Buy now, save later is the rule for many garden centers, farm stands and seed catalogs.

The idea of bringing in some money during the winter when business is slow is not new for the companies, but with the economy struggling more customers are looking for bargains and more companies are trying to do something.

"We can't sit here and chew our fingernails," said Jeff O'Donal, owner and president of O'Donal's Nursery in Gorham, "because we need them to hold on with."

Skillins Greenhouses, with locations in Falmouth, Brunswick and Cumberland, is entering the 19th year of its Spring Bond program in which people spend $37.50 for a bond in February and March and redeem it for $50 worth of plants and merchandise, said Mike Skillin. Customers can buy as many bonds as they want. If a household is planning a major landscape project, Skillins staff would come up with a plan and figure out a budget, and the customer could buy bonds to pay for the entire project, a savings of 25 percent.

"A bunch of family and close management were around the table when Terry Skillin, my cousin, said he had this crazy idea," Mike Skillin recalled. The bonds were born and have been very successful – so much so that other companies have borrowed the idea, he said.

The cash flow that the bonds bring in is very significant at what is a slow time for business, Mike Skillin said, and the bonds help to create a bond with the customers.

Estabrook's in Yarmouth calls its product Estabucks, and it offers the same 25 percent discount.

Tom Estabrook said the company started selling them at Christmas, and that they can be purchased online, will be sold at the Portland Flower Show and will be good at the company's Yarmouth and Scarborough locations.

"This gives us an opportunity to get some cash flow," Estabrook said, "but it also brings the customer in the door."

In addition, the sale of the Estabucks will give them some indication of how many plants they will need in the spring.

Ginny Moody of Moody's in Saco calls her product Green Coupons. Initially they were good only for plants, but she quickly switched to let them be good for anything in the store. She started selling them before Christmas, and some people did give the coupons as Christmas presents, which means recipients get a larger gift.

O'Donal's skips the idea of coupons and simply offers people a 10 percent discount during March.

"What we did last year," Jeff O'Donal said, "is tell people at the flower show, we would simply give them a 10 percent discount on anything ordered and paid for during March."

At Longfellow Greenhouse in Manchester, retail manager Heather Nadeau said they have not instituted an early-purchase discount, but they do have a customer-loyalty program, in which people get coupons throughout the year and coupons after they have reached certain thresholds in spending.

Those were the nurseries I called, and they are among the largest in southern Maine. Ask the people at your favorite nursery if they have a similar program.

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The above companies are mostly about the landscape, although the discounts would apply to vegetable seedlings and seeds at most of the companies. But you also can get discounts on vegetables you buy from your local farm stands.

Ramona Snell of Snell's Family Farm in Buxton said the offering is part of the Community-Supported Agriculture program.

"In the pure Community-Supported Agriculture model," she said, "an individual buys a share in a farm and gets a percentage of that farm's produce on a weekly business throughout the season. If the farm is successful, they do well. If it doesn't, they take a loss as well as the farm does."

The Snells have adjusted the pure CSA model so that instead of giving investors a basket of vegetables chosen by the farm, it lets them pay for their vegetables before the...