A Crunch of Catalogs

I'm staring at over 60 catalogs that I need to go thru and assemble orders in the next couple of weeks. I go thru each of these as they arrive and mark/denote new or interesting items. The second time I go thru them (now), I put together the orders based not only on what we'd like to order but what we can afford. In many cases, we'll cross reference the cost of the same variety of seeds from different vendors and go with the lowest. Saving pennies will become more important for all non-profits in the coming years I'm sure.

It's amazing how much shipping has increased for many of these catalogs. Remember to consider factors such as shipping, substitution policies, warranties and anything relevant to securing plants thru the mail. We do quite a bit of mail-ordering of items that can't be found locally but will have to scale back this year, particularly on woody plants.

Good Grumpy turnout today. Some guys went out to bring in lights. Marv, Terry and Jerry came in to help out and we continue to takedown and process our lights show. We are careful to pack everything away in an organized fashion to save time this fall when we drag everything out again. The carpentry grumpies are working on making more obelisks (vining structures) for sale at future events. These are the same structures we use throughout the gardens and will frequently paint them colors based on the theme (color) of the area. The three horizontal levels can be seen below. They're elevated for the application of a sealant.