Garden centers keep busy all year round

By Dorothy de Souza Guedes, correspondent

‘We see more people gardening and more people wanting to raise vegetables and fruits,” said Lynn Burrell, owner and manager of Frontier Garden Center in Cedar Rapids, as more customers, coping with stressful economic times, want to grow more of their own food.

“People are doing more flower gardening at home, too.”

The 2009 Pew Research Center's Social and Demographic Trends survey noted about 20 percent of all adults planned to plant a vegetable garden to save money on groceries, with younger adults ages 18 to 49 planning to plant more food than older adults.

The trend was dubbed “recession gardening.”

Even better news for local garden centers is that the National Gardening Association's 2011 report noted more people buying from independent garden centers than mass merchants. In 2005, only 40 percent planned to make spring purchases from garden centers, with 50 percent going to mass merchants instead.

But in this April's survey, garden centers edged out mass merchants 46 percent versus 44 percent.

Burrell started Frontier Garden Center, 1941 Blairs Ferry Rd. NE in Cedar Rapids, 33 years ago and said in recent years business has been good.

“Last year we saw an awful lot of first-time gardeners. This year not as much. I think last year was the big year to get into it,” Burrell said.

His business is open year-round, with longer hours during the spring. He prefers to have three full-time employees working flexible hours all year and hires only one additional employee for the busy season.

“That way you have more knowledgeable people,” Burrell said.

Garden centers are busiest during the spring, with a gradual slowdown from May to January, Burrell said. At the end of the planting season, annual plants that don't get sold often are donated to charity organizations.

Most of the perennials are sold, he noted.

In the winter, people visit his indoor garden center for specialty pet foods, houseplants and bird seed.

Meanwhile, he and staff keep busy planning for the spring planting season, which begins the preceding fall. Indoor merchandise - fertilizers, pots and the like - begins to arrive in January and February, and outdoor plants in late March or early April, Burrell said.

Gardeners begin visiting garden centers to plan spring plots and purchase plants.

During the slower months, staff at Pleasant Valley Garden Center, Flower Shoppe and Greenhouses, 1301 S. Gilbert St., in Iowa City, plan for the coming growing season by evaluating what worked and what didn't. They also clean and rearrange the site, plant seeds and more.

“We're busier in the back than people realize,” owner Aleda Kroeze Feuerbach said. “Every season we change. We don't ever stop.”

Pleasant Valley's greenhouses stay open year-round, which can be a draw for winter-weary Iowans.

“People love to come here in the wintertime,” Feuerbach said. “It's nice and warm and toasty and lush.”

Feuerbach's parents started the business in 1952, which she and her husband Kerry now operate.

From April through June, 20 full-time and seasonal employees work in the garden center, flower shop, greenhouses and nursery lot. By January, there are six or seven FTEs, including the Feuerbachs.

In recent years shoppers bought more fruits and vegetables - anything that will help them curb their food spending - but there are still those who want the instant gratification that annual flowers bring to a yard, she said.

Some garden to grow food, but others because

it's “necessary for the psyche,” Feuerbach

said.

Although the recession has caused some occasional slowdowns in the overall business, Feuerbach attributes the company's long history for its continued success. Many customers have been buying from Pleasant Valley for years, and in addition to some first-time gardeners, Feuerbach has noted a trend in organic gardening and requests for recyclable pots and containers.

Although established garden centers have regulars who come back year after year, there is enough interest in gardening for newcomers. Tiffany Bass and her mother Kathy Bass started Green Endeavors in April 2010 at 1325 Highway 30 W., in Mount Vernon.

The business grew out of her mother's passion for flower gardening, Tiffany Bass said. She and her mother began selling flowers in hanging baskets at area farmers markets for two years, then expanded to their current permanent location, which is next to fresh fruit and vegetable grower Bass Farms, owned by her brother Chris Bass.

The two businesses together draw a lot of groups on tours.

“It's kind of like an experience - you can come and do both,” Tiffany Bass said.

Green Endeavors has two greenhouses. Kathy Bass is known for her arranged hanging baskets and custom potted arrangements that incorporate a variety of plants.

“I think that's what sets us apart,” Tiffany Bass said. “It actually looks like a piece of art.”

Green Endeavors is busiest in the spring and at Christmas, when fresh Christmas trees and custom wreaths and swags are sold. The business closes January through March 31.

Five people work year-round, including florist Steve Takes.

Tiffany and her mother both left medical careers to start the garden center.

“It's completely opposite now. We're outside and dirty,” Tiffany said. “It's so much fun to watch what you started planting and watch it turn green. I learn something new every day, and that makes it fun.”