Green Garden Place brings blooms and veggies to life

Apr. 12—ADRIAN — Even as March's final blizzard raged, spring had already begun to blossom for the Green Garden Place, seedlings well-protected from the cold and thriving in three grow houses between Adrian and Lismore.

When they're ready, the plants will be brought to the Green Garden Place's location in Worthington, at 1131 Oxford St., for purchase by new and experienced gardeners alike.

It will be the sixth year for owners Dawn and Mark Madison, who purchased the business from Clint and Donna Rohrer of Slayton, after it was started by Roger Rohrer.

"I truly enjoy it. I love the people," said Dawn. "I love the customers, and helping them — and I get to work with some of the greatest teammates. The staff that works there is just fantastic."

While the Green Garden Place brings in some retail-ready plants from outside its own operation — from local sources when possible — it also starts a variety of plants from seed or plug, depending on the plant and the length of its growing season. The earliest Madison starts that process is in late February.

"We start early and the wholesalers start even earlier," she said.

Throughout March, they'll keep seeding various vegetables and flowers, attempting to time the process so the plants will be sized appropriately for sale around the time it would be best to plant them.

"It's a guess every year," Madison said. "You kind of get a system in place, a general idea."

Last year's crop, for example, came out a bit smaller than it had the previous year because there simply wasn't as much sunlight. While propane heaters can keep the grow houses comfortably warm, they can't provide the solar power needed to supercharge the seedlings.

The Green Garden Place will likely open in Worthington near the end of April, but the exact timing will be determined by the weather. If it opens too early and the temperature drops to the freezing point, staff has to haul water for the plants, and customers need to bring their purchases indoors rather than planting them.

Dawn encourages people to hit the greenhouse twice if needed, once to pick up some plants that prefer cooler temperatures to start once the snow is gone, and then later in the season when the warm-weather plants thrive.

As in any industry, fashions change every year, and every year, growers bring new varieties of flowers and vegetables to the market. There are national trends, but Worthington doesn't always follow them. This year's color trend happens to be magenta.

"My experience is the gardeners who are really established in what they grow really know what they want," Dawn said. "They might try something a little different."

Some gardeners do ask what's new on the shelves, and some even make requests. One man asked about a certain kind of Thai hot pepper, and when the peppers came in, they were quite popular.

"That's the nice thing about being local. You can focus your plants on the things that people like, and that grow here and do better," Dawn said.

Another gardener asked about Park's Whopper, a big disease-resistant tomato, and now those are popular too. The vegetable trends tend to mirror food trends, so brussels sprouts and collard greens have had their moments too. Occasionally people ask about okra, so the Green Garden Place generally has some seed on hand for that. Last year a wide variety of herbs was available.

"Everybody has their thing that makes them want to garden," Dawn said.

When new gardeners turn up asking for suggestions, she tries to help them figure out what they want, starting with flowers or vegetables. From there, the location becomes important, because some plants prefer full sun and others need a shadier spot. Some people would prefer to start out with a couple container gardens. Once she's aware of the setup a customer is interested in, she helps them build it to fit them.

Keeping it simple can help too.

Sometimes a hanging flower basket might be the best route — dragon wing begonias, for example, are beautiful, tough, handle sun and shade well, self-clean and don't require pinching, and don't require as much water as some flowers.

For new gardeners who want vegetables, a tomato or pepper might go well, or green beans or peas from seeds.

"We try to work with you to try to figure out what you really want," Dawn said.

There are even options for people longing for a greener springtime.

"Buy an herb for your window so you get that wonderful smell and a lovely green plant," she advised. "I love lemon thyme, basil, lavender and rosemary."