“Grow with us” say garden centre owners

The owners of the Green Valley Garden Centre, just north of Grunthal, invite gardeners in the Southeast to keep growing with them.

And Sheldon and Carrie Enns know more than a little bit about growing. In the 16 years they have owned the garden centre, they have doubled the size of their greenhouse, and tripled the size of their family.

Carrie Enns, an elementary school teacher, says they are blessed to be able to enjoy a lifestyle that allows both husband and wife to have the entire summer off with their three children.

Carrie has been an early years teacher for two decades. She says this is her first year at Kleefeld and she previously taught at Grunthal, Mitchell and Steinbach. Before they bought the greenhouse, Sheldon worked for a company that created financial planning software.

They were living in Grunthal when the greenhouse became available, with the previous owners wanting to retire. With the greenhouse and five acres of grass to take care of, Willie and Dianne Reimer made a deal with Sheldon and Carrie to take over.

The Enns’ family worked at the greenhouse with the Reimers for a year before buying it, and then the Reimers worked with the them for a year after the sale. Carrie says it was a welcome two-year transition for them.

The Green Valley Garden Centre greenhouse was 7,000 square-feet then, and has been growing, along with the business, ever since. Now it covers 14,000 square feet, offering a variety of hundreds of different annuals, perennials and shrubs, as well as a wide variety of vegetables, including 40 different types of tomatoes. Since 2009, sales at the garden centre have kept increasing.

As times got tougher, more people started to plant bigger gardens. During COVID they stayed home and had bigger gardens. And many of the older generation were used to having a large garden to help feed their families and now still keep a large garden, providing much-needed vegetables for a community food bank or other charity. But whatever the reason for the continued popularity of gardening, Carrie says they have been truly blessed and their business keeps growing.

“It isn’t always just need that increases the size of vegetable gardens, but now there is also a generation that wants to eat healthier and prefers to grow their own food.”

No matter what happens, in the greenhouse business there aren’t too many ups and downs, and Carrie says they are happy to be able to provide an essential service for the area.

“People come here because we take time to listen and they find the plants they are looking for.”

At Green Valley Garden Centre there is a social component to shopping for plants. People come to visit with friends and spend time looking through the plants together, sharing ideas and comparing notes on what they are growing at home. This is a happy place and some people come often, not only to buy plants, but to watch things grow, Carrie says.

They say people are welcome to do their browsing and shopping online if they like and check out what is available on the greenvalleygardencentre.com website. During the season, the website is constantly updated and sold-out items are marked.

Lots of the smaller plants are grown from seed at Green Valley Garden Centre. They find they can offer a greater variety when growing from seeds, rather than buying plants already started. Their seed suppliers are all Canadian and include T&T in Winnipeg, Heritage Harvest in Carman, Stokes and Ball Seeds in Ontario, and Vesseys from PEI.

The Green Valley Garden Centre carries on the tradition of hand seeding and transplanting, minimal chemical use, water conservation and the use of compostable pots, as well as the cleaning and reusing of plastic pots.

Opening the third Monday of April each year, they say their season is short and sweet, ending at the end of June with the conclusion of school.

During the part of the growing that comes before the garden centre opens, all family members are busy in the greenhouse. At the beginning of March, the seeds go into the ground, many hand-planted by Carrie.

Their oldest son, Josiah, who is 15, used to play in the greenhouse as a kid, but for the past three years, has taken a more active role in the family business.

The Ennses don’t provide their children with an allowance, but keep track of the hours they work in the greenhouse and pay them instead.

For Josiah, it is indeed a welcome part-time job, for he had been saving up for a trip to Costa Rica with his classmates at Steinbach Christian High School, at the end of March.

He says he enjoys working in the greenhouse, but when he goes to college he might do something else, perhaps closer to where he will be going to school.

When The Carillon toured the greenhouse March 15, Josiah and his brother Toby, who is 12, were potting plants and their sister Annilea, 9, was lending a helping hand with the pots.

Toby says he has been helping out in the greenhouse for a year or so, helping to rotate trays, but this year he is really getting into it.

Sheldon says the kids work really hard, starting when the seeds are planted at the beginning of March, and continuing to help throughout the whole season.

The 14,000 square feet of greenhouses are gutter-connected and consist of five bays, heated with natural gas. There are cold frames outside, heated with natural gas as well.

Inside, seed beds are in enclosed polymer boxes with frames welded together by Paul Schmitt, Sheldon’s father-in-law.

A few years ago, the Enns family gave some thought to just how large they wanted to grow the greenhouse.

As far as expanding is concerned, Sheldon says as long as there are some plants left over at the end of the season in the greenhouse, they feel the garden centre is large enough as it is.

“It is a good size; if we start selling out, we may think of enlarging. But right now, there is a good balance and low inventory, but not sold out.

At the end of the season, plants are donated to the thrift store, to St Pierre Manor, to Grunthal Menno Home, and to St Malo Chalet. Green Valley Garden Centre staff are also invited to come in for plants at the end of the season.

“It is very important to be part of the community, and not just a business.”

The surprise is all the word-of-mouth advertising, with customers telling their friends how happy they are, and that’s how the garden centre keeps growing, Sheldon said.