The talk in the news this week was the possibility of new tariffs on Canada and Mexico over immigration issues. Luckily, things got worked out at least for the next 30 days. 

But if things fall apart this month, it could greatly affect your spring. So how could this affect you this spring? 

Carhartt has a manufacturing facility in Mexico that produces most of their denim jeans, as well as tee shirts and jackets. Normally we wouldn’t get any price increases until July when the new fall and winter clothing starts coming in for the winter 25/26 season. 

However, if tariffs are in effect for any length of time, prices are sure to rise before the end of spring on many clothing items. Clothing is the only major category that we carry from Mexico, but Canada is another story all together. 

Canada is the leading supplier of peat moss. Over ninety percent of the peat moss used in the United States comes from Canada. Peat moss is in almost every premium potting soil produced regardless of manufacturer. This could start affecting the price of those soils as soon as tariffs would go into effect. 

Most manufacturers are just starting to mix soils now that will ship to stores starting at the end of February through April, and that includes us. We pre-order some of our premium soils like FoxFarm in the fall, but they don’t start shipping until the following spring and these could be affected by peat moss increases. 

Of course we could cancel the orders if we didn’t want the price increase, but then we wouldn’t have the soil we need for the spring. 

Now peat moss is just one component in soil mixes, so even though the tariff on Canadian peat is twenty-five percent, the effect on soil mixes would probably only be around five percent. 

Other items effected by tariffs would be cedar mulch as almost half of the mulch sold in the northeast comes from Canada. Even though we have many mulch companies here in the United States, they would not be able to keep up with the increased demand and many would probably increase prices as well because of the increased demand. 

The tariffs on Canadian mulch would help U.S. manufacturers by allowing them to slightly increase their prices while still being less expensive than their northern competition. 

Some U.S. manufacturers may expand operations to increase production and that is what the tariffs are suppose to do, help U.S. manufacturing, but in the short term it would increase pricing this spring. 

Another Canadian item that even I didn’t know about is frozen French fries. Did you know that over fifty-percent of the frozen French fries used in this country are from Canada? I didn’t either. 

This will affect grocery stores and restaurants. Most of the fresh potatoes sold in the U.S. are from Idaho and Maine and won’t be affected except by the increased demand. 

Our seed potatoes that we sell in the spring come from Maine and Ohio, depending on the variety and won’t be affected. Likewise items like peat pots used for seed starting won’t be affected this spring as the pots in the retail system now were probably made at least six months ago, long before any tariff talk. 

Tariffs or not, spring will be here soon. The days are getting longer, maybe not much warmer yet, but the warmth will get here soon too, no matter what Phil says about it. 

Six more weeks of winter would be great, that means that on March 16th it will warm up and be beautiful. We know better than that, besides Thursday, March 20th is the first day of spring anyway.