ABOUT OUR BUSINESS
Who We Are
The Indoor Outdoor Gardener was born on April 4, 1974. Its parents, Peter and Helena, were teachers going for their Ph.D in Linguistics and they had a passionate hobby…indoor plants. Plants gave us the opportunity to relax our brains and in two years, we had slightly over 400 plants growing in our basement under fluorescent lights. Finally, we decided to see if we could sell our plants ( in 4” pots) for .25 to local stores . And that was our beginning. Six months later, we opened half a store (using our life savings of $2000.00.) In between our very busy schedules, we managed to be there 7 days a week splitting our shifts. We called ourselves The Indoor Gardener.
One year later, we not only increased the size of our store, but also our family. Eva, our first daughter (we have 3 girls and one boy) was born, and many years later, Eva began to work in the store and became fascinated with hydroponics, irrigation systems and lighting. Peter was her mentor and now Eva is filling the shoes of her Dad who passed away in 2006. In 1977, we moved to larger quarters, and our customers began calling us The Indoor Outdoor Gardener and the name stuck. And our family increased again with little Peter being born. Out customers chided us saying “You sure know the right fertilizers to use.”
Peter quit his teaching and so did I, and our business expanded to a full line of outdoor products, and in 1990 we became the first hydroponic store in the tri-state area. Peter spent many, many hours at night struggling to learn all about the lighting, the irrigation parts and the different systems. Not only did he do a phenomenal job in setting up a complete hydroponic section in the store, but he began teaching in detail all of those customers interested in hydroponics. To this day, not only are our hydroponic customers, but all of our customers are forever grateful to Peter for all his patient teaching.
Presently, I, Eva, our fulltime manager and assistant manager are here 7 days a week. We love what we are doing, and we all have a world of patience which our customers (many of whom are second generation) very much appreciate. Much of our knowledge is based on our hands on experience, and many of our plants are grown in our greenhouse. And we have several varieties of vegetables, herbs and plants growing year round in our hydroponic area.
When Peter and I first started, we wanted to carry all supplies for the hobbyist, and to this day, we still do. In every nook and cranny, you will find something…be it a one inch pot or a 25 gallon pot suspended from the ceiling, and in case we don’t have it, we will find it for you. We also make our own indoor and outdoor potting soil because Peter and I were never satisfied with commercial mixes. Not only do we recommend it, but we also guarantee it. And we pride ourselves in all of our indoor and outdoor plants. We buy only premium plants which are taken care of by our manager of many years and are grown either under fluorescent plant lights or in our outdoor nursery. We not only sell, but we also educate, and we offer a FREE service…if you think your plant is not doing well, just bring it in and we help you.
In sum, we thank all of our customers, many of whom have been with us since our beginnings, and we very much appreciate when our customers tell their friends, “Go to Indoor Outdoor. They will definitely help you.” We might be small in size, but very big in patience and advice. Whatever we recommend, we guarantee because if it works for us, it will work for you. And most of all, we want our success to be your success.
