Garden Center Walkthrough

Tonight, I visited the Walmart garden center in Butler Plaza and walked through their plant selection. I chose Walmart on purpose as I have a love, but more so, hate relationship with Walmart garden centers. When I am gardening at home, if I need something quick I'll go to Walmart because its close and cheap. The plants they sell however, are questionable at best. I have previously bought tomatoes from Walmart to plant in my garden and they died within the first two months. I wanted to see if the plant problem was a local one or a chain wide problem. 

Upon walking into the garden center, I must say I was surprised by the amount of green there was. Below are pictures of the vegetable section and it looked great compared to what I was predicting. They had a nice selection, ranging from herbs, tomatoes, and other greens, and they all looked healthy. The second picture below is the tomatoes they were offering and they looked better than expected considering the growing conditions and the weather outside. Overall I was pleasantly surprised by the vegetable section and would definitely consider buying greens from Walmart if I was looking to build a garden.

Moving further around the outdoor area I discovered the fruit section. Here they had a smaller selection of trees, however, they looked equally good. For sale they had lemons, limes, oranges, and grapefruit. Considering the climate we are in its no surprise that cold-tolerating citrus was on display. I've always wanted to grow a fruit tree and plan on doing so later in life once I have a yard to garden in and I appreciate the display that Walmart has. While I would go to a real garden center or breeder for trees, I would not fault someone for purchasing from Walmart as they are more affordable and trees are less finicky than plants in general so the "Walmart tax" may not apply as much. 

Finally as I was walking out, I found the succulent, cactus, and general flowers section. My biggest worry with big box stores is that they are selling annuals that are in bloom now so when you bring it home and one to two months go by, the blooming plant you bought is now dead and you essentially lost your money. While the succulents and cactus don't fall under here, some of the flowers sold do. Its on the consumer to be more educated on the plants they are buying and on Walmart to show that their bottom line isn't the biggest priority and that they are committed to getting their customers the best plants at the best quality for their climate and environment.

Overall, I was surprised at the quality of the Walmart garden center. I went into it with past experiences clouding my mind but those negative expectations were blown out of the water. Back in my hometown, the Walmart garden center is dark and dirty with plants on sale without pots. The Walmart at Butler Plaza was bright and well kept. You could tell the people taking care of the area care about the plants and the overall appearance of the outdoor space. I would shop at this garden center when looking to start or add to my garden and am glad I discovered the quality as I will go back if I need anything for my plants.