Thank you for checking in on us for your native plant needs, and I apologize for the inconvenience, but after 26+ years, we have now pretty much closed Native Gardens. Alas, it was time, and luckily you have many, many more sources to reach out to now than you did in 1983. Let me suggest that you contact Sunlight Gardens in Andersonville, TN or Overhill Gardens in Vonore, TN for some great native plants as well as design and landscaping services.
No doubt many of you regulars noticed the shrinking plant list over the last 3-4 years and the huge inventory reduction sales, all leading up to closing the nursery. Having 3 immediate family members over 80 is the main reason I knew I would have to make a major change, and it has all worked out pretty well so far. Having had plenty of time to think about it, I am now very happy to have moved on, since it would have been hell trying to tend to family 5 hours away and run a nursery, especially these days.
There are still a few plants left and I am offering most of them to non-profits at no cost or to others for next to nothing or a donation. I am not shipping and there are no regular nursery hours. I will try and get a list together to have on here so if you are in the area and see something of interest, we may be able to help each other out. Just email me with your interests.
So what's next for me? One of the luckiest events of my life was to happen to be handy when our local land conservancy, Foothills Land Conservancy, was making a growth spurt and needed someone who knew a bit about plants and landscapes to do some field work part-time. HELLO! I've been working for FLC for over 3 years now and it just gets better and better. I spend an embarrassing amount of time outdoors on gorgeous pieces of property, usually with my dogs for company, photographing and making notes. The landowners are fascinating and my time is very flexible. There are reports to write, but that's what rainy days are for. My point being that this has all worked out for me and even though there are still heavy family matters to deal with, there is a very bright side to keep me from sliding towards the abyss. And now I even have time to garden! And I'm lovin' it!!
There are still so many names I've written dozens of times on orders and emailed or called that I have no face to go with, but for lo these many years we were all one spirit and it didn't matter. Being a part of the early effort to promote native plants gave my life meaning 24/7, but all of you that understood and appreciated the plants and their source are what really gave me and my crew a great deal of pride in every little thing we did to make good plants and to want to go to work. We knew how much you wanted them and how much you enjoyed them and that gave us energy not just while at work but in all aspects of our lives. You made a huge effort to do the right thing and I can't begin to put into words how important your support has been to the entire cause of improving our environment via native plantings as well as my life and all those associated with Native Gardens. I'll just send a huge THANK YOU out to you all, you know who you are, for your efforts on behalf of Mother Earth that also helped us have a wonderful job for over 26 years. We made a difference!!
Another huge THANK YOU goes out to Dan and Cathy McDowell. Dan is The Web Guy for us and he has held my hand and kicked my butt (figuratively) for many years and did a masterful job of keeping the website going despite my unending distractedness. Cathy is the gardener and helped keep Dan on track as well as suffering through plenty of proof reading I'm sure.
They have offered to keep this site available as a blog spot so I might stay in touch. Not being a blogger til now, I'm interested to see where it leads, but I like the idea of not having to absolutely cut the cord with all of you. I do have ideas of growing again if life allows, though more likely in some sort of non-profit direction. Who knows?? So check back in here once in a while and see what's going on. Let me know what's growing for you or not. It's still fascinating and we've got so much to learn!!
Onward...
No doubt many of you regulars noticed the shrinking plant list over the last 3-4 years and the huge inventory reduction sales, all leading up to closing the nursery. Having 3 immediate family members over 80 is the main reason I knew I would have to make a major change, and it has all worked out pretty well so far. Having had plenty of time to think about it, I am now very happy to have moved on, since it would have been hell trying to tend to family 5 hours away and run a nursery, especially these days.
There are still a few plants left and I am offering most of them to non-profits at no cost or to others for next to nothing or a donation. I am not shipping and there are no regular nursery hours. I will try and get a list together to have on here so if you are in the area and see something of interest, we may be able to help each other out. Just email me with your interests.
So what's next for me? One of the luckiest events of my life was to happen to be handy when our local land conservancy, Foothills Land Conservancy, was making a growth spurt and needed someone who knew a bit about plants and landscapes to do some field work part-time. HELLO! I've been working for FLC for over 3 years now and it just gets better and better. I spend an embarrassing amount of time outdoors on gorgeous pieces of property, usually with my dogs for company, photographing and making notes. The landowners are fascinating and my time is very flexible. There are reports to write, but that's what rainy days are for. My point being that this has all worked out for me and even though there are still heavy family matters to deal with, there is a very bright side to keep me from sliding towards the abyss. And now I even have time to garden! And I'm lovin' it!!
There are still so many names I've written dozens of times on orders and emailed or called that I have no face to go with, but for lo these many years we were all one spirit and it didn't matter. Being a part of the early effort to promote native plants gave my life meaning 24/7, but all of you that understood and appreciated the plants and their source are what really gave me and my crew a great deal of pride in every little thing we did to make good plants and to want to go to work. We knew how much you wanted them and how much you enjoyed them and that gave us energy not just while at work but in all aspects of our lives. You made a huge effort to do the right thing and I can't begin to put into words how important your support has been to the entire cause of improving our environment via native plantings as well as my life and all those associated with Native Gardens. I'll just send a huge THANK YOU out to you all, you know who you are, for your efforts on behalf of Mother Earth that also helped us have a wonderful job for over 26 years. We made a difference!!
Another huge THANK YOU goes out to Dan and Cathy McDowell. Dan is The Web Guy for us and he has held my hand and kicked my butt (figuratively) for many years and did a masterful job of keeping the website going despite my unending distractedness. Cathy is the gardener and helped keep Dan on track as well as suffering through plenty of proof reading I'm sure.
They have offered to keep this site available as a blog spot so I might stay in touch. Not being a blogger til now, I'm interested to see where it leads, but I like the idea of not having to absolutely cut the cord with all of you. I do have ideas of growing again if life allows, though more likely in some sort of non-profit direction. Who knows?? So check back in here once in a while and see what's going on. Let me know what's growing for you or not. It's still fascinating and we've got so much to learn!!
Onward...
