Bloomers Garden Center

I LOVE Bloomer’s! I have lived in Elgin for about 6 ½ years and did not know about it until a few years ago, when I started getting into gardening. Every year, their selection seems to get better and better! I love that everything they sell is organic. They have a wide range of vegetables, herbs, flowers, shrubs, trees — basically everything! The staff is very knowledgeable and Marcus, the owner, has been on Central Texas Gardener. They teach classes every Saturday morning. For instance, this past Saturday was how to install a disappearing fountain. I haven’t made it to one of the classes yet — they are at 9:30 am, which is a little early for me on a Saturday morning. :)
I would go to Bloomer’s every day, if I had the money to do so. That’s not to say that they are pricey, because they are not. They have great prices! I’m just po’. Even when I don’t have much to spend, I love going and just being at Bloomer’s — it’s so peaceful!

We moved from an apartment in Austin to a new house in Elgin in November 2010, and spent the next three months making several trips per weekend to the big box stores we knew along I-​35 as we worked on our new yard. In March, one of the staff at the garden center in Home Depot asked under his breath why we were making such a long trip for mediocre products when we could be visiting Marcus at Bloomers in Elgin. Needless to say, we promptly made a visit, and were incredibly pleased with what we found.
The staff is friendly and knowledgeable, the plant selection is varied and charmingly displayed among meandering trails, and they offer free seminars to those of us who are gardening newbies. Beautiful flowers and gorgeous leafy plants were arranged artfully and provided us with some amazing inspiration for several other outdoor projects. Our 432 sq ft vegetable garden (we freely admit we were overambitious) went from a sad and wilted mess to delightfully green and thriving, thanks to some advice from Marcus Young (try the cotton burr compost – it’s miraculous!).
This weekend we attended the «square food gardening» seminar (look it up, it’s really interesting!) and left with ideas for the next planting season. We also met several other couples in the area who share an interest in gardening and who were excited to invite us to their gardening group. Before we left, we managed to accumulate a truckload of perennials and a giant planter to brighten our previously dismal front yard. As we were planting, neighbors kept stopping to tell us how lovely our selection was, and we were excited to pass along our newest secret – Bloomers of Elgin!