Friday was sale day at the Shattuck FFA Greenhouse. The plants are huge and it looks like a jungle when you walk in the door of the greenhouse. The humidity coupled with the lush vegetation made for quite the wilderness. We have even had an un-confirmed sighting of a panda living amongst the purple baron bamboo.
Advertising for this sale consisted of facebook posts, a couple of emails, word of mouth and some fliers located strategically around town. But this was quite sufficient. There were customers in the greenhouse from 7:30 am until 5:30 pm. The kids and I have put a lot of time and effort into growing these plants. I’ve had to learn as much or more than the kids. But it is kind of fun. Except for the saturday that a student forgot to water and we performed an unneccesary stress test on the plants. As a result, we did learn which plants are quite drought tolerant and which ones fold up like a cheap lawn chair when they don’t get a needed drink. However, there were some casualties to the tomato section.
I did learn that people like to buy plants. All kinds of people like to buy plants. Not just little old ladies, but all types of people. Several men showed up to buy lots of tomatoes and peppers. Lots of women really know their plants. Sun vs. shade, how often each type needs watered and which ones look good mixed together in a pot.
I also learned that a greenhouse is probably more important to a chapter than a strong show program. More kids are involved and the whole community is aware of plants thriving in a school based greenhouse. And they will support it. We had several customers whose bill came up to 50 or 60 dollars, but they wrote the check for $200. It’s also kind of cool to see some of the kids step up and take ownership. You can see pride as they showed, then sold their plants. And it was real fun when the Dragon Lady’s mother showed up. She knows her plants and she likes LOTS of plants. We literally had to back her pickup right up to the door and start loading until the bed was full. Linda definitely earned Preferred Customer status. The kids that helped her load out talked about it all day long.
During the afternoon, I put the Ag Mecker boys to work planting some merrigolds and bamboo in the beds in front of the ag building. The boys were actually having fun doing this. Of course, one of them dug up a big fat white grub worm. Boys being boys– a dare was made, a $20 bill was shown, the deal was struck and then, yep, you guessed it–one of the boys ate the grub worm for $20. Yes, I watched. I wanted the deal to be properly supervised. I then made the whole class look up the term “entomapaghy”. This is the study of eating insects as a food source. There are always teachable moments.
This sale day did work as a good recruiting tool for speech practice. As members of the community came to get plants, I conned several into listening to kids practice their speeches. And once the last customer left. I went home to do chores, vacccinate, tag and burn horns. Basically, a pretty full day. So full, that Tammy and I got burgers at Charlie’s to go. We took them home to eat. Unbelievable. I’ve been too well behaved for too long.
And yes, we did have a nice neighbor lady that walks by the greenhouse every day. She has been checking, waiting on us to open the doors. On this Friday, she called me and said, “Is today the day?” I replied, “Yes, it is.” She said, “I’m on my way.” It wasn’t long and she strolled up pulling her little red wagon. Literally, the good kind of metal Little Red Wagon. She loaded it up, paid & paid extra for the kids, thanked us and headed home to go stick plants in the ground. It’s awesome.
