Columns

Sustainability is our calling card

By Jeff Stone — Posted May 27, 2021

It is fitting that this issue of Digger focuses on sustainability. Sustainability is embedded in how our nurseries operate, and it comes standard with all of our products. Last Labor Day, our region and the nearby Cascade forests came under attack from raging wildfires. Communities were destroyed, people were forced to evacuate, and the sky […]

Smart stewardship

By Kyle Fessler — Posted May 27, 2021

It’s tough to think about the future when we’re trying to keep up with solving the problems of the day. This is something we face nearly every spring, when the most important thing is getting plants out the door to our customers. We do, however, need to set aside time to strategically plan for the […]

Lessons of the pandemic

By Jeff Stone — Posted April 21, 2021

Every business sector has had to adapt to the pandemic. The various trade associations representing these sectors also had to navigate the same challenging environment, but they had a double responsibility. They had to steer their industry through the pandemic, as well. Nurseries did fairly well after an uncertain start to the pandemic. Other economic […]

Knowing what we don’t

By Kyle Fessler — Posted April 21, 2021

Some of the smartest people I know have one thing in common: They know what they don’t know. Years ago, I was fresh out of college and back in the industry, and I didn’t have a clue how much I really didn’t know. I had the opportunity to attend a multi-day conference put on by […]

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 […]

A pause of appreciation

By Jeff Stone — Posted March 23, 2021

This is my 126th column as your executive director, and a lot has happened in the last 10½ years. As a history nerd, I went back to find the oldest version of Digger I could. I was able to locate Issue #2 (ever), from June 1956. The Oregon Association of Nurserymen, as it was known […]

Brighter days ahead

By Kyle Fessler — Posted March 23, 2021

This past month marked the one-year anniversary of our lives getting flipped upside down by COVID-19. What began as a passing phrase on the news ticker quickly turned into what some expected could be the Great Recession 2.0. Uncertainty became the norm. Expectations changed by the day. We were all in need of direction, and […]

Making every step count

By Kyle Fessler — Posted February 25, 2021

Every family has traditions. In the Fessler family, we have one time-honored tradition that dates back long before my time. Each winter — typically on a cold, wet winter Saturday — our extended family gathers in Grandpa’s shop to make sausage. It’s taken decades of practice, but the process has evolved over the years into […]

Going halfway to understand the new buyer

By Jeff Stone — Posted February 25, 2021

In the nursery and greenhouse industry, we have always had to follow and understand consumer trends. Otherwise, we will never be able to build business models capable of enduring countless shifts in behavior. The changes in preferences and mores also influence a government that is tone deaf at times, more concerned with shaping behavior than […]

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 […]