We Plant Responsibly

Here at Groovy Plants Ranch, making the smallest environmental impact possible is of utmost importance to us. We love this green planet and want to help protect it and all of its beauty.  We realize that we can help safeguard the natural balance in the ecosystem by using plant-based all natural fertilizer and beneficials in our garden center, growing native varieties that require lower water and limiting our pesticide use so that is just what we’ve decided to do!

 

You may be wondering what all of this means or why it’s important and trust me, you’re not alone. Pesticides are toxic chemicals that are used to kill insects and pests but oftentimes they end up in unwanted areas such as in the air that we breathe or in our waterways through runoff.  This can be especially harmful to animals and plants as the chemicals can kill many organisms and make changes to their ecosystems. Over time, insects that we are trying to ward off can become more resistant to these chemicals as their genetic makeup gets altered in an effort to survive. This means that stronger insecticides are being created, sold and ending up in our waterways.

 

In an effort to minimize plant damage yet still produce high quality plants we focus on using natural pest controls here at Groovy Plants Ranch. Throughout our greenhouses we have evenly spaced out sachets of Amblyseius cucumeris, a species of beneficial insect that is slowly released and useful in both preventing and controlling various species of pests. We try to cover all of our bases and also use beneficial insect release which prevents and controls different types of pests than what the sachets do. Here at the ranch we use insecticide alternatives, our favorite is BotaniGard which is a naturally occurring mycoinsecticide that’s safe for people, pets and plants!

Last but certainly not least, we recycle! On site you'll find our pot drop box collecting our nursery pots that customers are bringing back to us to reduce one-use plastics. We are always encouraging our customers to recycle, use the least toxic products, read labels, apply them properly and even learn to tolerate plant damage knowing you’re supporting families of pollinators. We’ve found that a healthy backyard insect population tends to balance itself out and keeps certain pests in check.