#112 EQUIPMENT AND TOOLS * (revised 6/2) production equipment

Soil production equipment

Our decision for each store to produce retail potting soil requires that we purchase the production equipment. We believe, after looking at the long term profitability, that every moderate to large garden store should produce their own retail bagged soils

The equipment and tools required for this production are:

A commercial soil mixer

A Bobcat or similar loader with a large bucket

Bins for storing and displaying the bags of soil

A stationary mounted hog ring machine

Clear heavy duty plastic bags (so the customer can see the mix)

Descriptive and pricing labels

The process is quite simple. The amendments are loaded into the mixing hopper. When the amendments are thoroughly mixed, the material is retrieved from the hopper of the mixer into several sized bags. The bags are closed with a hog ring, labeled properly and stacked in the white bins for transport and display. It takes a crew of three employees to produce the bags. Two can do it but it is not as smooth an operation.

The secret is to get a seamless production line going with total efficiency in human movement. This production can look like a modern auto plant assembly line of it can end up being something out of a Dickens novel. (Remember that the filled bags have a shelf life. They may start to get moldy before they are purchased. Plan on producing this soil as needed. Don't stockpile a lot ahead of time)

One garden store owner in Utah has several mixers and he produces two types of soil, an all purpose potting mix and a mix for rhododendrons and azaleas. During the peak season, he sells a 1000.00 per day of these packaged soils, with a net profit of 800.00 per day!

Each store contacts the local Agricultural Extension Service for a recommendation of a mix that is suitable for the geographical area. An example of the ingredients for a full hopper load of soil mix may be:

2 loader buckets of pine bark

3 3.8 cu feet bags of peat moss

1 bucket of small expanded clay

14 pounds of Osmocote 18-6-12 fertilizer

2 ½ pounds of Micromax

6 pounds of Dolomite Lime

2 pounds of 0-46-0 fertilizer

2 pounds of Nitroform

2 bags of a form of Humus

Since there is fertilizer in the soil mix, the product will have to be certified by each state and labeled accordingly. Failure to certify will most certainly result in a “stop sell” by authorities until this certification is complete.

Often, owners will produce and sell two sizes of bags for the customer, a 30 quart bag weighing about 30 pounds and a 15 quart bag that weighs about 15 pounds. (older gardeners prefer the small size as it is easier for them to transport and use)

We have purchased earlier the loader, bucket, and the bins. Our labeling will be produced from our signing and label printers.

Commercial Mixer

We have purchased an Ellis soil Mixer for each of our stores. It is a simple machine that is economical and durable for our uses. We have also purchased spare parts for the machine in the event of a breakdown in the middle of the spring. We have also purchased the Hog Ring stationary fastener from this same company.

ellisproducts.com

Plastic Bags

The size of the bags for the larger potting soil is 15” by 32”. It is a heavy mill plastic and can be purchased in groups of 300 from a national or local supplier.

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Pots

Our goal with pots used in processing, as in our discussion of plastic bedding plant flats, is to eventually never purchase a new smaller plastic pot for processing for our stores. We believe, that after two seasons, each location can accumulate enough re-cycled pots for their total processing and production. However, the very larger plastic pots (15 gallon and above) are the problem. We have to purchase a supply of the larger sized pots each spring. The huge pots for display will be a one time purchase and occasional purchase to increase the available stock. (We retain these pots and pull the trees out when they are sold)

The first season of each store will call for purchasing new pots of assorted sizes. For the smaller sizes up to 15 gallon, we will buy “blow pots”, a thinner walled pot but quite suitable for our retail needs. The larger pots will be the much more pricey “extruded” pots that are thicker and heavier to handle the weight of the soil and the plant.

A word about stockpiling plastic pots…..As any garden store owner knows, the public will flood the store with their used pots, especially the one and two gallon sizes. First thing you know the back yard is chucked full of these stacks of old one gallon pots. We have contacted plastic recyclers in store area in order to get rid of the smaller plastic pots on a regular schedule. Some state nursery associations have developed a program for the public to recycle pots and we will take advantage of that retrieval when we locate in that state.

There are several pot manufacturers that sell huge plastic pots, 50 and 100 gallon capacity, that we will use for display of balled and burlapped trees and shrubs. Those large sizes are extruded, heavy and durable, able to be moved with a forklift, and quite costly.

We like two companies that produce these huge pots for display and processing nursery stock. The first is Lerio. They make a large heavy duty round extruded plastic pot that has forklift entrance points molded into the bottom of the pot. They are a classic design, black and wonderful for display. They have a capacity up to 100 gallons. The company markets to nurseries and contractors who install ponds. We have purchased 20 of these pots for each store; fifteen 50 gallon and five 100 gallon

The second container is from a company called Amaroo. These are flat plastic panels that assemble and disassemble easily to form a large square tapered tree or large shrub box. They also have forklift notches at the bases. They come in different colors and are attractive for display in the retail nursery. (The only pain in the ass with these boxes is that there are a number of screws and bolts you have to keep track of when they are disassembled.) We have purchased for each store, 40 of the amaroo pots of assorted sizes to for each store to get us started..

amarootreeboxes.com

There is another option other than plastic pots. They are called pulp pots or Westpots. They come in assorted sizes from small to huge and they have been a staple in the nursery industry for years.

They are made of pressed newspaper and in the case of the huge pots; the bottoms are coated with oil to prevent the bottoms from rotting when in contact with wet ground. They tout these pots as “biodegradable”, but we are skeptical of this as it is pressed newspaper and we know how long newspapers stay around before they degrade. Although they are a fine product as plant containers, they look unsightly after a while, and the bottoms tend to rot out fast in wet humid weather conditions. We have chosen not to use any pulp pots at green garden gates.

There are two ways to get those used pots for your store.

The first is to make a deal with the local landfill in the community. The dump workers sort through pots all day long from the garbage trucks. We have made arrangements in each landfill near our stores to retrieve and put aside certain usable sizes of pots. We will pay the landfill 10 cents to 50 cents for each pot and pick them up with our vehicle on a regular basis.

The second method is to get them from all the gardeners and landscapers. We set up recycling bins for pots. Many of those pots are the small sizes but it is worth the effort to get the large pots that are expensive to purchase new.

Some garden store owners charge a deposit for the larger pots at the checkout in addition to the plant purchase. The charge is refunded when the customer brings back the pot. We have adopted this practice with the larger pots only. With the smaller pots, we build in the cost of those small pots into the price of the plant. (We sticker the pot with the deposit price and the customer receives that same amount when it is returned

#111 EQUIPMENT AND TOOLS */ (revised 9/2) "shopping carts and carrying equipment"

Customer Shopping and Loading: Carts,Wagons, and Bins



Now, for customer shopping carts and carrying devices. There are a lot of them to choose in the marketplace. We are looking for:

Models that are time tested
(Of course, if we are able to pick up other used carts for a reasonable price, we will do that. We just do not want a bunch of off brand stuff that we have to fool with)

Carts that are extremely durable and can hold heavy loads
Easily maintained by our staff
Parts that are readily available
Larger wheels that can move compacted gravel as well as hard surfaces
Rust resistant
Unibody construction with few connection points
Nest easily into one another

We have chosen Metcart nursery shopping carts. For garden stores that have hard surfaces or compacted gravel, this cart is the one to purchase. It has a simple design with few connections that could come loose. It is extremely strong and durable, suited for the rough and tumble wear shopping carts get in our industry.

Some store owners have galvanized the steel frame, (for rust resistance) which is a smart idea. Although pricey to do, this coating treatment will give you years of service. The wheels are large, maneuver and nest nicely. They can be maintained by the staff and the parts are readily available.

The best part about these metcarts is that they can hold a lot of heavy weight without bending or breaking.

We have purchased an initial fifty carts for each of our stores. We see no reason to buy any other brand of shopping cart.

http://www.metcart.com/

“If a person cannot walk around our store, they are not much of a gardener and we are not interested in them as our customer.”

Owner of a large garden store

Indiana

We have to repeat this incredible statement by the owner of one of the largest regional garden centers in the United States. No wonder the big box stores are gobbling up the garden business!

The availability of personal transporting equipment in any modern retail store is an absolute necessity. It is especially true with large garden stores where there is a lot of area to cover in sometimes adverse weather conditions.

These devices are not just for the permanently disabled, far from it. The explosion of the baby boomers has spawn hundreds of thousands of knee and hip replacements who require temporary assistance. Even a simple sprain can limit the finest world class athlete.

We know this at green garden gates and we are committed to assisting these gardeners with their springtime activities. Each store has at least one battery operated mobile cart and one wheelchair for our customers convenience. They are all fitted with a basket for the ease of shopping. And of course, our golf carts are available to shuttle these customers for further assistance.

We have purchased these devices from Martcart, a world leader in customer transporting equipment

Martcart.com

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Many garden stores do not have all the fancy walkways with concrete or asphalt. Most of the place may be gravel or dirt. Shopping carts just do not work for an all around use in that business.

We still believe that the old Radio Flyer red wagons are the best for the money. ( you might be able to make a deal with your local hardware man for a good discount on a bunch of these wagons) They are inexpensive, standardized, and easily maintained. Buy the one that has been around for years, #18 Classic Red Wagon, with all metal parts that are easy for the staff to repair. (Don’t every buy a wagon with plastic parts for your garden store. They will be in the dumpster after one season.

There is something nostalgic about a Radio Flyer. Women seem to like pulling them as they are not intimidating and filling up a wagon seems more economical for the customer rather than a big shopping cart. If the kids want to pull a wagon too, Radio Flyer makes a small version of this classic model for them.

There are lots of beefy looking steel wagons out there for garden stores, but frankly, they do not hold much more than a Radio Flyer, they are harder for a woman to maneuver and they are much more money over these old standbys. Some garden store owners, who want the wagons a different color than red, have the bodies powder coated. (never paint the wagons. They will never hold up).

Over time, the carrying body of these Radio Flyers will start to bend and bow down because of all the weight of the plants and products. We solved that problem. In the diagram, you see that we had made short pieces of iron angle iron with pre-drilled holes. We attach the iron to the bottom of the carrying body and bolt to the body with big washers. It will prevent the body from bending and the Radio Flyer is able to carry much more weight without damage.

radioflyer.com

Bins

Some of you will remember wooden apple box bins in the fruit stand and the garden store business. They had a number of uses, display, carrying, and holding bare root plants such as strawberry bundles and cane berries. This plastic box is a great improvement on this bin.

They are durable, they snap together easily and last forever if you take care of them.

We have purchased 20 plastic bins for each store and we continue to be on the lookout to purchase wooden apple boxes if they are available.

directindustry.com

We have found that Bins and Crates are an important display feature in the retail garden center industry. They give the impression of rapid movement of plants and products, a timed event that will draw shoppers to those displays. Don't take our word for it, look at the newly remodeled Wal-Mart produce areas of their stores!

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Customer Carrying and Loading Equipment

Some garden store owners resist having these little baskets around. They want their customers to use a shopping cart all the time so they can tempt them into loading it up. That thinking is a bit silly. Especially in this time of economizing, some customers just want a few plants. We have placed a number of these basket stacks in our stores.

Shopping bags

In keeping with our “green” commitment and to economize, we are exclusively using 100% biodegradable plastic bags for carryout in our stores. They break down in compost with no residue in 10-14 days. We use no paper bags. They just stay in landfills forever and they are so darn expensive! We have partnered with a major plant grower to print their logo on the bags, easing the cost for us.

brenmarco.com

Customer Carryout Trays

Carry out trays have evolved in the industry. Years ago, most garden store owners would rely on “beer flats”, those cardboard boxes cut down to hold a case of beer cans in the stores. It was not uncommon to see an entire years supply of collected cardboard beer flats stacked high in the garage of a garden store owner. These beer flats had one destination after holding the beer. That trip was straight into the local dump. Garden stores provided a re-use for the flats avoiding the need to make more cardboard and giving these beer flats just one more use before the trip to the landfill or the compactor.

The most common carry-out tray is still made of cardboard, but it is now manufactured for carrying plants out of a garden store. The sides and ends of the flat panels are folded and stapled. The fancy version of these are “snap trays”, with the sides and ends snapping into pre-punched holes. Like all cardboard products, the trays are moderately pricy and very few or none of the trays get back to the garden store for re-use. They are just tossed in the landfill. We, at green garden gates, do not purchase cardboard carry out trays for our stores. We use a standard plastic grower flat for our carryout tray in all of our stores

It is our goal that after the first two seasons in each store, we will never purchase another new carrying tray/flat in the lifetime of that store. We believe that there are enough plastic flats/trays thrown away in each community every spring to fill up a five bedroom house!

Nick Hudson came to the garden store industry just a few years after the wooden flats. Each grower had the name of his company painted on the end of the little boxes. The flowers were grown directly in the flat, no inserts or cell packs, Just dirt and plants. When the gardener wanted a half a dozen petunia plants, the shopkeeper took a trowel and carefully cut out six of them from the box, rolled each petunia plant in newspaper, handed it to the customer and that was it.

The wooden boxes were used again and again over many years. Soon, the plastic manufacturers got into the act with a plastic growing tray, which were light and cheap. The wooden flats were thrown out and in came the cases of plastic trays. Even today, with all the concern for re-cycling and re-using The plastic trays are used mostly just once and tossed into the landfill. Maybe it is time to bring out the wooden flats again!

We set up recycling bins to collect these trays, clean them and rotate them back into the checkout areas for carryout. As a customer incentive, we donate one cent for each usable standard flat/tray returned and donate those proceeds to a local food bank. We have alerted the local city landfills and the plastic recyclers that we will pay one cent for these standard useable trays/flats We save serious money in the overall company, re-using plastic flats/trays as well as signal to the community of our commitment to the environment.

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Trunk Liners

“I worked for a guy one time who had a big upscale garden store in North Carolina. He made us bring old newspapers to the store and use them as trunk mats in the back of customers’ cars. We would put the newspapers down in a brand new Audi with light tan carpet and held our breath hoping the wet plants would not cause the ink of the newspapers to bleed into that carpet. Some of our customers would refuse the newspaper and not risk the chance of damage. He wasn’t trying to re-cycle to protect the environment. He was just cheap!

Wendy Prill

North Carolina

Garden stores must absolutely protect their customer’s vehicles with some sort of trunk mat or bed liner. They are to be used in every car. We have partnered with vendors to share the cost of them by placing their logos on the trunkmat. The mat is designed for two purposes, to be used as a trunk liner and later as a gardening bag for pickup in the yard. The bag is designed to biodegrade rapidly after it finally is disposed.

However, We go much farther than this. During the season, we gather, store and use all clean cardboard boxes or cardboard pallet liners as trunk mats. They are durable and fit nicely into vehicles. Because of their weight, they work much better than plastic and don't blow in the wind when placing the mat.

Your carry outs can go through a lot of plastic bed liners. Use all available cardboard and don’t fill up your dumpsters with this very usable material.

trunkmat.com

#110 COMMENTS * ( revised 6/2) the trike patrol

A garden center owner in Louisiana ( and others in the country) has a fleet of multi colored durable small tricycles ready for the kids to use while mom shops for plants. They are a hit. Anytime mom thinks about a garden store, the kids think about those trikes! Guess where the kids wanted to go for plants?


When we saw them whizzing around shoppers on a busy day, we were horrified. It was a lawsuit ready to happen. We could see one of them clipping an old man right in the Achilles tendon and down he would go. Guaranteed. I bet their insurance guy nearly has a stoke thinking about the liability!


The more we talked to his employees, the more we looked, we saw that the kids were careful moving around the customers. It was hard to believe but, over the years, there have no major incidents with the kids and the trikes.

So, at our first store here in Oklahoma, we are going to give the trikes a try.