What a marvelous theory, Steve. Seriously, though, I do like the idea of local businesses favoring local customers and vice versa. We have the start of something like that here. Many businesses give discounts to customers carrying a GoLocal card, which is issued only to locals. It's good for both sides in the transaction. The discount gives me an incentive to spend my money in town, and my money keeps local businesses in business.

What a good idea! I've always tried to buy locally, but a little extra incentive would be welcome.

I wish our town had such a buy local card. I would deffinately get one. I really try to stay local whenever possible.

I guess a lot depends on what local means. If you live in a satellite town of a big city - perhaps Prescott to Phoenix, Long Island to New York, Sebastopol to the Bay area, and with "keeping it local" meaning "I can drive there in an hour or two" it is pretty easy.

We're having some work done on our house and our contractor lives in a small town twenty minutes from here in the opposite direction of Phoenix. For him buying local, if you are talking, say, same zip code, would allow him to buy beef, potatoes, soap, and soda, I guess.

When DW and I moved here, we were looking for a place that had enough stuff that we wouldn't always have to be driving somewhere else, but on a small enough scale so that there were lots of different things close together. It feels good be able to be in town in three minutes. And to know the people who serve you at restaurants. If you order the same thing every time, you can be sure that they'll always get the order right.

In Sebastopol, keeping it local means not even driving 7 miles to Santa Rosa. It isn't always possible, of course, because it is a very small town (population of only 7,500 or so). I've always had to go to Santa Rosa to buy floor wax, for example. It seems incredible in view of all the hardwood floors in the homes here, but not one of our hardware stores carries floor wax.

The lumber yard closed down a few years ago, so it's virtually impossible for contractors to stay local and they do have to go to Santa Rosa for materials, but most things are readily available at a choice of places.

I feel part of buying local means avoiding the big box stores and patronizing the small merchants as much as possible.
I try to shop in the Richmond or Rosenberg (3 miles farther west) area. Houston definitely does not count as local to me.

One thing that helps is that my town may be small and rural, but the population is not at all self-sufficient. We are a bunch of conspicuous consumers. There are five supermarkets in town that I can think of right off the bat, and possibly more that don't come to mind right away. There are six or seven nurseries that I go to fairly regularly, and lots of others that sell trees or are for landscapers and therefore are of no interest to me. There are dozens and dozens of restaurants of every type, several drug stores, book stores, and clothing stores, and a million stores that sell a variety of nonessentials -- fancy candles, artwork, and other fripperies. Those are my favorite, of course.

Richmond is similar - now. When we moved here it was a small farming town; it has become a bedroom community for Houston. The population is divided between rather struggling farmers (like us) and well off commuters. Some of this "progress" is annoying but I do like the new nurseries that have opened in the last ten years!

Zuzu and I did a little local nursery shopping this afternoon, I only bought one plant, she bought 2, we were quite restrained. I had actually bought about 10 shrubs a couple of days ago at a 40% off sale so I promised hubby to be good!

I did a quick mini tour with my camera afterwards. (Updated the names after Zuzu's post below.)

So this was a new clematis we spotted, a hybrid of the Sonoma Hort Nursery named Sonoma Batik



#1 Change of Heart


#2 Schizostylis (Kaffir Lily)


#3 Passiflora 'Coral Seas'


#4 Condesa de Sastago


#5 is Chic


#6 Crazy Dottie


#7 Zambra


#8 Magic East


#9 Buzzie


#10 Camille Pissarro


#11 Champion


#12 is Norwich Castle


#13 Margarete Fuchs


#14 is sweet Desiree, a special potted plant.


#15 is Distant Drums


#16 is the unique Paul Ecke, Jr., this shot shows it lighter than it really is as my flash went off but it has these fabulous dark edges.


#17 Golden Princess


#18 Samara

Waiting with baited breath to know what that pink flower is in picture #2 !!!

A bulb that starts with an S Mike, that's all I know. Zuzu is working on the ID's now.

Hi, everybody. God, I love Sue's photographic skills.

The Clematis is Sonoma Batik.

#1 -- Change of Heart

#2 -- Schizostylis (Kaffir Lily)

#3 -- Passiflora 'Coral Seas'

#4 -- Condesa de Sastago (you got the hybridizer right, Sue; it's a Pedro Dot rose)

#6 -- Crazy Dottie

#7 -- Zambra

#8 -- Magic East

#9 -- Buzzie

#10 -- Camille Pissarro (I knew it was a French painter, Sue, but there are so many of them)

#11 -- Champion

#13 -- Margarete Fuchs

#17 -- Golden Princess

#18 -- Samara

JD, the Schizostylis isn't local. I saw it at one local nursery last year and was surprised because I've always bought it from nurseries in Oregon. There are several colors and it's a great and wonderful bulb. The gophers have never bothered it and it comes back reliably every year.

Here are some Google images of the different colors:

http://www.google.com/search?q...

Edelweiss is the best Oregon nursery and they carry a lot of different colors:

http://www.edelweissperennials...

I hate it that my memory is soooo bad! Anyways, I edited my post and added the names.

Zuzu saved me from walking into many of these!

I think I want to get a #9, #14, & #19 please...

There is no #19.

You want spiders? That's #19

To compliment the kitties, just found this cute short video!
Cat vs Hairdryer
http://www.wimp.com/cathairdry...

I just love it. I've already watched it three times in the last few minutes.

Love that site, I couldn't resist posting this one, even though it's off topic!

Beautiful Disney flashmob wedding proposal.
http://www.wimp.com/disneyflas...

Oh, that was so exciting when he ran out to join the dancers! Very sweet.