Last week I profiled seed catalogue enterprises. Since they were all from my home state of Maine, I was speaking from the experience of knowing the companies intimately.
When you venture out into the much larger world of garden supply catalogues, the universe grows exponentially. Gardeners, among the most conservative and least Internet savvy shoppers, often seem to be weary of plunking down their cash to faceless, nameless vendors.
While it’s true you can find just about anything you need at your local garden center, your gardening satisfaction can be increased by being just a bit adventurous in your buying habits. Garden supply catalogues are full of products, tools and information that you may not find anywhere else. Often, I find, the cutting-edge stuff is slow to make it to the Northeast corridor.
For a comprehensive list of companies who sell by mail, visit www.mailordergardening.com. The Mailorder Gardening Association does a good job of screening its members, who come from all walks of horticulture — from magazines, to seeds and flowers, to tools, supplies and more. The MGA really is a tremendous resource.
For the profile this week, I’m going to narrow my choices to three companies. I’ve met the owners of all three and know from first-hand experience that their heart is in the right place when it comes time to sell us something.
1. Gardens Alive 2. Gardeners Supply
3. Peaceful Valley Farm Supply
Gardens Alive — Like all three of these businesses on my list, Gardens Alive is a classic shoot-from-the-hip-and-heart story of a gardener with a passion. Company founder and president Niles Kinerk visited Maine this summer and talked at length about his modest childhood on his family’s farm in Yoder, Indiana. Like many unsuspecting farmers of the day, they welcomed the “advances” in agriculture that were offered by synthetic chemicals.
“I remember we felt sorry for our neighbors who didn’t have access to the chemicals,” said Kinerk. “Boy, did that feeling change.”
Enlightened by Organic Gardening magazine, when that magazine was still in its heyday, Kinerk said he soon saw the light.
“I wasn’t far into its pages when the light bulbs started going off in my mind,” he writes on the www.GardensAlive.com web site. “I began to wish that someone would take on the job of making tested, organic products available to gardeners like me. It was a fairly short jump from wishing someone else would do the job to tackling it myself.”
What started as the Natural Gardening Research Center in 1984 evolved into Gardens Alive by 1988. Whether your call yourself an organic gardener, or are just curious about products that are not based on synthetic chemicals, the catalogue is flat-out exciting.
During my day with the company founder, he confided that selling organic products has not been a get-rich-quick scheme — just like organic gardening is not a dial-by-number approach to horticulture. It has taken time for customers to understand the difference; it’s amazing how many people don’t really care about the environment, or how many people never take the time to consider the effects of their actions.
“Gardens Alive is still a labor of love,” he said. “I have more profitable ventures, but this is the one that continues to fuel my passion.”
Check out this catalogue; environmentally friendly solutions are available for all sorts of gardening challenges.
Gardeners Supply — Just about the same time Niles Kinerk was getting curious about organic gardening in the Midwest, Will Raap was beginning to operate on a parallel plain in Vermont. Whereas the Gardens Alive founder appears to be the consummate conservative farmer, Raap has always worn his passion on his sleeve. He’s the general, if you will, who has led the up-hill charge in the organic revolution.
“He’s the most charismatic person I’ve ever been around,” said Kathy Laliberte, who co-founded the Gardeners Supply Company with Raap in 1983. “He really wanted to make a difference and those of us who were around him got swept up in his enthusiasm.”
Far more than a garden supply company, Gardeners Supply has become a success story of national and international prominence. By putting organic gardening practices to work in their local community of Burlington, Vt., the employee-owned company has revitalized an entire city and served as a model for sustainable living.
I traveled to Burlington this past summer with Cameron Bonsey, the director of our television division, and was amazed at the vitality of the organic trial gardens outside the company headquarters. That was Zone 3-4, mind you, and the gardens still looked phenomenal. They still experiment with all sorts of new gadgets, including self-watering containers for growing tomatoes. They were getting up to 30 pounds of fruit from one plant!
As for the catalogue, it’s probably the most extensive offering of gardening supplies anywhere in the free world. Though the company started from the most modest of positions, it has evolved into a high-tech supplier of a full-range of products, from bird feeders, to kitchen items, linens and furniture. Just about everything is available on-line at www.gardeners.com.
Peaceful Valley Farm Supply — Another company I can relate to — because it started in the garage of the founder — this California business was first recommended to me a decade ago by Eliot Coleman, the legendary organic farmer from Harborside, Maine.
“They’re honest,” he said simply. That’s always question number one in mailorder.
Located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the town of Grass Valley, this company is another one of those places where many of the employees are gardeners. You can check out their faces online at www.groworganic.com and then talk to them by phone moments later.
I’m sure the cynics will ask what a company in California can do for gardeners in the Northeast. In a word: plenty. The offerings of organic fertilizers and soil stimulants are fantastic, and these folks have been using these products long enough to really know what they’re talking about.
You may remember from high school biology, for example, that plants need 16 elements to grow. Most fertilizer bags and companies will talk about the big three “macronutrients” of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, but not say much about all the others. Peaceful Valley Farm Supply has an entire section on “trace minerals” — things like zinc, boron and azomite — that are essential to plant health.
Trust me. It’s worth a few minutes to click on the site.
One last note: You can still get the great subscription deal by calling 800-251-1784, or clicking on our website at www.ppplants.com. For $19.95 ($5 off regular prices), you get six issues of the magazine, a $25 coupon to www.gardensalive.com and the PPP Discount Card good for 10 percent off purchases at more than 500 garden centers across the Northeast.
Happy Holidays and we’ll see you with a new column after the first of the year.
Paul Tukey, December 20, 2005.
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