Jack Kerouac
Have fun.
It’s only plants.
“spring is busting out all over”
Don’t screw it up.
We are not searching for the meaning of life, or the cure for cancer. It's only plants. Our customers, who have been beaten and pushed around every day in their jobs, our customers who have been wrestling with their wild and unruly kids, come to us for peace, possibilities, and shelter from those day to day struggles. This is their time and their joy.
This is the money they want to spend for just themselves. It is not for the gas bill, or to get the car fixed, or pay the mortgage. This is for fun. We are a lot like
It’s the experience that they want: springtime, the warmth of the sun, a light breeze moving through their hair, the smells of freshly dug soil and cedar bark, the mist of water, the color of new plants emerging from their pots, the touch of the foliage wet from the morning dew, the quiet corners where they are alone with their thoughts, a casual dress where nobody cares and the conversations with strangers, other gardeners, who are there yearning for that same feeling.
Too many garden stores are all about business, somber faces of overworked employees staring into computer screens, little signs that say “don’t do” rather than “do,do” and displays that are the dead zone. 
green garden gates has the flavor of an old fashioned fish market; trucks arriving and unloading thousands of fresh plants, employees scurrying around moving, watering, sorting and displaying the new arrivals, customers watching the fresh trees being placed in the beds and the employees laughing with the gardeners as they help them with the selections.
Be Comfortable
What do you mean by "being comfortable"
Garden store owners can get just too fancy with their places. Too much "brass and glass "just shouts out to the gardener that he or she will always be paying too much for plants and products. Oh, we want our customers to feel comfortable. We just do not want them to be nervous about paying for some owner's Mercedes with just their purchase!
"I had a friend who had a spot of land on a highly traveled commuter road in the Pacific Northwest. He brought the plants in each spring covered them with bark, stuck up a hand painted sign, and opened his gates. He was always busy, made good money and sold out each season.
One year, he thought that if he made the place pretty with fancy walkways and fountains running, he would do much better. So, he worked all fall and got the place ready and it was beautiful.
People came from miles around and were so thrilled walking around experiencing the joy of gardening.. Some spent hours on the benches reading books and gazing at the beauty. They didn’t buy anything but they sure enjoyed the place.
The next spring, he ripped up all the walkways, pulled down the fountains and waterfalls, set the plants down and covered them with bark.
The buyers started to buy again".
Cindy Holbrook
Oregon
green garden gates is a magic place.
We must "emancipate our minds"
Deng Xiaping
"Paramount Leader" of China
His paraphrased remark on how China must change
We want green garden gates to:
Be a little bit disorganized,overwhelming and a little bit "nuts"
“I can’t keep track of all the new arrivals, plants are coming in so fast”
“We don’t know what is on that truck, but it is good stuff”
“ You better get those plants now while they are still here”
“Come with me
And you'll be
In a world of
Pure imagination.
Take a look
And you'll see
Into your imagination”
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Have employees who feel the excitement of spring for our gardening customers
“I love these new plants, Let’s go take a look”
“How did your garden work out last year?”
Be the store for the hottest plants and products at the right time
“I saw this in my gardening magazine and here it is”
Have the hustle and bustle of an old fashioned fish market, a produce stand or a busy flower stall
"Stay hungry, stay foolish"
Back of the cover of the last issue
The whole earth catalog
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