Mike Darcy – Page 3

Emerging with confidence

By Mike Darcy — Posted January 25, 2022

As we enter year three with COVID-19 and its variants raging around us, it appears that most garden centers have made the necessary adaptations to stay open. Initially there was much confusion, and rightly so because we have never been in a situation like this. Many garden centers were temporarily closed to make the necessary […]

An endless source of joy

By Mike Darcy — Posted November 28, 2021

Maurice Horn and Mike Smith founded Joy Creek Nursery in 1992 with a simple motto: “We are creating the nursery we always wanted.” Sadly, after almost 30 years, it was announced in October that, Joy Creek Nursery would close on November 7, 2021. Much has changed since 1992 when they opened a specialty nursery in […]

Let’s address a dry topic

By Mike Darcy — Posted September 22, 2021

In the August issue of Digger, I discussed some of the effects of the very dry summer season, not only in the Pacific Northwest, but in much of the western United States. Many readers and other gardeners commented about the article. As a result, I looked more closely at the surrounding neighborhood, as well as […]

In the heat of the garden

By Mike Darcy — Posted July 29, 2021

It is definitely time for a reprieve from the events of the past year and a half. That’s true for garden centers, customers, the plants they buy and grow, and the plants in our gardens. We are living through a pandemic; we suffered devastating forest fires with smoke conditions that were hazardous to our health; […]

Let’s keep them growing

By Mike Darcy — Posted May 27, 2021

I have written several columns on the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on garden centers and how they have responded to it. These last two years have been like no other in recent history —not just for garden centers, but every citizen. In many cases, our lives have been adjusted for us and we have had to […]

Positive indications for 2021

By Mike Darcy — Posted March 23, 2021

One year ago, on March 6, 2020, Plant Nerd Night was held for the 19th consecutive year with more than 500 attendees. Little did we know that the following week COVID-19 restrictions would begin, and Plant Nerd Night suddenly had the dubious distinction of being the last large in-person consumer gardening event that year. Gone […]

COVID-19 year two

By Mike Darcy — Posted January 25, 2021

The year 2020 probably instigated more changes in the physical way in which a garden center operates than any other year in history. Not only were there devasting forest fires resulting in hazardous air quality conditions and causing some garden centers to close, but COVID-19 also arrived. I cannot ever recall anything disrupting the workplace […]

A gardener’s optimism has no limits

By Mike Darcy — Posted November 24, 2020

Resilient is a good word to use to describe Diana and Colby Lamb. Resilience is defined as spirit, hardiness, toughness, strength, buoyancy, and resistance. On September 8 at 12:15 a.m., there was a banging on the door of their Gates, Oregon house. It was a Marion County sheriff’s deputy telling them that there had been […]

COVID-19 lessons from plant societies

By Mike Darcy — Posted September 29, 2020

In this unprecedented period of a COVID-19 pandemic, several forest fires with lingering air pollution, and a very dry summer that has stressed all our plants, garden centers have also had to make many adjustments to retain their current customer base. On top of that, they also need to attract new customers. Some garden centers […]

Gardening interest enters full bloom

By Mike Darcy — Posted July 29, 2020

In my last column (June 2020), I wrote about some of the many changes that garden centers have had to make during the COVID-19 pandemic. The good news is that it appears that most garden centers managed to adapt to these new requirements. Since the COVID-19 situation is not abating, an appropriate follow-up would be […]