Fitting The Pieces Together Like Mosaic

There's a lot going on around the garden store. It's not quite Spring, but the recent warm weather has everyone thinking it is. The customer traffic this weekend was awesome, with loads of shoppers out looking for water features and pottery. We spent the better part of January getting the new yard design implemented, and now it's a matter of getting all the product here faster than anticipated. Who knew it would be almost 80 in Mid February?!

A thousand pieces to the retail puzzle. What will the shopper want to buy? How many should I order? When should I have it arrive in the store? How should it be displayed? How do I entice my customers to come shop? What incentives should I offer? How do I encourage new customers into the store? Will the store be beautiful and continue to inspire people?

This morning I taught a group of wonderful people the basics of tile mosaic in one of our workshops.  We were working with broken ceramic dishes as our tiles and this was an introductory class. The pieces were inherently uneven do to the plate structure. Different thicknesses and shifts from flat to curves were challenging. While the goal was to keep the tiles positioned 1/4 inch apart, many ended up with gaps closer to 1/2 inch or more. Eight people all working on their projects together but at varying speeds. It was inspiring how each person created a beautiful mosaic stone dispute the number of variables and obstacles presented her.

Back to the garden store. I am aware that I'm my own harshest critic. This weekend I had new customers who stood in the store and could barely contain their excitement at all The Secret Garden has to offer. Like watching a child in the proverbial candy store! I guess all the pieces of the puzzle do come together to create the colorful mosaic offering that is our store.

What's your favorite part of The Secret Garden mosaic? Have you picked up something special recently for yourself or a friend? Or maybe just stopped in to browse and have a comment about something you saw? I'd love to hear about it!

An Introduction...

It started with an idea...to develop a store that sold everything you needed to create a backyard you could really enjoy. A place that felt like another room in the house, maybe even your favorite room.

So we opened The Secret Garden on a 1/2 acre property with a small selection of pottery, 12 fountains, a few benches and a passion to help others make their backyards into the best room in the house. Today, 10 years later, our garden store fills a 2 acre property. We feature over 100 fountains, a vast selection of pottery, gazebos, statuary, fire pits, trellises, and so much more.

Our gift shop is known as "the place" to get unique gifts, especially for the person in your life who loves to be in their garden. We offer craft classes, we have guest speakers, we host craft faires and plant sales. We carry jewelry, home decor, and so much more. The original idea has blossomed into a passion that we get to share with our customers every day. How lucky are we?

"We" are Jennifer and Victor. We've been married for 28 years and have raised 4 children. They have all worked with us and each has contributed to the overall success in many ways. Once again, how lucky are we?

Now we have grown to include a work family of wonderfully talented and hard working individuals. The girls in the store, Dani and Sam; who not only provide you with the best customer service in town, but have grown to be excellent merchandisers and sales staff. The guys who work with Victor, Phil and Bobby, who labor hard in the sun, wind and rain to move  heavy product, deliver customer's new purchases to their homes and keep our garden clean. And our weekend boys, Dakota and Thomas, who cheerfully carry loads to your car, clean fountains and provide much needed muscle on our two busiest days of the week with a smile.

So that's our introduction into this new blog experience. I hope to be able to share our passion, or successes and our challenges with you. The Secret Garden really is "so much more than a garden store".

Jennifer
The Secret Garden
www.secretgarden-online.com