Finding Extra Plants in Pony Packs

I'm frugal, but do afford myself the "luxury" of buying the small plants for my backyard raised garden and flower beds. Today I decided to get started with the planting and stopped to by a few plants from a mom and pop's roadside stand not far from home. Upon examining the little four-packs, which they sell for $1.25, I realized that many of the packs had two or more plants growing in each of the four cups.

By spending a little extra time looking, I was able to buy packs with as many as 9 plants in them rather than the 4 which are usually in the ones which come from the big box garden centers who get them from huge greenhouse operations. I saved money; I kept the profit to the merchant in our community; and I got very healthy plants that hadn't gone through several days of shipping and stocking.

By Sandy from Elon, NC