A Trip to Valley View

I’m back from our Spring Break on the Florida beach and feeling much better for the trip.  Like any self-respecting grape grower, the arrival of Spring has one thought on my mind – I need to start spraying chemicals on some plants.  Thus, the first free moment I had I headed straight to Valley View Garden Center.  Though its name sounds like salad dressing and there’s no valley in sight, Valley View is without question greater Baltimore’s premier garden store, and the ideal place for the grape growing amateur to shop for the perfect fungicide. 

As regular readers will know, in determining a spray regiment for this coming growing season, I sought advice from no less than two PhDs, one day-long seminar, a half a dozen textbooks, and the Home Fruit Production Guide published by the University of Maryland seemingly particularly with me in mind.  Yet, when the moment of truth arrived, what did I purchase, but whatever the Valley View salesperson told me to.  I had every intention of following an efficient yet diverse spray program that would  protect my vines from every foreseeable threat, but at the end of the day I was convinced to purchase a single, blended product that would meet all my spraying needs at once.  I think that’s what’s called point of sale marketing, and apparently, like the rest of the world’s consumers, I find it quite compelling.

Nonetheless, I now find myself the proud owner of some semi-lethal chemicals, and according to the salesperson, as long as I sport the proper footwear while spraying, I should come out no worse for the wear.