Janine Bradley opened the Garden Shed at 3 Judah, the previous location of the NAPA store, just a week before the pandemic began in March 2020.
“I didn’t reopen for three months because I didn’t know what was going on,” Bradley said. “I missed out on the pepper and tomato season. Financially, it was hard to miss that because pepper and tomato starts are very popular with home gardeners.”
But despite the challenges of mask wearing and social distancing, gardeners in the Eureka Springs area have found the Garden Shed and have been excited to have a new source of affordable supplies during the pandemic when many have found home gardening a great emotional antidote to the rapid spread of Covid-19.
In addition to regular garden supplies, the Garden Shed offers horticultural grade equipment including supplies for hydroponics—growing plants in water without soil—such as containers, fertilizer and indoor grow lights. The business also sells supplies for hoop houses, cold frames and greenhouses, soil amendments such as fertilizer, and natural pest control products.
Bradley said through the winter she has been selling a lot of seeds for microgreens and sprouts, as well as grow lights for those.
“Superfoods are an in thing right now,” Bradley said. “People are getting healthier every day. You get 25 percent more nutrients out of a microgreen than a full-size plant. One tablespoon of microgreens is the equivalent to 2.5 pounds of green vegetables in one serving. That’s a cancer fighter right there.”
Right now, she is starting seeds for tomatoes, peppers and other popular summer vegetables. She sows a majority of her own plants from seed, but also brings in plants from another Arkansas nursery that’s USDA-certified organic.
Because of the rocky ground in this area of the country, soils here are not very enriched. In addition to an organic gardening soil line from California called Fox Farm, the Garden Shed carries kelp meal, Azomite rock dust, worm castings, bat guano, blood meal, bone meal, feather meal, alfalfa meal, compost, and crustacean meal (shrimp, crab and other sea animal shells ground up). Their nutrient line General Hydroponics is actually what NASA uses to grow plants in space.
Bradley has ten years of experience in the field, and owns a similar shop in Oklahoma City called Organics OKC Garden Supply. She and her husband, Mark Bradley, got married in Eureka Springs ten years ago. A year ago, they purchased a home in Holiday Island, then found the old NAPA building was for rent.
“And I just went for it,” she said. “The community has opened its arms to me. The store is not about profits, but helping the community. I knew it would take a few years before it became profitable. I’m not here to get rich. I just wanted to let people know how to grow to feed themselves.”
The store is a little off the beaten path a half block from US Hwy. 62. But the word has spread among the gardening community.
“The tourists aren’t finding me, but the locals are,” Bradley said. “I’m lucky I have a really good sign out on the curb and I know how to market myself pretty well. And we have curbside service. You can look at products on the internet and I will carry them to your car. Gardening is very therapeutic for people and growing food is a lot cheaper than a therapist or psychiatrist.”
In addition to high-moving organic seed packs, they offer seeds for lettuces, microgreens and sprouts for buy-one, get-one-free. Another item they carry is beneficial insects like lady bugs and predatory nematodes that destroy the larva of pests such as fleas, chigger, ticks, and squash vine borers.
“If you are not using chemicals, the nematodes multiply every ninety days,” she said. “It is crazy how the nematodes know about beneficial and non-beneficial larva. That’s what Mother Nature does. It is a powder that you put in water and spray around your property. We also carry diatomaceous earth and the sulfur for pest control.”
One of her favorite product lines is Medina, made by Howard Garrett, who is known as the Dirt Doctor and does podcasts on organic gardening. Garrett’s Juice is a mix of compost tea, apple cider vinegar, molasses, seaweed and fish meal. A lot of people use it aas organic fertilizer.
She also has a product that is 30 percent vinegar for killing weeds naturally. They also carry a small variety of books.
Bradley volunteers with the non-profit Jeremiah Recovery House in Green Forest that helps women recover from abuse, drug addiction and/or mental illnesses. The campus includes a hydroponic greenhouse to grow food for the women and also sold to the elementary school.
Winter hours at the Garden Shed are Tuesday through Saturday 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. the website is thegardenshedes.com. Phone (479) 239-2200 and find them on Facebook.