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Bad News: Superb "Garden Party" Shop to Close; Good News: Liquidation Bargains

Helaine Tregenza found her perfect business niche: an organic gardening superstore, on a boutique scale, where she could share her fertile knowledge of cultivating veggies and herbs and the stash of standout products she's come to use, from no-kink hoses to raised bed kits to reclaimed grapestake garden furniture. Weekly food contributor Jamie Collins, herself an accomplished organic farmer at Serendipity Farms, described The Garden Party's glory in a piece called "Sow Special" earlier this summer.

Only, even though Tregenza'd found her dream biz, nobody could find her.

"This location, in a nutshell, sucks," she says. "People look for me and they can’t find me."

It's not idle out-of-business bitching. I went by the Barnyard to check it out the other day and gave up after 10 or 15 minutes of looking.

But now there's added incentive to find her. She's shuttering after just a few months, and to help ease her next move, she's slashing prices to clear the space.

That means a lush 1-gallon organic tomato plant for less than $5 (instead of $10 or $12 at the farmers market). Damn cool 25-gallon, collapsable Geo Pots are less than $10. 40 percent off, like everything else in the store. (Scroll lower to see a more complete list." Tregenza says she won't loss her you know what, and will actually "come out OK" if she can sell off her inventory. The liquidation sale goes until the end of the month.

In the meantime, she's hoping for a sunny spot with a little more traffic in Seaside or Carmel Valley, or she'll go back to operating out of her Del Rey Oaks home as she did previously.

Here's an informal list of available items she emailed upon my request (and I quote):

All Garden Art - Furniture - Decor - Decorative Pots - Planters great gift items! including vintage and one-of-a-kind items Succulents many unusual to choose from. Veggies and herbs: lettuces, spinach, arugula, dill, French green beans, sugar snap peas, flat leaf parsley, pineapple sage, English thyme, French thyme, orange thyme, lemon verbena, French tarragon, Thai cilantro, African blue basil, chives and more! geopots and geoplanter raised bed kits All EB Stone Organic Fertilizers! Citrus & Fruit Tree Food - Kelp Meal - Cottonseed Meal (for acid loving plants) - Rose & Flower Food - All Purpose Plant Food All Organic Pest Control! Deer Scram, Cap't Jack Dead Bug Brew (Spinosid), Orchard Spray, Serenade Disease Control , Gopher Baskets: 1-, 5- & 15-gallon, CopperTapeSnailBarrier, Bird Netting All GEO Pots & GEO Raised Bed Kits! 15 gal. - 20 gallon - 25 gallon pots GEO Planter raised bed kits: 3'x3', 3'x6', 3'x1.5'' All Eco-Pots with saucers! too many sizes and colors to mention!

Due to Car Week traffic clogs, hours will be limited to 11am-2pm Friday, 11am-4pm Saturday, closed Sunday, with normal hours resuming Monday. Call 595-4570 for more.