Zick’s Great Outdoor is billed as a “One-of-a-Sort Nursery in a wonderful garden” – and it is.
Not remarkably, operator, creator and horticulturist Doug Zick is also one particular-of a-type. This calendar year, he is celebrating the 40th yr considering the fact that obtaining the area at Clayton and Strecker roads on which he developed his nursery and backyard. After many years of deciding upon, digging, developing, and planting for his customers, he by no means tires of the flora in the terrific outdoor.
“I function an insane total of time, but I have under no circumstances worked a working day in my life,” Doug said.
His specialties are trees and shrubs. His concentrate is planting, transplanting and increasing quality vegetation that do nicely in the St. Louis place. And he said there is a definite difference concerning acquiring plants online or at major box outlets, or at his nursery. It’s all about particular know-how and practical experience.
“You can Google anything and get all sorts of views, but after extra than 40 many years, I have time-examined experience,” Doug stated.
Zick’s Terrific Outside is complete of each individual kind of shrub and tree along with freshly stocked yearly and perennial crops, vibrant bouquets, veggies and all sorts of growing issues for the summer season season.
Even though significant box stores have been stocking summer annuals considering that March, Doug refuses to do so since “it’s the improper time to plant them,” he mentioned. He does not want his shoppers to make a purchase and plant an annual that will succumb in a cold snap.
“Marketers and merchandizers operate so several companies. Very well, they aren’t jogging mine. I know I’m executing what’s proper,” Doug reported.
Quite a few shoppers who frequented Zick’s in its early many years are however its consumers. They delight in the knowledge of coming to a accurate nursery, Doug explained.
“I’ve had fantastic assist from the regional neighborhood,” he reported. “They say, ‘I’m not procuring the box store. I want to be in this article.’” When they go away with their buys, “the customers are smiling and so are we.”
Doug said his workers has 150 yrs of combined practical experience. The crew will increase to about 15 to 20 workers in the course of the spring and summer season season. Some commence in high university and perform each individual summer months all the way via university. Other people make it a lifelong career.
“For us, it is a shared passion,” he explained “I’m happy of the men and women who get the job done below.”
Zick’s Fantastic Outdoors also carries backyard garden necessities these as mulch, sod, soil and seed, pine straw, and lawn and garden treatment solutions. The nursery also delivers solutions these kinds of as mulch delivery. Customers will want to enjoy for Doug’s current market each individual summer season crammed with very good things like honey, herbs and greens, especially tomatoes.
Doug, far too, is on the lookout for superior factors. Just after 40 a long time, he has gained some particular rewards. For illustration, when he travels to close by neighborhoods, he usually sees trees he planted years back that have attained maturity.
“It’s like, ‘Wow,’ which is a amazing oak tree. Oh yeah, I planted that tree. The longevity of it, the art of it. I connect with it Zick’s Wonderful Outdoors, but it is the outdoor that’s good, not Zick. I just extra my identify to it. It’s God that did it.”
Doug’s landscape types are coveted. Sad to say, he is totally booked for 2022. But it’s not as well early to believe about 2023.
At 65, he doesn’t see himself retiring any time before long.
“I really feel 45,” Doug explained. “I’m outdoors seven days a week. I’m healthier and passionate about what I do.”
It’s a passion he and his crew like to share, and he encourages in particular new customers to prevent by and find out the Zick’s Great Outdoor variation!
