There is nothing wrong with communicating by email or searching the internet, but the seductive view that it represents is that the virtual is the same as presence, and that we live with the world at our fingertips. As a mostly “brick and mortar” business, Harlequin’s Gardens would like to invite you to come out and see our actual plants and products and talk with us and ask questions and make a personal connection that can develop over time.
So many people find it easier to shop online that now local businesses are getting less traffic and many are going out of business; and then when you need us, we’re gone. The photos of plants on websites are prettier than the plants sitting outside in the sun and wind. It’s so easy to just enter your credit card numbers and everything you see on the screen will arrive at your door with the push of a button. What is not obvious is that plants that are available by mail are grown and shipped in light-weight soil-less mixes that are nothing like actual, live soil, and have not withstood the rigors of the outside world. Some of these plants will recover and grow well, and some will not; but they are not the bigger, tougher plants growing in live potting soil with organic nutrients that the plants have to work at to digest, like you will find at Harlequin’s Gardens.
At the end of summer some of our plants are pre-stressed and will be happy to get out of their hot, black plastic pots and get into your soil and will enjoy your water and care. And some of our plants that were grown more recently will look fresh, but still have been grown in our somewhat protected, but very rugged conditions. All the plants we grow are pesticide-free, so the living soil in their pots is healthy and strong, and they are
cultivated and maintained without chemical fertilizers. Chemical fertilizers are made from natural gas and are water soluble, so they act fast and wash away fast, becoming pollutants downstream. They also lack the micronutrients that build a plant’s immune system. The results of our ‘tough-love’ methods are plants that are strong and healthy and adapt quickly to real garden soils and environments. Many of you have told us that the plants you get from us are the most successful.
This is analogous to the nutrient-dense foods that are grown by our local farmers and sold at farm stands and farmer’s markets and through CSAs. Their vegetables, fruits, meats and herbs often cost more, and maybe they don’t look much different from what you find in the grocery stores. But real nutrition and freshness build our health. Building relationships with our local growers and businesses helps strengthen our community and makes us more resilient. With the certainty of future challenges of Climate Disruption/Chaos, cultivating local resources and connections become more and more important for our resilience and abundance.
We may have the impression that our world is revealed to us in the news or online commentaries, and that is partly true, but the world is far greater than that. When we see what is in front of us, actually listen to someone speaking to us, smell, taste, interact and enjoy the company of people around us, we see that the world is not so bad at all. It is not all violence and cruelty at all. Many people are warm and friendly and caring. Many people are doing really good things to help each other and improve our world. Mr. T-rex is not our world. This is our world, here and now.