I started gardening shortly after we moved to our first home 12 years ago. As my passion for gardening grew, so did my passion for garden centers. Last week I showed you the highlights of Evergreen Garden Center in Clovis, so this week I wanted to bring a FresYes nursery to your attention. Riverside Landscape and Nursery opened in 1980 and is located in the heart of the Central Valley. It is family owned and operated by father and son, Mitch and James Hutchison. They have three divisions under operation: the garden center, the landscape business, and the growing grounds. The garden center is a six-acre nursery specializing in fountains, statuary, pottery, trees, shrubs, palms, vegetables, fruit trees, sod, bulk humus, bark and soil products, bedding plants and organic products (and is also where I held my first nursery position and gained a ton of knowledge & experience!)
Riverside carries a complete line of garden supplies, tools, fertilizers, mulch and soils. In addition to that is the great selections of plants grown on site at the growing grounds. The grow yard is 18.5 acres. The growers are able to control the quality and ensure availability of the more popular items while keeping costs down to pass the savings on to customers. They grow many unique items available only at Riverside Nursery. They also have large plantings of vegetables and fruit trees to test varieties for best performance during Valley heat and frost.
The drought has definitely affected growing and selling. According to the sales staff, the drought has actually brought in more business than not. More and more customers are looking to add native plants to their existing yards or completely overhaul and install more drought-tolerant varieties. It is good to remember that even drought tolerant plants need water to mature the first two years before being established enough to thrive on less water.
Dry conditions, however, have not affected customers desire to add seasonal color to their gardens, especially for Fall, when annuals require less water from irrigation. If they do not carry what you are looking for, you can request an order of that item that is not grown by the nursery. James does an excellent job of trying to locate special orders for his customers. At the nursery you can find snapdragons, stock, pansies, and other Fall planting choices in full flats.
Riverside also specializes in residential and commercial landscape. You can view an online gallery of their commercial work on their website. I was able to capture one of their recent residential jobs since it happened to be one of my neighbors. The homeowners were looking for drought-tolerant with minimal care and little lawn. They were thrilled with the results!
While Riverside is a bit of a drive from my neck of the woods, it is always worth the trip! I recommend a visit while Fall planting is under way and they are staffed to help customers with their individual needs.
You can find Riverside at 5215 N Golden State Blvd, Fresno, CA 93722
Open Monday-Saturday 8-5 Sunday 10-4
You can find Tamera working part-time at Evergreen Garden Center or trying to keep up with her 2 girls.
- How to Arrange Your Mental & Physical Fitness at Old Town Yoga - February 2, 2017
- The FresYes Garden: Local Garden Spotlight - April 12, 2015
- The FresYes Garden: Summer Annuals - March 29, 2015
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