Local Video
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| Northfield's Eco Gardens is open for business |
By: David Henke, Staff Writer
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Posted: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 8:56 pm
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NORTHFIELD — Sisters Jeni Holt and Becky Guneratne were green before green was cool.
In 1994, at a time when terms like ‘carbon footprint’ and ‘organically grown’ weren’t part of everyday speech, Holt and Guneratne opened Mother Earth Gardens, an environmentally friendly gardening store in Minneapolis.
The pair eventually sold the store to their manager, but never lost their love for green gardening, which is why the sisters decided to open another, similar garden center at 600 Division St. in downtown Northfield this spring.
The sisters stock their new business, named Eco Gardens, with plants purchased from several organic growers in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The growers, Holt and Guneratne said, use compostable pots, fertilize their plants with soy-based fertilizers or bat guano and release beneficial insects in their greenhouses for disease and pest control, rather than using pesticides. The potting soil the growers use for their plants, the sisters added, mimics natural soil and is rife with micro-organisms.
All of which makes their plants healthier and hardier, Holt and Guneratne say.
According to the Organic Growers Association, a national non-profit organization that campaigns for health, justice and sustainability, using organic gardening practices or purchasing organically grown plants can limit exposure to the harmful chemicals that are sometimes found in pesticides, herbicides and synthetic fertilizers. That, in turn, can have a positive impact on the growers’ health.
It’s a message that Holt and Guneratne hope they can convey with their business. The two have already started building partnerships with other environmentally friendly businesses in the area, like Just Food Co-op and Prairie Creek Community School. Eventually, they hope to offer a number of gardening classes and related activities in town.
The store, Holt said will be open year-round, and will offer seasonal items, like pumpkins, wreaths and Christmas trees. Eventually, they even plan to sell plant-friendly insects for ecological pest control. The sisters signed a purchase agreement earlier this year on the property.
“We don’t have to have all these pesticides and toxic things,” said Guneratne, who has degrees in horticulture and landscaping. “It’s just a way of life that we believe in.”
ABOUT THE BUSINESS
OWNERS: Jeni Holt and Becky Guneratne
OPENED: April 25
WHERE: 600 Division St. S.
CARRIES: Heirloom variety vegetable seeds, organic flowers, native prairie and woodland plants, organic soils and gardening supplies.
— David Henke covers the city. He can be reached at dhenke@northfieldnews.com or 645-1100. |
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I love that on their sign, very conspicuous,
something to the extent of UNDER NEW OWNERSHIP.
If you stop and chat with them, you get the impression that they very much do not want to be associated with the OLD OWNERSHIP.
Can you blame em? Good luck ECO GARDENS!