US (SD): New garden center owners want year-round production
Art Smith and Mary Eckstrom purchased the greenhouses from longtime growers Wally and Tommy Thomsen in December. The garden center, along Highway 34, will open its doors for the season in late April or early May.
The landscape center signed a contract with the Historic Pierre Street Association to put flower baskets downtown.
“That’s a brand-new thing that Wally never did. So we’ll have flower baskets up on the light posts down there,” Eckstrom said.
The garden center also will provide flowering plants for the Capitol grounds. This is something the Thomsens had done some years back.
The greenhouse for roses blew down during the June wind storm and couldn’t be rebuilt because the location was right under power lines. So the rose greenhouse has been moved to a different area and the space and is “98 percent ready to go,” Smith said.
The old area will be used for showcasing landscape plants, Eckstrom said.
Smith also has another idea that he’d like to try out in the future — a new type of greenhouse that could extend the growing season two months or more.
Smith said this is just a concept now. But the idea is to build the greenhouses into the side of the hill, and the dirt will make an excellent insulator. Adding heaters and other technology, these greenhouses could, in theory, supply fresh produce even in winter.
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