Unhappy Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day is a pretty simple and straightforward Hallmark Holiday. (Yes, I know Hallmark didn’t start it they only commandeered it.) It’s not supposed to be any being doings. Nothing real fancy.

Around here Mother’s Day is the unofficial start of the Gardening Season. Yes, it is. It’s PLANT DAY, baby! Every Mother’s Day since we started gardening ages ago, we go out and get plants. We wander around among the green growing things, picking each one carefully, and wondering how it will taste…or look.

We smile. At each other. Us moms. As we walk around with our kids or grandkids. We nod. We say; ‘Oh, look at that.’ We trade little tips. Total strangers. Never saw ’em before. Never gonna see ’em again. Well, maybe same time next year.

There were A LOT of very unhappy moms out there today. I mean, like…ALL of them.

I’m so not kidding.

I was one of them.

Every year I look forward to today. Don’t get me wrong I plant from seed too and I have for a long time. I have at least 3 dozen plants down in the grow room doing their thing. They’ll be ready around the end of the month or so.

But, today is still Today, and I love buying Emotional Support Plants. I buy the ones I’ve never seen before. Others ‘just in case’. Later in the season, I’ll buy as many ‘unloved’ ones as I can find and nurse them back to health. Oh, yeah, that reminds me…DO NOT go to Tractor Supply for your plants. Oh, those poor things. Someone should be fired.

Again, I’m so not kidding.

At least half of one display was completely dried up and dead. They had been beautiful. They were supposed to be beautiful for months to come. They died horribly.

Anyway….

We started the same as every year, with Home Depot. I expected the price to go up some.

Some.

We parked. Hubby got me a cart then he went inside for some stuff while I wandered around the Plant Department outside.

When I started doing this you could get a flat of tomato plants for $2.00.

$4.98….for one tomato plant. Oh, sorry. Wait. $4.98 or $5.98….for one tomato plant.

For any vegetable or herb plant actually. They’re not big. They’re not special. Same as always. There wasn’t everything any ‘new’ or ‘odd’ or just ‘to try’. Oh, yes, around here they are all Bonnie Plants. I don’t know who the big supplier is where you are but around here it’s Bonnie.

The ladies, the few that were there, were all frowning. Their carts were far from overflowing. I picked up a Mammoth Jalapeno because I can hardly find them anywhere but Home Depot most of them time and one “Gigante II” jalapeno.

Yeah, I don’t know but it sounded interesting.

We went to Tractor Supply where the plant prices were the same and, well, as I told you, the care and quality is crap. So just scratch them off your list if they’re on it.

We went to WalMart. Not my first choice but I figured they would have the least expensive plants. They almost did. BUT they had a ton of those $4.98-$5.98 Bonnie Plants too. What they also had were their own plants $2.98 each. Not bad. IF you don’t mind getting “slicing” tomatoes or “cherry” tomatoes. That was it. I have no idea what variety any of are just that some seem good for sandwiches and others for just popping in your mouth.

I started to wonder if everyone had to gone to work for “Crazy Eddie” this year because their prices were definitely INSANE.

Wandering around that section of the WalMart parking lot, I noticed more unhappy moms. Some with familiar faces from Home Depot. These stores are very close together so it seems we all had the same idea trying to get the best bang for our beleaguered buck. No overflowing carts. But now the mumbling was starting. The harsh looks were being exchanged. Not AT each other. No. At the PRICES we were all trying to swallow.

There I bought no plants but I did get a few packs of seeds and some starter onions and potatoes.

Last Stop…for a lot of us today it seemed…Lowe’s. Which basically shares a parking lot with WalMart if you drive around back.

Lowe’s was also intelligent in that they were offering their own brand of plants at, I think it was, 5 for $10. Not a big selection BUT the tomatoes were properly labeled; Beefsteak, Big Boy, Better Boy and the like which was nice. The peppers and herbs were also labeled with their variety. I grabbed some of those. That was only place I found any ‘packs’. I got one pack of Peaches & Cream corn (though I swore I wasn’t doing corn this year) and one pack of celery. I broke down and bought a few of $4.98 plants including back up San Marzanos for canning later in the season.

There’s no way in hell I’m paying $6.00 for one single small plant that is not something I cannot easily get in my area.

More moms walking around. Most without a child or grandchild in tow. That made me sad. There were a lot of gray heads, like mine, at every store today. Very few of other shades. Seems this gardening thing is a dying art or something. A lot of the moms were together in a group of friends. Nice. Not as nice as being with your husband, which I am still lucky enough to be able to do, or your children.

Not one single mom had an overflowing cart.

Not one.

The smiles were few and far between.

No excited chattering about what we were growing or what should try other than….look for the pots with more plant! Such excellent advice.

I didn’t buy any flowers this year. Just vegetables and a few herbs. I usually get at least a few new flowers for the deck. It seemed the other moms had done the same, they either had flowers or veggies/herbs. Not much mixing of the two.

I thought; you little bastards, you even managed to ruin something as simple as Mother’s Day.

After all, as hubby reminded me; Mother’s Day lasts until the Fall.

What we buy today we enjoy for an entire season and then some. In short: They ruined everyone’s gardens this year.

That seems a dastardly thing to do to something so…well…simple. Innocent, even. Possibly, Time Honored to boot. Something that does nothing but bring quite beauty, joy, elegance, and….food…into your life.

For quite a while now when I go to the grocery store and looked at the prices I’ve thought and even said to people near me; They don’t want us to eat anymore.

I didn’t realize that extended to growing your own food!

Neither did the other moms walking around these four stores so sorrowfully today. A day they look forward to, not for great any great accolades (good luck with that!) but just so they can put their hands in the dirt and nurture something again, watch it grow and blossom, that day has been taken away.

That doesn’t seem right. Not at all.

I imagine next year us moms who garden will be doing a lot more with seeds and we’ll be starting a lot earlier. So, that means, the price of dirt will go crazy. My advice: get your seeds NOW!

We all know they’ve got to get us somehow.

While they still can.

These gray heads won’t be here forever.