Miracle-Gro-ing so fast

It's hard to believe that only three weeks remain in my 12-week internship at The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company. Time and projects have been flying by.

Scotts is having a banner year, with gardening and "stay-cationing" both trending sharply upward. How fortunate I am to be part of an organization that is successfully navigating one of the worst economic times my generation will know. While most companies struggle to keep consumers "brand loyal" (see also: "These private label English muffins are 75% cheaper?..."), lawn and garden consumers are gravitating toward premium and ultra-premium brands (see also: Miracle-Gro Moisture Control Potting Mix). This may be, in part, due to the fact that people are getting LESS risky - becoming more risk averse. I provide the following example:

Gardening. Seems so easy. Dig a hole, plant a plant, water, done. Well, sometimes done. See, you have to make sure your soil isn't too acidic, worry about planting certain edibles next to each other (my cucumbers and tomatoes are in a daily epic battle), fertilize constantly, don't underwater, don't OVERwater, prune, harvest, remove dead leaves, and on and on. Not as easy as it seems. For those who haven't gardened (or seen Food Inc. for that matter), "food" is not as simple to produce as most of us blindly believe. It's tough. So when you get you only get ONE SHOT each year to plant edibles, you must do it right. Use a crappy top soil and you may (or may not) produce only a handfull of fresh-from-the-garden tomatoes. Use a PREMIUM potting mix/garden soil/(or my absolute favorite) Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Garden Soil, and you'll reap a much great quantity of fruit from a much healthier plant. Yes that was a little plug for Scotts. They've given me an incredible opportunity this summer - and I must admit that the products have pretty amazing results (see photo slideshow of my "Associate Garden"). So, is a consumer going to spend $2 on a bag of topsoil, when other costs can mount up:

$5 shovel
$20 four tomato plants
$10 total cost of summer watering
$10 tomato plant support system (posts, cages, etc)
$20 summer's worth of Miracle-Gro LiquaFeed
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$65 investment in miscellaneous gardening supplies...yeah, I think an upgrade to a $6 bag of high-quality soil mix with continuous feeding fertilizer (those little balls are OSMOCOTE - yeah, Bloomington Brands - slide five, Michael Campi) seems appropriate. Come on, that Michael Campi link was kind of brilliant. That was too.

Ok, enough blog for now. Off to a Scotts intern event to watch the Columbus Clippers (see also: minor league baseball) take on some obscure minor league team from Syracuse.

Boom Boom,
Pow