Make a new plan, Stan

We’re turning the corner toward Summer, generally not the best of seasons for the average garden center operator. But you’re not average. That’s why you shop shows and watch television and peruse the internet for ideas that not only will make you competitive, but prosperous, to boot …

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The moral of the column lead-in: You can never be too prepared.

Ever.

ZONE in!

Medicine is the best laughter ... A woman rushes to see her doctor, looking very worried and all strung out. “Doctor,” she says, “take a look at me. When I woke up this morning, I looked in the mirror and saw my hair all wiry and frazzled. My skin was all wrinkled and pasty. My eyes were blood-shot and bugging out. And I had this corpse-like look on my face! What’s wrong with me, Doc?”

The doctor looks her over for a couple of minutes and then calmly replies, “I have some good news. There’s nothing wrong with your eyesight.”

ZONE in!

Like blogging, only on paper … Everywhere you look these days, you see green. Forget paper or plastic, the “in” bag  for The Aughts is of the reusable, recyclable ilk. Cars are going hybrid. Hey, we’ve even saved a tree today by skipping the photo scans and going digital.

Indeed, if there’s a catchphrase that won’t seem to go away, it’s anything that contains the word “sustainability.” We’re earth-friendly, baby, and we’re proud of it! The trouble with our well-intentioned cause is that, until recently, the “green” scene was more parts than sum. We all have some idea of how an environmentally conscious society should behave; we’re just not so sure what the rules are.

Enter the great folks who administrate the Texas Nursery & Landscape Association, and who have, finally, given some method to the madness. I recently was forwarded this note from TNLA communications director Marilyn Good: “The issue of sustainable landscapes — creating landscapes with minimal negative and maximum positive environmental impact — is hot right now, but it’s hard to get all the parties involved talking to each other and sharing information. We have set up a Web community site to start that conversation. We call it the Sustainability Conflab. You can just look at the site (http://tnlaonline.ning.com), or join up as a friend or member and take advantage of asking questions, setting up discussion groups, posting photos … even set up your own page if you have a product or service you think can contribute to sustainable landscape development.”

Bottom line: There’s, at last, some order to the New Order — at least in my neck of the woods, which, thanks to efforts like those of the TNLA, can remain green for a while longer.

ZONE in!

Gillette Player of the Game … This month, we lift a nose from the grindstone just long enough to give a shoutout to the great Dave Kuack, my Branch-Smith colleague and longtime editor of GMPro magazine.

I realize that we usually venture beyond these walls to honor an industry player here, but Dave is some two decades into showing the rest of the hort world that if you work hard, be honest and yearn for the best in whatever you do, you’ll create the standard by which the rest of us should be measured. It has been my pleasure to be called Dave’s co-worker. If you know him, you know what I mean.

ZONE in!

True, that … A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody has.

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- Yale Youngblood

June 2008