WHAT'S NEW AND EXCITING?

Quite a bit actually! In Kewadin you may not even recognize the place. We've long wanted to reconfigure the front of the Nursery to make a safer and more fabulous entrance and now we are. The dangerously steep asphalt inclines into the big greenhouse are gone, replaced with a set of stone stairs. Cart traffic will now travel a much safer route to the parking lot. We are still under construction awaiting the fabulous results we know our landscape department will deliver.

Just inside the main Greenhouse we've redone the entire front end with new fixtures making it much easier to find what you need quickly. We've also made extensive renovations to the Café and Gift Shop building which features a new interior look created and installed by Interior Designer Becky Naples, as well as all new product lines with a distinct focus on home accents. The Café courtyard has been expanded to allow for more outdoor seating, including more shaded spots, and barrier-free access to a newly installed restroom.

Traverse City may look much the same, but the offerings are all new! Most notable, you'll find two new lines of fairy gardening supplies for the fairy obsessed. Jeanine is also jazzed about a new supplier, Gold Leaf Designs, who create "really cool stainless steel balls in various sizes either to hang on a chain or on stakes." I'm intrigued! You'll also see lots of terrarium containers which are right on trend.

While not everything we are excited about is quite finished or on the premises just yet (shipments are coming in daily) we hope you will stop in soon to see our exciting new look and our fabulous new lines.

A TIME TO SOW

The seeds have arrived! Veggies, herbs and flower seeds are here for the picking. Be sure to shop early for best selection so when it's time to plant, you have the perfect pea, lettuce or zucchini variety for your garden.

BORN IN THE USA  

Is buying products made in the USA important to you? We do our best to stock products made right here in our own country. Sandy and Jeanine scoured the trade shows again this year for products made in the USA and they came up with a bumper crop. You'll find them throughout the garden center and 

gift shop with many of them featuring recycled materials. Product selection 

varies by location.

Here's just a sampling of what you'll find:

daily-green Wall Forest

Music of the Spheres Chimes

McIntosh & Company Garden Art

Lane Dukart Studio Cast Clay Chimes

Oakland Pottery Tea Pots

Black Water Folk Art

Jay F. Jones Mobiles

Grace Note Chimes

Winfield Designs Garden Art

Lorenzo's Woodlands Birdhouses

Haw Creek Forge Garden Art

Elizabeth Keith Designs Clay and Metal Garden Art

JJ Pots Ceramic Toadstools and Mushrooms
Zgarden Party Metal Garden Art

Garden Diva Metal Garden Art

Second Life Recycled Glass Art

THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE DEAL!

Can't wait to get started planting? If you can get a shovel in the ground and the soil is workable, you can! Provided what you are planting is cold hardy stock. At Pine Hill Village gardens we have just that. Our held over stock of perennials, shrubs and trees are now available at 25% off until the first truck of new nursery stock rolls in. After that it gets too hard to tell what's old versus what's new and the sale is over. 

NEW USDA ZONE MAP

Did you know the USDA has released a new Plant Hardiness Zone Map? It's the first update since 1990; 22 years ago. The map is based on the average annual minimum winter temperature, divided into 10-degree Farenheight zones. Click here to view the interactive GIS-based map. Just click on Michigan for details on the state or type in your ZIP Code to find the hardiness zone for your specific area.

The new map is very detailed and much more accurate than the previous map. You may find you are in a different zone than you used to be as many locations are a half-zone warmer than previously. One downfall? The map measures only average low temperatures, not high. As we know in Northern Michigan, we get very hot and dry as well! 

KEEPIN' IT LOCAL

I know we've said it before, but we're proud of the fact that we are a local, family-owned business! It's what makes us special and not just another chain with the same old stuff.

Not only are we a local business, but we are also a local grower. Our baskets, annuals, veggies and more are grown right here in our own greenhouses by our own staff. We don't get in the nursery business for a few weeks each spring by shipping in low-price, and often questionable quality, baskets, annuals and veggies just to get out as soon as they are sold. We are here the entire growing season and stand behind what we grow. When you ask our staff a question, we know the answer. We don't send someone from the produce department out to staff the sale who can't even tell you what the plant is, much less how to care for it.

Those short-term "nursery businesses" you find around town in the spring may claim to offer rock bottom prices but if you do a comparison, you'll find their flats and plants are usually smaller, so you actually get less. Additionally, they don't come close to offering the variety (or brand spanking new varieties) of quality of plants that we do.

You get more when you shop at Pine Hill. You get healthy, premium plants. You get the benefit of 35 years experience. You get superior customer service. You get a business that is here all year around to help and advise you. I'm happy to pay a few extra pennies for getting that in return. We know you are too; we see you here at Pine Hill supporting us and we are so grateful.

If you'd like to do more to support local businesses and stimulate your local economy, check out independentwestand.org. You can search for local businesses by zip code. You'll find us there. According to their Economic Impact Calculator, for an area similar to ours, if every family spent just $10 a month with a locally-owned, independent business instead of a national chain, over $5,345,534 would be directly returned to the community. That means better schools, better roads, more support for police, fire and rescue departments and stronger local economies. Thanks for keepin' it local!