Going Native

Just a stone’s throw from the busy thoroughfare of Route 611 is a different sort of bustle. Seed trays slide across nursery tables, tall metal carts heaving with plants clank along to the loading bay, and the soft shuffle of careful hands transplanting seedlings harmonize with upbeat jams playing from a soil-dusted radio.

 

It’s springtime, and the plants at Kind Earth Growers in Ottsville are in high demand. But these aren’t just any plants: Each of the more than 200 species grown in the nursery are native to the Delaware Valley. John Courtney, who founded Kind Earth Growers in 2017, was deeply influenced by his natural surroundings growing up. Born in Jersey City and raised in Cranford, New Jersey, Courtney relished wild spaces wherever he could find them.

 

“Though I grew up in an urban setting, the Rahway River—which is a huge green belt—snakes its way through town,” he says. “In between building BMX jumps in the woods, I’d spend countless afternoons along its banks, catching crawfish and climbing trees. I loved the dichotomy. I’ve never believed that humans are separate from nature—we’re part of it.”

 

At Delaware Valley University, in Doylestown, Courtney studied Environmental Design. In the summer of 1997, before his senior year, he landed an internship at Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve, in Solebury, which included native plant propagation. It was here he discovered his passion for cultivating plants. “I remember collecting bloodroot and trout lily seeds and learning what stratification was,” he says.

 

After graduating, Courtney worked for two decades at Aqua Landscapes Unlimited in Pipersville. His employer suggested he open his own business, and together they found the property, which the employer purchased, allowing Courtney to rent from him until he could purchase it. He began growing retail vegetable plants and herbs as well as native plants, grown in the form of plugs—young plants grown in multi-celled trays with high root masses, helping them establish quicker.

 

In 2017 and 2018, Courtney worked with his wife, Erin Range Courtney, and head grower Joseph La Ment. Today he’s assisted by nine year-round employees—which swells to fifteen seasonally—who grow plugs commercially for large-scale restoration projects and landscape installations, as well as botanical gardens, retail native plant nurseries, and county parks, such as Doylestown’s Pollinator Garden at Central Park. Other familiar locations include Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, New York City’s High Line, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, New York Botanical Garden, and throughout Philadelphia as part of the city’s Green Stormwater Infrastructure program, an environmental initiative that helps manage runoff more efficiently.

 

Meeting these high demands requires many hands that are not afraid to get dirty—especially since the nursery now sells more than one million plants annually. “February through October is our busiest time,” Courtney says. “It’s intense production, with constant moving parts, and no idle hands. Every day, about eight people are transplanting all day long. Throughout the spring, there’s three people pulling orders non-stop, getting plants ready for pick-up or boxed to be shipped out the door.”

 

In addition to being laborious, the work environment is also challenging. “Growing year-round in plastic hoops bring pests and disease we constantly have to be on top of,” Courtney says. Kind Earth Growers has committed to biological controls such as Lacewings to prey on aphids, Phytoseiulus persimilis mites to combat thrips, and Amblyseius swirskii mites to control spider mites.

 

Courtney also uses beneficial bacteria that colonize on leaf surfaces, helping ward off leaf spot and fungal issues, and inoculate their soil with beneficial fungus to ward off destructive strains. In the face of balancing these challenges, Courtney says the rewards are enormous. “What we’re producing is going out into the world and doing so much good for the environment,” he says, “and that’s really special.”

 

While Kind Earth Growers is a commercial operation that is not open to the public, the nursery hosts several public events and workshops throughout the year, including a weekend celebration of National Pollinator Week on June 13–14, during which visitors can purchase plants and tour the greenhouses and property. Guided meadow walks teach visitors all about pollinator plants like monarch butterfly magnet Asclepius incarnata (swamp milkweed); bee-friendly pycanthemum incanum (hoary mountain mint), or Lobelia cardinalis, a favorite of the ruby-throated hummingbird. More information on these events can be found at kindearthgrowers.com.

 

Working with native plants has made a big impact on Courtney. In fact, he says, they’ve inspired him to make Bucks County his permanent home.

 

“I love the nature and countryside here,” he says, “It feels like a storybook. When you’re in these natural areas we all love—like Ringing Rocks or Peace Valley Park—and see the native plants, I believe it triggers something inside to make us feel a part of the region by connecting us to their environment. They’re not only the building blocks of local ecology—they’re a major cog in the circle of life that allows everything to move forward. Being part of that is truly special.”

 

 

Lauren Johnson is a regular contributor to River Towns and an avid gardener. Her favorite spring ephemerals include radiant red Columbine, garlicky ramps, and Dutchman’s breeches—because they look like silly tiny pants.