Ohio garden center works through challenges from inflation

He said the garden industry was not prepared for the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“One of the things that we seemed all rush to was our yards and our gardens,” he said. “So there was certainly a crunch on and supply.”

He said inflation is reaching new heights as prices for fertilizer, plants and other lawn and garden tools continue to climb. 

“Across the board, we’re looking at probably a 20-30% increase in prices,” he said. “A lot of stuff that pre-pandemic would have started $8 or $9.99 is now, you’re looking at $12, $13.99.” 

He said with supplies, it’s a community effort. 

“The beautiful thing we have is, that we partner with a lot of local nurseries and kind of the shop small mentality of Lakewood and communities like that really help us weather the storm and in a lot of instances come back perhaps stronger than we were when we went into it,” he said. 

He said he remains hopeful for the future. 

“I think that we’re going to end up looking at this more as an opportunity to grow rather than a problem to overcome,” he said.