It is where you go to get references for roofers and nail techs, landscapers and the best place to take your vegan parents for Thanksgiving dinner. 

It is where you swap tickets for local holiday light shows that are sold out and where people rally together to provide shoes/school supplies/ bedding/ furniture/ any number of things people need. 

It’s where you post about lost pets and where you post pet food drives for places that need it. 

It’s where I look to find answers for  “Why was there a giant tortoise in the mall parking lot this morning?”  (Yes that actually happened. Yes it was the same parking lot the helicopters landed in.)

It is also where you will find HUNDREDS of requests for “a reasonable price” for bespoke, custom, and one-off services. 

Haircuts

Landscape jobs

Family portraits

Wedding flowers

When I hear/read that, I think of this:

In my mind, when someone says “reasonable price,” I usually think they could have just said “cheap.” 

And, to me, cheap usually means the Breyer horse taped to the bannister. 

But what is cheap? Is it money? Is it quality? What makes something cheap? What makes it inexpensive? What makes something reasonable?

On Saturday I went to UPS to mail a package. 

“I’d like to get it there as soon as humanly possible,” I said. 

“We can get it there on Monday but it’s really expensive.”

“How much?” I asked. 

“$400.”

“WHOA.”

—– LET’S TAKE A PAUSE HERE TO DISCUSS SOMETHING —-
When I walked in, I had an idea in my mind of what I was willing to spend to accomplish my goals. It was not $400. 

Was $400 reasonable for overnight air for one package originating on a Saturday? 

It is. It’s totally reasonable to cost a fortune to get something from point A to B overnight via an airplane. Actually, $400 is still a price only achievable using economies of scale. In this case, when many people want to move packages quickly.

Huge multi billion dollar companies have conditioned us to think that overnight shipping should be free. Heck, they’ve conditioned us to think that getting items SAME DAY is free, if we live in a large metro area. (A large metro area can create an economy of scale.) 

Nothing is free. It is only “included in the price,” and if that price is super duper low, it means there is an economy of scale at work. A bulk purchase (if you’re a billionaire or a billion dollar company). A cooperative effort (if you’re not.)

—– LET’S REJOIN ME AT UPS —-

“We can get it there by next Friday for $30.”

“Do you have anything in between?” I asked.

“Second day air but it’s still really expensive.”

“How much?”

“$200.”

“Let’s do it!” I said. 

—- END SCENE —-

Was $200 reasonable to pay for that service? You could argue that it is, in fact, CHEAP, ACTUALLY CHEAP, to be able to 2nd day air something across the country without needing to buy, maintain, and staff your own private plane. 

The person at the counter thought it was expensive. 

She wasn’t even gonna tell me the price. 

I’m pretty sure she was thinking “Why would ANYONE pay $400 or even $200 for expedited service? How COULD ANYONE AFFORD TO?”

It was her first holiday season at UPS, she said. “I’ll help you because practicing is the only way I’ll learn.” 

“Let’s practice!” I said.

We practiced and we got it done.  She was happy. I was happy. 

It felt reasonable. To me.

People have reasons for why they’ll pay a certain price for something. Reasons known only to them. 

Everyone has their own definition of 

• Cheap
• Reasonable
• Affordable

and those definitions change, person by person, depending on the circumstances. 

• How much do they want it?
• Could they do it by themselves? Or do they need you to do it?
• Do they NEED it rather than want it? 

But we all know that and we don’t need to dwell on the exact definition of “reasonable.”

Here is my key takeaway from this experience:

ALLOW YOUR CUSTOMERS MAKE THEIR OWN DECISIONS

Give them the information! Let them choose.

Dream up creative ideas for them!  Let the choose.

Make the garden equivalent of the Neiman Marcus Fantasy Gift Catalog and offer it to your customers! Let them decide to buy it.

Let your customers be excited about the amazing service, unique products that you’ve found just for them, and shockingly convenient experience.

One time I said to someone with a garden center on Long Island: Make a product called “The Jungle Comes to You.” Charge $10,000 for it. Then deliver them a rainforest and set it up. I bet you someone will buy it. 

And they will be delighted to have had the opportunity to do so.

Let’s Be (Un)Reasonable

Saturday was a busy day. 

After the UPS store and lunch with my husband Joe I went to a “Petals & Ponies” event with my friend Ashley. 

That is correct. 

We went to a rescue horse farm where we made flower crowns while the horses meandered around us and attempted to eat the cookies that we were too busy to eat and then we wore our flower crowns to meet the rest of the horses. 

Let’s be reasonable. This was both the MOST RIDICULOUS and MOST DELIGHTFUL thing I’ve done in a long time.

I was a horse girl. 

I loved horses, I rode horses, but I never owned a horse and that’s soooooo ok. 

There’s not enough money in the budget these days for a horse and all the watercolor paints I buy. 

But because the flower people got together with the horse people and created a way for several of us to essentially “split the fee” for a day at the farm, I got to be around the horses, while playing with flowers, two of my favorite things. 

With one of my favorite new people. 

Petals & Ponies. Who would’ve thought.

When possible, find ways to be unreasonable. 

The Next Most Unreasonable Thing

Let’s go back to the “I’m looking for a reasonable ______________.”

In my line of work that is usually a reasonable:

• writer
• graphic designer
• web developer

People are looking for a “reasonable price” (code: cheap price) for an ecommerce website, a logo, a new brochure. 

The reality is that those service-based products are rarely cheap if they’re any good. They take a lot of skills. They take a lot of tech. They take an extreme economy of scale to, well, scale and offer a “reasonable price.”

Creating a reasonably priced, or an unreasonably reasonably priced ecommerce solution, dropshipping solution, marketing email solution takes someone being completely unreasonable to create it. 

Well, y’all, we did it. 

We created an unreasonably reasonably priced ecommerce solution for garden retail that includes the whole package. 

The. Whole. Package.

• A fully set up ShopifyPlus ecommerce site with your branding and your colors. 
   
• Huge range of merchandise:  bulbs, tools, plants, and garden supplies from the most experienced grower/dropshippers in the business. Gardener’s Supply, Cavano’s Perennials, Oasis Forage, Easy to Grow Bulbs, CobraHead, Costa Farms, and The Sill. All of these products are dropshipped straight to your customers.
   
• Fully handled customer service. We’ve partnered with the best horticultural ecommerce customer service team available to handle all inquiries for you so you don’t have to touch a thing.
   
• Managed email marketing. We send regionally appropriate marketing emails to YOUR customers to send them to YOUR store so that YOU get the commission off selling the products. We’re using the absolute best of the best, Bloomreach, to do this. 

Nobody else is doing it like this. They might drop ship for you, but you have to manage your own customer service. Or they might give you a product line but you have to do the marketing. We do it all. 

This venture is called the “Certified ShopifyPlus Online Garden Center” and the new company I’ve formed to bring it to you is called A24 Consulting. 
 

How much does it cost? I’m gonna cut to the chase: $3,500 a year. ($315 a month if you use Shop Pay for installments.)

THAT IS UNREASONABLE. The email program alone should cost $18,000 a year. (Or it would if I did it for you.)

How’d we do it? An economy of scale. We reached out to a limited supply of high quality suppliers. We reached out to Shopify and Bloomreach to make an unreasonable commitment.

Then we built it with some great partners. 

None of this existed at Cultivate in July. 

Now we’re up and transacting.

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE for you to come to one of our “show and tells” this week. 

Whether you want a shop or not, indulge me while I show you what is possible in ecommerce now. 

Indulge me while I show you how you can begin to compete with the big boxes, because this is how we do it: 

• Dropshipping
• Impeccably supported tech
• Full customer service
• Managed marketing 

Six months ago there was no way for independent garden retailers to participate in ecommerce without a huge individual expense for each individual retailer. Now there is. 

Sign up for a meet and greet here: 

Tuesday, Dec 10 12:30 Eastern
Registration Link: https://tinyurl.com/GARDSHOPDEC10

Thursday, Dec 12  4pm Eastern
Registration link: https://tinyurl.com/GARDSHOPDEC12

We built this for you. We built this for “us” as in “we the green industry.”
We built it so that our industry has a fighting chance at survival. So that our local, independent businesses stay in business in this extremely online world. If you have an email list or you have a large social media following, this is for you.

You don’t have to opt in tomorrow. 

But I want you to see what is possible. 

To see that what was completely unreasonable, unthinkable, really, a year ago is now a reality. 

Being reasonable is overrated. 

---

Cultivating Place

At the risk of Taylor Swift level over exposure, I want to share with you that I was delighted to be a guest on Jennifer Jewell’s podcast/ public radio show “Cultivating Place.” I am sandwiched between Paul Redman, the director of Longwood Gardens, and Amy Stewart, NYT best selling author and artist and friend, so to say I’m having imposter syndrome would be wildly understating my feelings about it. 

Thank you to guest host Ben Futa, my friend and basically a ghost host on my podcast with Amanda, for the conversation.

Season 1 Comes to an End

Holy moly, Amanda and I have enjoyed creating our podcast for you so, so much. Season 1 will end with a soon-to-be recorded episode that drops December 31. I’m sure it will be, you guessed it, A BANGER!

You can find the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more!

Season Two starts February 4, 2025. There is STILL TIME to catch up!

Handy Links

Each newsletter always has a mix of fun and functional links.  Here they are! Have a link to share? Send it to me!

Black Friday Shopping Stats You Might Care About

Drop Shipping + Ecomm Demos
Tuesday, Dec 10 12:30 Eastern
Registration Link: https://tinyurl.com/GARDSHOPDEC10

Thursday, Dec 12  4pm Eastern
Registration link: https://tinyurl.com/GARDSHOPDEC12

Kathy’s Garden Shop

What about Rocks?
In this article about selling rocks and crystals at your garden center I managed to use song titles for every subtitle and I’m unreasonably proud of that.

Every Tool Every Book Every Everything
Normally I give you guys a lot more links, but I gotta be honest. 
I’m tired. Running my current company, starting a new company, building a gazillion websites, running a podcast, and dealing with life has kicked my patoot. Instead, why not browse our archives of Podcast show notes, newsletters with lots of links, and assorted other goodies. 
It’s all HERE >>

HOUSEKEEPING

I remember New Year’s Eve 1999, so to talk about 2025 is doing my head in. 

I am out December 18-January 1 and most of team GOW is out December 23-January 1. That means if you want to work with GOW and explore having us help you with anything in 2025, we need to schedule a time to  talk with you. Please take a look at this page and grab a discovery call slot.

Our team is having our end of year gathering next Tuesday and we live ALL OVER THE WORLD so we’re cooking up some fun things to do. I’ll post the results. 

THE GARDEN OF WORDS TURNS 17 next Tuesday. So, cool.

Finally, thank you for being the best clients, friends, newsletter audience, podcast audience, and fellow travelers along this thing called life. It sure is something, isn’t it?

ART PS! Top: my high school history teacher’s living room. 
Middle: I took a neat acrylic workshop at a local PLANT SHOP (HINT HINT PEOPLE) and I LOVE how it turned out. 
Bottom: I’m big into trees right now.