Alena Rodman and Kylie Powers walked through the rows of flowers, trees shrubs and succulents at Durango Nursery and Supply Inc., inspecting various plants as they went, discussing how best to care for them and taking another round of inventory.
This attention to detail is important for new business owners like them. In February, Powers and Rodman bought the nursery from the business’ founder, Tom Bridge, who had owned the business since 1999, Rodman said.
“Tom had been looking to retire for a while, so we were excited to have him retired finally,” she said. “We’re really excited to just continue working on what he’s built over all these years, because this is an amazing community resource and incredible business.”
Bridges founded the nursery to be a one-stop-shop for all of Durango’s landscaping needs with a particular emphasis on low-impact gardening focused on the various environments around the nursery, Powers said. From Silverton to Farmington, Pagosa to Cortez, Bridges – and later, Powers and Rodman – wanted to provide native plants, organic soil and gardening supplies that were more environmentally-friendly and locally-focused than other garden supply stores.
Rodman and Powers were both drawn to the nursery through their previous jobs as landscapers in Durango. Though they worked at different companies, the nursery was a hub that brought them together. Powers started working her way through the ranks a couple of years before Rodman joined as the nursery’s general manager, and together, they worked with Bridges to buy the business from him.
“We inherited a really awesome team that we’re still working with, and we had some excellent new hires this year,” Powers said. “For the most part, it just feels like business as usual. Tom built such a good business with a solid reputation, and I like to think that people know about us. So, we have just kind of been keeping things as steady as we can.”
Both Rodman and Powers want to honor the legacy Bridges built, while continuing to expand on the ethos that he founded the company with.
“I really want to kind of make it a real hub for knowledge, resources and information,” Rodman said. “We have a lot of really experienced staff, and we want to continue making it a center for the community and a place where people can learn about growing in our challenging Southwest climate.”
One of the biggest challenges they are facing, though, comes from the desire to pay their employees a living wage while balancing rising prices of supplies and keeping what they sell affordable to the community, Powers said.
“We value our employees super highly, and we really want to make it a place that people come back to every year,” she said. “It’s really challenging in a small-business environment, because to give our employees living wage usually means raising our prices, and we want to be able to keep our products accessible for the greater community as well.”
But, Rodman said, the two are confident they can strike that balance. They are also excited to continue making the nursery a welcoming space where people can learn about sustainable landscaping in Southwest Colorado.
“We’re excited about expanding to in the future and offering more education, classes and Community Center events,” Rodman said. “We’re excited that it’s now a woman-owned business, and we are excited to just kind of keep integrating ourselves even further into the community.”
sedmondson@durangoherald.com
