Wiethop Greenhouse

On Sunday, we visited Wiethop Greenhouse in Ballwin, for the first time. It's located along a row of plant nurseries in Barrett Station Road, and we have driven past it before several times when it was not in operation over the Summer. I had wondered how they survived with such seasonal retail, and after visiting on Sunday and again today, I can safely that I now know how: they do such roaring business during the times that they are open for retail that they don't need to operate at other times.

When you first enter, its size is not readily apparent. Wander through a small dark passageway however, and suddenly you hit the main greenhouse area where there are just rows and rows of plants, all stacked up together in the thousands. Though their perennial section is pretty small in comparison to other nurseries, there is no doubt that Wiethop can't be beat for their selection of Annuals and Vegetables/Herb starters, all at remarkably low prices. Jon said it was like the Walmart of plant nurseries, and it's an apt description. The long lines of cars trying to get in and out of the parking lot (even on today, a weekday), makes a lot of sense now.

Anyway on an inane note, visiting Wiethop wasn't what inspired me to take the effort to write out a post today. Instead it was really to note that for the past week (or maybe 2?), I've been gardening almost everyday for at least an hour. The only exception was last Friday, the day after I got my 2nd shot of the Covid vaccine, when I was just out of it. As a result, E and I have become tanned (she runs around the driveway and plays while I garden), and probably even a little sunburned. 

E and I ended up at Wiethop again today as a result of all that gardening (because I am terrible at estimating numbers of plants needed, and visualising where they should go when I am not physically in the garden, and so always end up going back and forth to plant nurseries until I get the right number/combo). When we left Wiethop this time, we passed a woman on a motorized scooter/wheelchair thing, and E said, "Cutting grass!" happily, because she thought the woman was sitting on a lawn mower. And I was half mortified, half amused. 

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As I write all of this rambling nonsense, I am conscious of the fact that I feel kind of out of it on this gloomy, rainy, day, which probably explains why I even bothered to write any of it to begin with. All just because I was amused, and wanted to document E's comment.