This week’s blog post comes from Club Y.E.S. volunteer Sancia Mary Jerold Wilson

Spring is just around the corner, and it brings many exciting things along with it. Soon the trees will bud, flowers will bloom, and the birds will sing. But, what many look forward to in spring is gardening. Gardening has been an escape from daily struggles for people for ages, and Minnesotans are no exception.

After the long winters, Minnesotans have loved going outside and getting their hands dirty in their home garden. In fact, in 1988, Minnesotans spent an average of $33 on vegetable gardens, $47 on flower gardens, and $155 on lawn and landscaping per household for a grand total of 103.5 million dollars (Sundstrom). With all this money spent on gardening, the industry was and still is booming. In 1991, the owner of Minnehaha Falls Garden center said, “One sunny Saturday, we can make tens of thousands of dollars” (Sundstrom). And in 2000, it contributed more than 2.1 billion dollars to Minnesota’s economy (Bailey). There are many different reasons why the gardening industry is so big in Minnesota. For some gardeners, it has been a tradition that they have carried on for decades since immigrating. For others, it was a way to escape their financial struggles during the depression. Today, it remains a way to pass excess time they have due to retirement and now the pandemic (Sundstrom, Winegar). The interest in gardening in Minnesota was never small, and it is growing rapidly taking the gardening industry along with it. 

Plymouth’s Len Busch Roses is a greenhouse that has been providing people beautiful flowers since 1965. The Busch family immigrated to Minnesota from Germany in 1920. Their family started with growing vegetables, and then shifted flowers. Then later, Len Busch left and started Len Busch Roses. Len’s son now leads the company, and they sell over 7 million stems and pots a year in their environmentally friendly greenhouses.

Another Plymouth-based company is Dundee Nursery and Landscaping. Dundee Nursery and Landscaping has been a family business since friends Ray Sackter and Bob Neume started it in 1946. It has since grown and became what it is today.

Minnesotans have been growing their flowers and vegetables for decades and the industry has risen to support this interest. So, with spring arriving soon, maybe you will be able to support the local businesses and start your own garden.

The Dundee Nursery site mentioned in today’s article is currently under plans for redevelopment. You can read more about the proposed changes on the developer’s website and the City of Plymouth’s Planning Commission page.