Sherry Himes has owned Green Streets Market for 12 years. Along with flowers, trees and shrubs, she sells vegetable seeds and starts. In the past two years, and in the past month with the increase in grocery prices, she has seen a rise in interest in growing vegetables.
“I saw a huge upturn when the pandemic first hit,” she said. “In the last three to four weeks, we have done a tremendous amount of business.”
The most popular items are onions, potatoes and strawberries, all of which she has run out. The store has gone through several replants of tomatoes, and is on the last one, she said. A lot of people got their tomatoes in early, so will have tomatoes by the Fourth of July -- or even earlier.
“I will have ripe tomatoes by mid-June,” she said, noting that she planted Sun Sugar and Bumblebee Cherry varieties in her home garden, where they have bloomed and set fruit.
Sherry said Clinton is blessed to have three local garden centers. She named hers Green Streets Market because it is on Green Street, just west of the Henry County Library, and because of the association with the color green. Streets is plural because her sister helped her start the nursery, and their maiden name is Street.
“I was always into gardening,” she said. “I was one of eight kids. My Mom gardened because she had to.
“I garden because I love it.”
Green peppers are also popular, Sherry said, and she sells a lot of lettuce starts and herbs. Soil accounts for 75 to 90 percent of success, she said, followed by the climate. To get started, it’s important to ask questions about plant care from the seller and from everyone you know who has local gardening experience.
Many of her customers who started too big a garden when the pandemic hit burned out, she said. Those who started small are still regular customers.
For beginning gardeners who want a trial run of their green thumb by buying one plant to put in a pot outside, Sherry recommends an Early Doll, a tomato that produces smaller fruit than the Early Girl.
“Then maybe plant some herbs around it,” Sherry said.
Sherry has planted a love of gardening in her grandchildren, two or three of whom come in regularly to help her.
“We hope to pass it along,” she said of the business.
