My husband, David, and I own the seed company, Davids Garden Seeds ® that we started in our home in San Antonio, Texas back in 2009. Currently, our business is in the process of being moved from San Antonio down to our farm, an hour outside of San Antonio, near Poteet in a small town called Rossville. We closed our small seed store in San Antonio when coronavirus hit the USA in March 2020.
At that time in, Amazon stopped accepting our seeds for FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon) and concentrated on sending out medical supplies. That meant, if we wanted to stay in business, that we had to start shipping out our orders. We went from zero to 20 one day to 10,000 orders the next day. We hired on new people who were out of work due to corona and we got busy, shipping out a few thousand orders every day.
We needed additional work space so we closed out the Davids Garden Seeds store and devoted those rooms to workers and supplies. We packed up our store displays and took them out to the farm. Our new farm store will be ready to open soon. We are putting the finishing touches on it and hope to open by the end of June 2020. Today is June 3, 2020. I just found out yesterday that I am losing my best store helper to a dentist.
Bethany, whom many of you have met if you have been in our store, is almost through with dental assistant school and she has already landed a job in a dental office. Tomorrow is her final day with us. We were not supposed to lose her until the end of summer...
Now I have to train someone else to help with the store and with pulling seed orders from the website. On a good note, we made two hires this week but I believe that both people are only with us for the summer.
The seed orders, except for the website orders, have now gone back to Amazon. David and I are receiving buildings, new electricity and water hookups, lumber and so much more at the farm to prepare for the big Davids Garden Seeds® move that is coming up in a few weeks.
We received our second building yesterday. Another one is almost ready to be delivered from the factory. I don't think they have started on the fourth building yet, the one that will house the restrooms and kitchen area.
But don't worry. We have Port-a-Johns for you to use. If you are coming out to visit our store, you will drive for about an hour so you will need to use the restroom. We have some decent ones as well as soap and water set up for you until our fourth building is ready. We will keep you informed. Again, the store is not ready to open yet.
David and I have wanted to move to the country for several years so we have been looking for a piece of land for a while. We looked at several and finally found a four acre plot about an hour outside of San Antonio. We have a land contract on it as of July of 2019. We are waiting to close on it and once we do, we will move our home there and, eventually, our business will follow.
This land is actually a growing field from a farm that has been sectioned off into acreage that is for sale. The soil is sandy, great for growing a lot of things. Right now, it is covered in many wildflowers.
We have picked out a lovely manufactured home and have started the process of getting water and electricity to the property, which we are told can take anywhere from six to ten weeks.
June 3, 2020 Update:
We paid cash for the land on July 30, 2019 and closed on our home on Friday, August 16, 2019. Right after we closed, we rushed out to the farm and found the two halves of our not at all cheap home sitting on the side of the road in front of our farm. We were not impressed at all.
Six hours later, people showed up to bring the halves onto Davids Garden Seeds Farm and put them in place. We finally moved into our put together home on Saturday, September 14, 2019. Then we had to wait two more days in the blazing heat before a technician would bring and hook up the air conditioner. I feel like that company really did us wrong by not being honest with us and I would not recommend buying from them. I certainly won't buy another manufactured home from them. I am so glad all of that is behind us now.
David will be putting in raised beds to grow vegetables for us to eat as well as for going to seed so we can sell our own seeds at Davids Garden Seeds®. I want to get some chickens and possibly some other farm animals. We will be making our own little homestead as well as having our business on the property. We are leaving room by the road to set up our seed store.
Once our home gets set up on the farm, we will fence in a small yard so the girls--Annabelle, Ethel, Lucy, and Kitty can safely go outside to play and not get attacked by snakes or get hit by trucks.
Next, he will put up some sheds and a chicken coop. There will be greenhouses so we can grow year round, like we have done for the past 18 years that we have in our current home. David actually has the whole place planned on paper.
Here is an update on June 3, 2020:
We now have two PVC greenhouses, multiple raised beds plus rows throughout our 60 tree fruit orchard for planting. We have four sheds for tools and storage. Our home was all set up by the middle of September 2019. We have a good sized yard for our dogs to play in. Kitty escapes the house as often as she can and loves to roam around in our yard.
On April 30, 2020, we brought home 26 one day old chicks and one week ago tomorrow, we took them out to their large new chicken coop. They are loving it after being cooped up in a brooder for four weeks. They have grown so rapidly and most of them are almost completely feathered out. Tomorrow, they will have full access to the run part of the coop.
At the end of October, we should be getting a good amount of colorful, farm fresh eggs which we will have for sale in our farm store. We are so excited about all of the possibilities of having our business right there on the grounds so we don't have to drive an hour one way to get to work.
As you know, by now, we bought the land and are waiting for them to trim out our home so we can move into it. Greenhouses are going up, raised beds are going in, and we are living in a shed, waiting for water, septic tank, and electricity. Country life sure is slow...September 2019.
Update June 3, 2020:
Back in September 2019, we got city water hooked up so we could take decent showers.
In November 2019, we finally got electricity and our well was dug so we can irrigate our crops and water our animals.
On March 10, 2020, just as coronavirus started getting a lot of attention in the United States, our store building was delivered to the farm. Two days later, our highly anticipated Caribbean cruise was canceled and the influx of seed orders began. People all over the country began panic buying seeds. The highest single order for seeds I saw during this time was for $479.00! That is a lot of money for a backyard gardener to spend on garden seeds.
The panic buying went to seed companies all over our country. In fact, there were so many seed orders, that most of the seed companies closed to fill orders and then would reopen and close again. Davids Garden Seeds® did not close at all. We hired more people, forgot about rest and time off, and jumped in, working seven days a week, twelve hours a day. It was an exhausting time, and we ran out of a lot of seed varieties, but we kept going, so that our customers could feel better about the future, knowing they could grow their own food. We are so grateful for every order! Thank you all.
So to wrap it all up, two of the four buildings that Davids Garden Seeds needs for its seed business move are already at the farm and the other two buildings are at the factory being built.
Soon, we plan to get rabbits on Davids Garden Seeds Farm. Their shed has already been ordered. They will be put somewhere near the chickens. After that, we plan to get some goats and/or sheep, maybe some ducks.
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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.
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