Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from your friends at Johnson's!

Hello again!

It’s not uncommon to hear others sing the Johnson’s jingle. It’s been around for quite a while; maybe 30 years or more. I remember being a chaperone in my daughter Kristen’s high school class years ago. We were on her Senior class trip to Taos, New Mexico to work on a Habitat for Humanity project. The trip was a great learning experience for not only the students, but the adult leaders as well. With a carload of teenage girls chatting the whole trip, one question I’ll never forget being asked was... ‘Mr. Johnson, is it where gardeners go or grow in the Johnson’s jingle?’ And you know what? I couldn’t answer that question and still don’t know for sure.

Angie and I were through the area last year and much of the landscaping we installed on the housing project the students worked on was thriving after all that time.

Being an outdoor enthusiast, I also tend to be a weather watcher. The first thing I do right after getting the coffee started in the morning is to turn on Good Morning Kansas on KAKE TV to see what my friend Meteorologist Frank Waugh has in store for the day's weather. I know Frank always has the latest, most current information because he’s been up since 3:00 AM working on the forecast. People comment about how meteorologists can keep their jobs by being correct 50% of the time, and I do give Frank a hard time about that myself from time to time. But most of the time, they do get the forecast pretty close. Then there are those times when one could go to the bank on their weather predictions, and I think this week's forecast is one of those times.

This morning, Frank and I chatted a bit about this week's weather forecast. You can watch it here.

Around the stores we are preparing for the weather as you would at home by eliminating drafty areas to keep the plants warm, moving plants away from the cold spots in the greenhouses and waiting for it to warm up. Recently, we adopted a couple of barn cats for mice control. I’ve made ‘cat houses’ out of foam coolers and covered them with a blanket. Hopefully they’ll use them!

In addition, Johnson's will be closed on Thursday due to the weather. We will reopen on Friday at noon to give the roads a chance to warm up and our employees time to safely travel to work.

As we come upon Christmas, there are so many things to be thankful for; our health, friends and family and our freedom. At Johnson’s, we’re thankful for our customers that support us and our great employees that have been with us for many years. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from your friends at Johnson's!

Your friend in the garden,

Marty Johnson
Owner - Johnson's Garden Center