doesn't mean that it's native, so don't necessarily think

that you're planting native, which is also okay. I have a whole article and a whole episode about

that. There are, I think that planting native is super important, but I also think that you can plant

non-native still, as long as you kind of know what you're doing. And as long as you're not planting

invasive, there's a difference. So go listen to that episode if you're curious to learn more about

that. That is actually episode 42, I think. So you'll have to go back quite a ways to listen to

that. And I also have an article about it on the blog, but sometimes if you get into the super

crunchy zones, people say you have to plant on native, which just really doesn't make sense for

one, if you want the cottage garden style, you're probably going to be getting some things

that aren't native. You can, of course, do all native, but two, your vegetables are not necessarily

mostly native. So it's okay to plant non-native, as long as you just take a little care, and that

is totally fine. But just because it's pollinator friendly doesn't mean that it's native. And also

these labels are really a marketing scheme. They mostly mean nothing. It's one of those non-regulated

labels. And some plants can actually be treated with pesticides, even if they are a pollinator-friendly

plant, they might be pesticide treated or sprayed when no bees are present is what it might say.

So there's really not a great way to figure this out besides you can look at the environmental

hazard section for warnings about toxicity on the plant label, even if there's a bee icon,

or a pollinator-friendly label, or whatever. So you can try to read the tags a little bit.

You don't have to. It is what it is here. I just want you to kind of think about those things

as you're planting, and maybe do a little bit of research on what plants are going to be the best

pollinators for you. And I think that a variety is the way to go. I just do it all. Next is going to be

buying the wrong varieties for your goals. This isn't really a trick that they're fooling you with,

but it's something that you might run into at a big box store. I find that a lot of big box stores

sell mostly slicing tomatoes. So you might just be getting a bunch of tomato plants.

If that's your only option of where to get them from, for the most part, this is what I have seen

at least, is that they do have slicers. And so if you're wanting to get a lot of sauce, and that's your

goal for the gear, you might not want slicers. You can absolutely make sauce out of them. Trust me,

it's fine. They're just going to have a lot more liquid. So you want to meet your tomato like a broma

or a San Marzano, which I have seen in the store before. I just don't see them as often.

I find that those stores are often geared towards people who are buying one or two tomato plants,

as opposed to those of us who are probably planting a lot more than that. So just make sure you know

what you're buying for your goals. And also, determine it versus indeterminate tomatoes.

Some of the tomatoes that are already in the cute pots at the stores are probably

determinate, which means they're not going to get huge, and they will produce less. However,

that's okay to buy sometimes. Like if you're looking for a pretty tomato plant for your patio,

and you don't want it to get six feet tall or taller, then yes, buy a determinate variety.

But if your goal is to get as many tomatoes as humanly possible, and you're planning on being

able to trellis it somehow, and indeterminate is the way you want to go. And people at your big

box store may or may not know what that even means if you ask them. So you might have to do a

little bit of research on your own, and that's okay. I have some big box stores where there's people

that have worked there forever, and they know their stuff, and then you're going to get some seasonal,

maybe teenagers, or a little bit older, and they don't know their stuff so much. So,

depends if you get, of course, your local nurseries, hopefully, will know better. Your local nursery

better know the difference. I'm just saying. So just know your goals. I do have a couple

determinate tomatoes that I'm trying to plant this year. I'm really hoping that my seed starts

do well for these because there's some really pretty orange cherry tomatoes that I got,

and I want them in containers on my patio, whereas I definitely want the indeterminate varieties

along the trellis. So just know what there is, and know that starting from seed is the best way

to get the varieties you want. But there's probably going to be

Roma's at least in your big box store, but you might just have to look a little bit harder.

Next are going to be things that are a little bit out of season, or that might bolt immediately,

especially herbs, or you might be dealing with greens this way. I find that because a lot of

people near me don't plant until after Mother's Day in mid-May, that most people are trying to buy

cilantro or dill at that time. So cilantro is probably going to bolt on you immediately.

I don't even mind when dill bolts, but you know what I'm saying. And definitely you could buy

kale at that time, and it's just not going to be good. It's going to be bitter. You actually want

to plant, especially like the kale and the really, what is the word cruciferous? Is that the word?

Wait for those vegetables. You can actually plant now. I last year had my lettuces in

right about this time. I'm not going to be able to get them in this soon this year,

but I'm going to be getting them in probably in the next week or two. So

waiting another month, that would be almost too late for some things. Here you can grow lettuces

all summer long, really. It's not going to be as good in the middle of the summer for sure. I would

grow it in the shade at that time, but if you're any more south than me, you're probably not even

going to be able to grow certain things in the middle of the summer because it is just too hot.

You'll have to wait again in your second succession in the fall to do some of those things again,

and that is totally fine. Or if you do want to do the greens, I'm sure that if you provide a little

bit of shade for them, that would be the best way to go. And then of course, what we all run into

is you need everything upsell. So they might say, oh, well, in order to plant that,

you have to have this specific fertilizer or tool or amendments. And it can be really overwhelming.

I do think that fertilizers are important, but if you're already buying soil that's pre-mixed

with some kind of fertilizer, you don't even have to worry about that right away. So don't even

mind your brain with that right then. You can of course plant it with some, but you don't have to.

Usually some people use no fertilizer at all. They just have really great compost. I just buy my,

I buy mushroom compost actually. And so I still use some fertilizer. My favorites are the,

there's like garden tone, holly tone. That's all the espoma brand. Those are my favorite. I use

the berry tone, the holly tone, and the garden tone. I do not use any of the other ones. It gets

very specific. And I'm just not doing that. But those are the three that I use regularly.

I also do have some wet fertilizers, but I don't use them very often because that's really a

pain to go around. If you have a big garden to like mix it in a watering can, to water everything with,

I'm not doing that. But you certainly, that would be a great way to go because usually the wet

fertilizers are fantastic. Anyway, you don't necessarily need everything to start off with. If you

have a good soil and a good compost, you can still grow a beautiful garden without having to buy

anything else expensive. And of course, really not that many tools needed. My absolute favorite

tool in the garden is my bare bones, holly, holly knife. I use it for literally everything. I use it

as my shovel. I use it to weed with. I use it to cut things with. It's my number one used tool.

If you're going to get one thing, get that or a simple spade and you will be just fine. I promise.

So I want to know, have you run into any issues from a plant store? What have you fallen for before

because I have fallen for many of these? I look back to my first year ever gardening and I actually

took some pictures on the Instagram of it as well as made some blog posts at that time.

So I really thought that I knew what I was doing, but man, I was listening to the people that were

trying to sell me stuff and I definitely learned some lessons along the way. So I hope that this

saves you a little bit of time and money and hurt or at least will make you a little bit smarter

shopper this year. I am never a smart shopper in the plant store. I just go nuts. It is what it is.

I hope that you have a lovely garden season and that you don't get fooled this April. Thanks for

listening, friend. Thanks so much for joining me for another episode of The Homestead Challenge.

I hope you're feeling inspired to take the next step on your homesteading journey. If you've enjoyed

today's episode, please leave me a written review. It helps others find the podcast and I love to

read what you have to say. It means so much to me. Let's connect on Instagram at Brittany L. Gibson.

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