Grow_op

Jeff Green | Mar 01, 2007

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Plevna gets a new grow-op, and it's legal

by Jeff Green

Sherry Gorr loves the gardening business, and Don and Sandy Raycroft love starting up new businesses. Sherry has been running a major greenhouse business north of Pickering for the past 10 years, but she has always wanted to live near her husband’s family in Plevna. When it became clear that the Gorrs’ Pickering home needed too many repairs, they decided to look into moving. Don and Sandy took over the North of Seven Restaurant about two years ago, and in that time they have rebuilt the restaurant, opened a modern Freshmart store, a post office, a gas station, and more.This winter, they put up a greenhouse on an adjacent property, and Sherry Gorr has leased it and has been busily planting cuttings, seedlings, and seeds in preparation for the 2007 gardening season.“People might be wondering what I’ve been doing here for 12 hours a day over the past couple of weeks, and why I’ve been coming over at night to fill the outdoor wood furnace, but it’s taken a lot of heat to warm this place up,” Sherry Gorr said from her toasty warm greenhouse earlier this week.Although it has only been running for a short while, there are already row after row of plants growing, and Sherry is seeding and transplanting constantly. The greenhouse business has been a passion for her since she started her own business in 1994. At her old location, Sherry ended up putting up five greenhouses, and she developed outdoor showcase gardens as well. Although she is starting from scratch in Plevna, she plans to landscape the area around her existing greenhouse, and will probably be building a cold frame within the next month or so to transition the seedlings she is now growing for outdoor planting. Sherry specialises in perennials, annuals and hanging baskets that contain different varieties. Although temporary greenhouses spring up each year at grocery and hardware stores, they tend to sell plants that were grown by large wholesalers. Since Sherry grows the vast majority of her plants, they will not have to undergo being shipped to the greenhouse. Some added advantages of buying bedding plants from the grower are: assurance of quality; more variety to choose from; and plants that stand a better chance of thriving in the particular gardening conditions north of 7 in Lanark, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Counties . Considering how quickly a vacant lot in Plevna has been transformed into a greenhouse operation that is well underway, there can be no doubt that Sherry Gorr will have splendid bedding plants for sale come the beginning of May. Not only will there be annual and perennial flowers and hanging baskets, but vegetable gardeners will not be disappointed either. Later this month, Sherry Gorr will begin seeding several varieties of tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, squash, lettuce and many other vegetables At her former business, Sherry tended towards retail sales, which is what she plans to do in Plevna as well. She also ran plant sales as fundraisers for local schools“I will have to find out what works here in Plevna,” she said. Sherry Gorr is confident, based on her former business experience, that once gardeners see the quality of her plants, they will come back again. Curious gardeners don’t need to wait until spring to see what Sherry has been up to. On March 10th, the Greenhouse will open to the public for a sneak peak. So, anybody with the winter blahs who would like to experience the warmth and the aroma of spring, and get a head start on garden planning for this year, go to North of 7 in Plevna on March 10th, and head over to the new grow op.