Tuesday, February 9, 2010

American Beauty?



Wow all that sounds great. Let's go to their website and learn how YOU CAN'T BUY ONLINE. No, instead you add to your list of plants, print that out, and show up at one of their locations where they supply plants. Sound a little pointless to you too?

The benefit going to the nursery over ordering online is you'll likely be buying larger plants. The issue is you won't be buying as many because a plant in a 1 gallon bucket costs about $15. Ordering online you'll get a few tiny tubes or bare root plants that can cost as little as $3, but usually around $5. So then why does American Beauty bother with the list function on their site? I don't understand this for a minute.

What's worse is they're promoting you to certify your yard with the National Wildlife Federation. There is not wrong with doing this but all it means is you paid $20 to buy a sign. There is not check or balance with this. I could buy a sign off their site right now and put it out front of a Nuclear Power Plant for all they know. The City Dump, sure why not? It meets all their criteria to buy a sign.

All you need to do is provide elements from each of the following areas:




Food: People throw that away constantly.
Water: Loaded with chemicals but all around.
Cover: Loads of it.
Place to Raise Young: Raccoons, Rats, and Seagulls seem to love it.
Sustainable Gardening: It's a landfill, a lot of it degrades over time.

The last dot to check off should be Did you pay us money?