Why You Should Support Your Local Garden Nursery

by Cheryl Dunn

As major hardware companies with large garden departments increasingly move in to regional areas, the threat to small local garden nursery businesses is obvious. This article will highlight the value of the modern garden nursery centre, and give you good reason to support your local nursery for all your future garden products and services.

Professional Knowledge and Experience

Local nurseries are usually staffed by experienced gardeners and horticulturalists, who have a broad working knowledge of home landscaping needs including bulb propagation, indoor and patio plants, ornamental plants, seedlings, turf, vine stocks, and fruit trees. As a small business, the focus is usually on return customer patronage, so your local nursery staff will offer excellent customer service, as well as superior local knowledge of soil types, pests, weeds, plant diseases and treatment suggestions.

Additionally, understanding of the local climate and plant compatibility is invaluable, and your local nursery staff are often the best source of this information if you are looking to grow vegetables or more delicate flowering plants. 

Product Range

Depending on your local garden nursery's specialty, you will be likely to find a great range of products suited to the local climate and soil. Local nurseries usually stock an excellent range of local native plants, shrubs and trees, which are perfectly suited to your growing climate and soil.

Many small nurseries have diversified their product range, and now offer an assortment of gifts and home-wares, outdoor furniture and garden accessories. Some nurseries even have in-house cafes, where you can purchase a refreshment and relax among the plants.

If there is something the nursery doesn't stock, the staff are usually more than happy to source and order plants or garden supplies in for you, often with no extra cost. This is a service you are unlikely to get from a multinational hardware business garden centre, as their stock comes from a finite nationalised list of plants not always suitable to local growing conditions.

Support Local Business

It is increasingly important, particularly in regional and remote areas of Australia, to support local businesses, owners and staff by giving them your return patronage. Not only will you reduce your carbon footprint by purchasing locally propagated plants, but by 'shopping small' you will be supporting the identity of your local community. Most local businesses are able to offer competitive prices, and the excellent customer service and local connection makes a trip to your local garden nursery more than worth the effort.

Staffed with community members with superior gardening experience, training and local knowledge, a local garden nursery, such as The Gardeners Nursery, offers a range of products to suit your local growing conditions. By purchasing your plants, seeds and garden supplies from a local nursery business, you will reduce your carbon footprint, support your local community and receive excellent customer service. What's not to love about that?

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