Business Growth
Year Three On Our Farm

Our business growth has been incredible since 2016. (We started in September of 2009.) We are now in the middle of our twelfth year of business and this is the start of our third year of living on the farm. You can check out our first week of owning the farm here.

The third year on the farm is showing tremendous business growth. We did have to lay some people off because we had too many for the summer slow down and because the outdoor team did not make any profit. They let the crops die so we did not have any produce to pickle. They did not fertilize or even water very much.

Business Growth - 8/2-8/8/2021

Monday, August 2, 2021

Since moving out of the house in San Antonio, our business growth has been through the roof. We are loving farm life and our visitors love it, too.

Good Monday morning and welcome to the beginning of our third year on the farm, David's Garden Seeds® farm, that is! We are excited you are joining us as we talk about our business growth and the future of David's Garden Seeds®, the company that my husband started in our living room almost 12 years ago after he could not find a decent job when he came back from Afghanistan.

This morning, I made breakfast and was about to go feed the chickens, rabbits, guineas, and fish when I saw water on the window. I was out there with the dogs earlier and it was fine. Now it is pouring...

The rain is pouring out here, keeping the farm green.

I have a huge stack of seed orders to take over to Fulfillment to be filled and shipped out. Thank you for ordering from us! If you are new to us, David's Garden Seeds® sells only the best Non-GMO seeds on the market. We count and pack them right here on the farm, even printing our own seed envelopes. We do not send our seeds out to places like China to be counted and packed as some seed companies do. Everything is done right here in the heart of Texas. My husband and I do most of the computer work and I do the social media. This promotes business growth. We have 14 employees who help us but we are the only ones here on the weekends.

Last year during Covid, we had tremendous business growth because everyone wanted to start their own garden after seeing empty store shelves. Some of that continued this year, until summer hit. With so many places opening up, a lot of would be gardeners threw caution to the wind and took a vacation instead. The smart people bought up all of the popular seeds while everyone else was at the beach.

Good news! We still have a lot of good seeds left for your fall gardening, as well as spring planting. Good business growth means planning ahead and getting stocked up. We always get as stocked up for spring as we possibly can during the slower summer months. The smart folks are also planning ahead, buying spring seeds now instead of waiting. Here is a link to our brand new, user-friendly website, David's Garden Seeds®.

Above are some photos of our beautiful Texas Fall Seed Sets and our Texas Spring Seed Sets. They are boxed along with germination tips, a David's Garden Seeds® ruler, and one of our business cards.

Farm Store Open This Saturday!

The rain stopped, the sun came out, and so did the humidity. It is just miserable out there now. Another one of our neighbors stopped by this morning. George, it was a pleasure meeting you. He lives just down the road. A few weeks ago, his wife came by. George wants us to open this Saturday so his son, who will be visiting from Lubbock, can come in. David agreed so if you want to come by this Saturday, we will be open from 10am until 2pm.

Today was payday so I had to write all of the payroll checks as well as pay bills. My husband's surgery bill, which I have been asking for since June, was emailed today as a ledger. But before I could open the email attachment, I had to have the magic password. I called the financial department and they did not have a password. They told me to call another girl. She was at home and did not have the password. Then I called the billing office in Nashville. She told me what the password clue would be. Then I had to guess from the clue because she told me it was a HIPAA violation if she actually said it. Oh, brother. By the time I finally got the password, I was exhausted. So I opened the attachment, which is three pages of print on white paper.Then the fun really began.

I have paid medical insurance claims since 1981 so I know what is needed to pay a medical claim. This wasn't it. It is definitely not an itemized bill with no company letterhead or Tax ID. It took me a few hours of looking at it, breaking it down, adding discounts and payments we already made to make any sense of it. Looks like we still owe the surgeon another $405.00. They make us pay up front before he will do surgery. I don't know if Christian Healthcare Ministries will accept this or not. Back in 2018 and 2019 when David had surgery from this same surgeon, the billing office was in Dallas and they were very helpful and quick. Now the billing office is in Nashville and they are neither.

My feet are all swollen now so I am going to close up early, get my chores done, and put my feet up. I took a water pill so that should help. I have had a very stressful day for sure.

Tuesday, August 3, 2021

Matthew found this rat snake in the greenhouse and took video. The snake finally crawled out and went elsewhere.

Good Tuesday afternoon! How is your day going? Mine has been very busy. It is hot and humid here on the farm. We had a mass ant suicide over night in the pool. Looked like thousands of ants drank the Kool-aid and jumped in to die. Now that it is cleaned up, I wish I could go in, but work awaits.

I started off the morning by feeding all of the animals and then I filed the medical bills from the surgeon that I got yesterday for Christian Healthcare Ministries. I hope they accept the confusing ledger. I actually included my notes with the claim and that is going out in today's mail as long as the mailman comes and picks it up (like he did not last Friday).

Then I printed out the orders and headed to the store. All of the plants in front of the store needed to be watered again. Some of the plants in the grow tower are growing. I saw one fish this morning when I fed them. Hopefully, they are all there.

We had one customer today who bought one pack of corn seeds. That was it for the whole week so far.

I submitted some more doctor bills to Christian Healthcare Ministries today. I also sent in an explanation sheet so hopefully, the processor will be able to figure it out.

David and I drove out in the back forty this evening and guess what? That riding lawn mower is still here behind the fence. I don't get it. Why doesn't this guy want his mower? We don't want it. We also have someone else's trailer on our property. Why? It's like people think that we have all of this land (most of it is already taken up) so we can keep other people's stuff on it so they don't have to pay rent to store it. I just don't understand it.

Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Good morning. This morning we filled up the pond. The water level was way down due to the heat. The four dogs are getting groomed right now over in Jourdanton.

David's $172,000 hospital bill was resent to us in the mail today with a UB form but still no discounted amount. Christian Healthcare Ministries requires a self pay discount. They also require us to send in a financial assistance form, which we did. Apparently, it has not been processed by Methodist Hospital yet. I wonder how much longer that will take. It has already been close to one and a half months since David was discharged. Plus, now there is another hospital bill from last Wednesday, July 28 that we will be receiving soon.

Nothing much else has been going on except website updates. There are always plenty of those. These days, good business growth depends on a good website and lots of social media posts.

Part of our business growth this year was to change out our clunky SBI website over to a Shopify company website so we could better sell our seeds online. See David's Garden Seeds® new website here. Our new website is picking up a lot of traffic and getting us a lot of orders, resulting in business growth.

Thursday, August 5, 2021

This bench is right outside the rabbit coop. You can see the chicken coop to the left, along with a hoop house where we have raised garden beds.

This morning, the monsoon hit before 6am in the dark. Because it was still dark, the dogs had not been let out and I had not fed any of the animals yet. There was a break in the rain around 7:30am so I went out and got the animals fed. It was still raining, but not at a monsoon level. The ground out there by the chicken coop is covered in standing water again. We really need to dig some drainage ditches back there.

The chicken coop is right in the middle of the flood plain on our property. It hardly ever rains but when it does, our birds need to know how to swim.

We have an appointment in Devine with our marketing company this morning for business growth.

We had a good meeting and talked about our TV ad on MeTV coming in January. We feel this will let a lot of the surrounding area know that we exist and will result in positive business growth. It will be money well spent just before the spring growing season so everyone can plan their gardens and get their favorite seeds before we run out of them. It is just one of the business growth ideas we talked about.

After that, we headed off to a Mexican place in Natalia for lunch. The food was decent and they have a store with some groceries and nice boots and hats. Great souvenirs if you are looking for a good souvenir of your visit out this way.

Now we are back at the farm working. At least the rain has stopped. Hopefully, the standing water will soak into the ground out around the chicken coop.

This evening, I made Ahi Tuna, like they do on the Gordon Ramsay shows and it was so good. The trick is to cook it in olive oil for two minutes on each side so it does not dry out. It was so good.

Business Growth

We have been working on business growth now for almost 12 years. Each year, our sales have grown as people find out about us and order our Non-GMO seeds. We have a good name in the seed industry by giving our customers good quality seeds that are fresh and packaged well.

Friday, August 6, 2021

They wrapped David's sewn thumb up as he is still bleeding. They undid his shirt to give him a tetanus shot in the shoulder. By now, it is after lunch and we are tired of being there and hungry.

Good morning. I woke up before 6am and Alexa said it is raining now but there will be a break at 7. I got dressed and made coffee. Of course, it was still dark outside but I could not hear any rain. It finally got light enough to see that there was no rain going on. I went out and fed the animals and everything was damp from yesterday, but it had not rained the whole night. I thought that was interesting.

I got changed and ready for the day. It is cool out for this time of year and I am loving it. David is expecting a riding lawn mower today but we won't be confident until it actually arrives. They are few and far between but it is supposed to be delivered today and it is brand new.

Our old riding lawn mower is ready for pick up but Nacho said he can't make it out with the trailer until Saturday morning. We don't have a trailer or a hitch on our truck. Interestingly, the man who left his mower here two weeks ago tomorrow still has not come by. He has told David a few times that he would come and get it, but he never does. If that is how he makes a living, what is he using to cut grass? I want it out of here. It could be stolen or borrowed if he just won't come to get it. David said he had plenty of room on the truck he drove out of here to take it with him but told David he would be back the next day for it.

I was all set to begin computer work to promote business growth. I went over to the Production building for a moment.

David sitting in the ER waiting room while I filled out paperwork. For a tiny hospital, it was packed.

David was there. He picked up a large spear, brand new, with the sheath still on the blade. His intention was to jab holes in the weed barrier out back to make it easier to plant things. The sheath was on there tight. I told him he shouldn't be doing that. He pulled the sheath off and cut his thumb a lot. Because of his blood thinner, the blood started coming out a lot. I freaked. There were no tissues or paper towels anywhere.

Linda ran to get some paper towels. Blood is all over the table and floor now and I am just nuts, although I did not actually freak out on the outside. I called Matt on the phone three times and could not get him. I ran to the house and got my purse and more paper towels. We got David in the truck and took off for Methodist Hospital in Jourdanton, to the closest emergency room.

We arrived. The place was full up. I walked in and announced that David cut himself and he is on Xarelto, a blood thinner so his blood is not clotting. They had him sit in the waiting room, gave us new masks to put on and had me fill out papers. Meanwhile, his lifeblood is draining...They finally called us back and just left us sitting in a little area, curtained off. We saw and heard a lot going on back there. It was like a bad soap opera. Then the police walked in and life flight and they hung around for quite a while. An aide came in and took David's vitals. Then a nurse came in and asked a few questions.

Matthew had to wait out in the truck. We were there close to three hours before they sewed David's thumb up. A nurse practitioner sewed him up and then prescribed an antibiotic and we had to go to Walgreens to get that.

Finally, they are prepping David to sew him up.

The thumb continued to bleed after the seven stitches were completed.

We got back to the farm and a customer drove up. I went over to the store and took care of her. She is from Colorado Springs, where we lived for four years so I was happy to get to talk to her. While she was here, our big delivery truck with the riding mower came. Yes, we really did get a riding mower and it really is here! You cannot lay your hands on one now, except for the one in the backyard that the guy doesn't want. Funny how he did not leave the keys though...LOL!

A bunch of deliveries came--some sugar free treats for David. He is losing weight like the doctor told him. He is already down over 40 pounds and is eating a lot less. If you are new, back in June, he had abdominal hernia repairs and the doctor said he would get them back if he did not lose weight so he has been trying.

We finally got a new riding lawn mower. This one will not be used as a go cart to drive around the farm for fun.

So some of our guys hoisted the mower off of the truck. I found out that Linda cleaned up all of the blood. Jay mopped the floor. They rock! Matthew rocks as well for driving us to the hospital.

David is now on an antibiotic as well as all of the other pills the cardiologist has him on for now. David took it fairly easy the rest of the day and his thumb was still bleeding a bit.

Saturday, August 7, 2021

Here comes the sun...another hot and humid day on tap.

Good morning. Nacho came out early this morning and picked our old riding mower up from the shop. It is in good working order. Thank you, Nacho.

I made David an omelet for breakfast and started laundry. I also changed bed sheets and gathered fresh eggs to sell in the store. When I fed the fish, I found this frog sitting on a rock, looking at the lily pads.

This frog was studying our lily pads, trying to find a way to make some business growth, I would guess.

David's thumb is still bleeding a tiny bit from yesterday.

I got ready to open the store. Earlier in the week, a neighbor asked us to open today so that his son could come by the store. It is now 12:30pm and he has not shown up. Neither has anyone else. I filled orders and did some computer work. Then I locked up and came to the house for lunch. I have a sign up to text me for service. If he shows up, I hope he sees it and texts me.

We had salami sandwiches for lunch. Now I am doing a lot of other things that need to be done in the house.

Our Business Growth

Our business growth has been through the roof since corona virus started back in March of 2020. It seems that since the empty grocery store shelves, everyone wants to grow their own food.

Our business growth is seasonal, although we sell a healthy amount of seeds all year long. The spring is our busiest sales time, followed by late summer when it is time to plant fall gardens in warm climates such as Texas.

They are having barbecue plates down the road so we will be picking some up for Svengoolie this evening.

It is now 4pm and the man who was supposed to come never did.

Keeping the doors on the farm store open six days a week does nothing for our business growth if no one shows up in this heat. In order to have good business growth, the owners need a little time off to think and recharge. That is good business practice.

It turns out that the neighbor's son did not care about the store. Around 4:30pm, they showed up at the house. He wanted to talk to David about planting and growing. David had just fallen asleep (he is on meds for his thumb and other things) so I would not wake him up. Then he mentioned Tuesday morning. We will be in San Antonio at 9am for some doctor appointments. They understood and will come back another time. They were very nice people and he really just wanted to talk to David about best business practices.

We went down the road near the Rossville Volunteer Fire Department and the food truck was there, just like they said on Facebook. I went up to the food truck and she said $46.50 and I almost fainted.

The meat was good but a bit too spicy. The potato salad and beans were not good or bad, just there. The white bread was there. All in all, not worth the $15.50 I paid for each plate.

When we drove into the carport, I noticed that our black water tank that holds our well water was leaking in big streams from the top so we shut something off. Inside the little well house by the tank is all wet. Something is not working right. The well guy is coming out again tomorrow. Seems he ought to just live here because we call him so much.

Sunday, August 8, 2021

Good Sunday morning. Because David's hand is still cut open, we decided to skip going to church where folks will try to shake his hand and cause him to bleed more. It is sewn up but the doctor does not want it bandaged. It has bled a few times, mostly at night while David is asleep.

We did go to HEB for some groceries. David wore a glove. It was fine. There are a lot of people at that HEB each time I have gone. I think some ought to stay at home or wait their turn to get things. I was at one of the frozen food doors, getting some food and some guy walked up, grabbed the door off of my back and asked me if I was finished.

If I were finished, I would have put the food in my cart and walked off. Duh! I answered him, "I guess so." So I walked off instead of fighting with him. I answered him, "I guess so." Then he started shouting that he was being nice. No. Being nice would have been staying where you were and waiting a moment until I walked away. No one was in that entire aisle when I opened that freezer door. I grabbed two packages. I was going to grab two more.

HEB sure doesn't need anymore business growth. Every single HEB is always packed, no matter when you go. Of course, they are fully stocked, mostly with their own brands. Too bad more people don't use Walmart so we can get in HEB without a problem.

We came home and got all of the groceries carried in and put away. I fixed a quick lunch and started laundry. Fun times. I missed going to church. I will watch online this afternoon.

Business growth is something David and I are working on all the time. I think we should concentrate on the seeds and David wants to grow produce to sell and pickle. He wanted to can produce but the health department shut that down quick. We can pickle some things and that is about it, unless we want to pay thousands of dollars every time we can for people who will monitor the heat while we cook and for testing after we cook. That is ridiculous.

If we had realized that, we would not have put the commercial kitchen in. It should be a meeting room instead.

We need to concentrate our business growth time into the website in ads and social media so we can get more customers. Business growth should be aimed at getting people off of Amazon and onto our website.

Kitty and me in the kitchen today. She was whining about getting another treat so I picked her up. LOL! Happy International Cat Day!

Happy International Cat Day. Here I am with Kitty in the kitchen today.

This evening, I cooked a rack of pork baby back ribs and they were incredibly tender and flavorful. I also oven roasted mushrooms and corn on the cob. One of the best meals I ever made and David did not care for the ribs. They were delicious!

The Third Year Continues - Business Growth

08/09/2021-08/15/2021 - Garden Seeds For Sale

08/16/2021-08/22/2021 - Gardening Zones Texas

08/23/2021-08/29/2021 - Fall Vegetable Garden

08/30/2021-09/05/2021 - Fall Planting

09/06/2021-09/12/2021 - Garden Seeds Free Shipping

09/13/2021-09/19/2021 - Garden Seeds Near Me

09/20/2021-09/26/2021 - Gardening Gifts

09/27/2021-10/03/2021 - Fall Crops

10/04/2021-10/10/2021 - October On The Farm

10/11/2021-10/17/2021 - Seeds For Sale

10/18/2021-10/24/2021 - Seed Source

10/25/2021-10/31/2021 - Garden Vegetables

11/01/2021-11/07/2021 - Winter Garden

11/08/21-11/14/21 - November Gardening Tips

11/15/21-11/21/21 - November Garden Chores

11/22/21-11/28/21 - Thanksgiving Recipes

11/29/21-12/5/21 - Christmas Decorations

12/6/21-12/12/21 - Christmas Gift Ideas

12/13/21-12/19/21 - Christmas Ornaments

12/20/21-12/26/21 - Christmas Songs

12/27/21-1/2/22 - New Year Wishes

Happy New Year of Business Growth!

1/3/22-1/9/22 - Selling Seeds

1/10/22-1/16/22 - January Garden Chores

1/17/22-1/23/22 - Spring Season

1/24/22-1/30/22 - Spring Planting Schedule

1/31/22-2/6/22 - February Garden Chores

2/7/22-2/13/22 - Late For Tomatoes

2/14/22-2/20/22 -Heirloom Tomato

2/21/22-2/27/22 - Planting Cherry Tomato Seeds

2/28/22-3/6/22 - March Garden Chores

03/7/22-03/13/22 - Spring Planting Season

03/14/22-03/20/22 - Heirloom Seeds

03/21/22-03/27/22 - Planting Cucumber Seeds

03/28/22-04/03/22 - Planting Green Beans

04/04/22-04/10/22 - April Garden Chores

04/11/22-04/17/22 - Planting Melons

04/18/22-04/24/22 - Planting Lettuce

04/25/22-05/01/22 - Planting Spinach

05/02/22-05/08/22 - May Garden Chores

05/09/22-05/15/22 - Planting Corn

05/16/22-05/22/22 - Planting Herbs

05/23/22-05/29/22 - Planting Okra

05/30/22-06/05/22 - Planting Zinnias

06/06/22-06/12/22 - June Garden Chores

06/13/22-06/19/22 - Planting Pumpkins

06/20/22-06/26/22 - Planting Gourds

06/27/22-07/03/22 - Drought Facts

07/04/22-07/10/22 - July Garden Chores

07/11/22-07/17/22 - Plan Your Fall Garden

07/18/22-07/24/22 - Fall Zucchini

07/25/22-07/31/22 - Fall Tomatoes

Year three on the farm comes to an end and year four begins. The time is passing so rapidly on our farm. We are getting so much done each year. Our business growth continues to skyrocket. It is an exciting time for our company and for David and me to be alive. God has continued to bless us more than we could ever have imagined.

Our Farm Journal By Year

Our First Year On The Farm

Our Second Year On The Farm

Our Fourth Year On The Farm

Our Fifth Year On The Farm

Our Sixth Year On The Farm

Return from Business Growth to Farm And Business Life

Anything To Share On This Topic?

Would you like to share additional information about this topic with all of us?

Enter Your Title

Tell Us Your Story! [ ? ]

Upload 1-4 Pictures or Graphics (optional)[ ? ]

Add a Picture/Graphic Caption (optional)

Click here to upload more images (optional)

Author Information (optional)

To receive credit as the author, enter your information below.

Your Name	(first or full name)
Your Location	(e.g., City, State, Country)

Submit Your Contribution

Check box to agree to these submission guidelines.
I am at least 16 years of age.
I understand and accept the privacy policy.
I understand that you will display my submission on your website.

(You can preview and edit on the next page)

Since 2009, over 1,500,000 home gardeners, all across the USA, have relied on David's Garden Seeds® to grow beautiful gardens. Trust is at the heart of it. Our customers know David's Garden Seeds® stocks only the highest quality seeds available. Our mission is to become your lifetime supplier of quality seeds. It isn't just to serve you once; we want to earn your trust as your primary supplier.

Watch Our 2022 TV Commercial!

Sing Along To Our Jingle

Matt with one of our Barred Rock chickens. The chickens adore him. ♪♫♪♪♫♫

♪♫♪♪ ♫ ♪ ♫♪♫♫

♪♫♪♪♫♫

Peppers and peas

And lots of yummy greens

You can't go wrong

With Squash This Long

At David's Garden Seeds

♪ ♫ ♪ ♫

Our New 2024 TV Ad

Please like and subscribe on YouTube and come visit us at our Farm Store! The music on our TV ad was written, played, and sung by our son, Matthew Schulze. You can meet him when you come to the farm. He just might give you a tour. Ask him to grab a guitar and sing our jingle that he wrote.

David of David's Garden Seeds® zipping along on his little tractor across the farm. He is having a blast!

We are David's Garden Seeds®. If you need great seeds, we've got over 1,000 varieties to choose from.

Subscribe To Mrs. David's Garden Seeds® Newsletter For FREE!

Hi! I am Juanita aka Mrs. DGS. This photo was taken in our commercial kitchen during a potluck.

Mrs Davids Garden Seeds in the greenhouse with Lucy the lap dog.

Find out what is going on down on the farm by reading our blog and by subscribing to our free newsletter for all of the information going down at David's Garden Seeds® and on the farm. I love to share helpful information with you. Please let your friends know and y'all come on down for a visit when you get the chance. We would love to meet you!