Platt Hill Nursery: 2025 Innovator of the Year
What year was your garden center founded?
Platt Hill Nursery was founded in 1980.
What is your garden center known for?
We are known for ease of access for novice gardeners. We orient our entire mission in support of newer gardeners.
How do you set your store apart from the big boxes?
Everything we do focuses on customer success, not more unit sales. We curate selection, provide sound guidance and value pricing to drive customer success. The box stores will always push the lowest prices, but that comes at the cost of experience.
What are your best practices for managing staff?
Managing staff really depends on an organization’s strengths and weaknesses. We specifically recruit individuals who desire maximum autonomy and demonstrate strong initiative. To effectively lead and manage our group requires significant amounts of process development and checks and balances. This enables the team to act quickly and decisively, but also enables us to review actions quickly and effectively (preventing too much risk).
How is your store involved in your local community?
We are involved in the local community in a variety of ways. We participate in a variety of educational outreach activities from local high schools’ special needs programs to local community colleges, where we act as guest lecturers. We also participate in a variety of donation programs with local municipalities, including food banks and production giveaways.
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