This year I went to market with this one mantra: Create the garden shop I would want to walk into.  I didn’t base my buying on price, color theme or free shipping offers.  Create the garden shop you would want to walk into.  What a gift to walk to work (113 steps) every morning into “ one of the cutest garden shops around ”

Passion Flowers
Fantastic metal garden art created by a collaboration of Ohio artists with and without developmental disabilities. Their mission: “To inspire and liberate the human spirit through art” These pieces are bright, colorful and just make you feel good.

Haitian Metal Art
Using just a hammer, chisel and lots of artistic imagination, Haitian artists create these beautiful wall hangings and garden art from discarded 55 gallon oil drums. Living in the Garden donates 20% of each sale to Partners in Health (www.pih.org) for their continued work in Haiti. Our supplier is a member of the fair trade federation.

Lucero Olive Oil
We fell in love with this product line last summer while on a trip to Montana. We stopped for lunch in an artisan bakery in Helena and sampled a cherry balsamic vinegar. I was hooked.  I came home and placed an order for our Fall in the Garden event. We sold 3 cases of oils/vinegars in 4 days!  The Lucero family has been growing olives in California since 1946. In 2005 they started pressing their olives into oils and have been winning awards ever since. My absolute favorite product is the Meyer Lemon Olive Oil. Made by pressing fresh California Meyer lemons with the olives. It’s fantastic!

Concrete Garden Statuary
I remember when I made the shift in thinking garden statuary was not just for grandma’s garden.  I was about 12 when the concrete donkey pulling the cart started looking cute to me. I am still in love with concrete garden pieces. They just get better and better as the years go on, evidenced by the prices in salvage stores.  I still have a concrete table from my parent’s garden shop in the 70’s, It’s a gem.