Seasonal Plants Available at CARC’s Spring Opening

By Misty Cryer

The Country Store and Greenhouse of CARC Inc.’s Spring Opening will be from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 5. This organization provides individuals living with developmental disabilities the opportunity to work while providing products and services to the community through the Work Services Program.

“We just are really kicking off the spring and summer plants,” said KK Gonsalez, Work Services Director for CARC Inc. “We’ve got a wide variety of plants to shop from,” she said, mentioning bedding plants, roses, vegetables, and herbs.

“We have, within those vegetables, options like tomato plants, pepper plants, squash, zucchini…,” said Gonsalez. She said they have parsley, oregano, dill, lavender, and rosemary, with several different varieties of mint in the herb collection. She listed petunias and marigolds as the most popular bedding plants, adding coleus and geraniums to the list of examples.

“We just have a wide variety of plants to shop from,” said Gonsalez. “We also have in our store decorative pots and planters. Whatever plants they’d like to purchase, we will actually plant it for them in store if they would like, so the soil is kind of an ‘on us’ type of thing,” she said.

“We have a few new items that we’re excited about in our store,” said Gonsalez. The latest items include macramé hangers for hanging baskets and tool sets for kids to use while helping with gardening with a handheld shovel and a small rake. “They’re really cute,” she said.

Gonsalez said vegetable plants are grown from seeds, while others are grown from plugs. She said the individuals who live or work at CARC plant and care for the plants, growing them all season.

“We try to do a lot of things by hand,” said Charlie Betts, Work Services Manager. He said the Work Services Program gives individuals the opportunity for jobs and meaning.

“I think it’s really nice that it provides a job for individuals, but it also provides a service to the community where they can come and shop really quality plants,” said Gonsalez.

“Our horticulture program consists of three different parts: our country store and greenhouse, our potting barn, and our plant rental program,” said Gonsalez. This program provides about 18 individuals with an opportunity to work, she said.

“Our plant rental program—that’s a group that goes out into the community—we’ve got about 93 contracts in town where we service their plants Monday through Friday,” said Gonsalez.

“We go water every day, we clean the pot if there’s some debris in there, if the plants have died, we replace them,” said Gonsalez, adding that the plants are replaced in April and October with seasonal plants. “We do that year-round,” she said.

About the individuals who live at CARC and work in the horticulture program, Gonsalez said, “They are very happy when customers come in. They love to show off their work and show all the great things that they’ve been doing. They take a lot of pride in their work, and I think that’s important for the community to know; they really do take care of the clients and make sure they are giving the best quality of work that they can give.”

Betts said the Work Services Programs give the individuals value in life. “They work harder than most employees,” he said.

In addition to the horticulture program, Gonsalez mentioned other work services, including the grounds and janitorial program, a pecan processing work site, a dining hall, and a document destruction work site.

The plants will be ready to sell at the Spring Opening, said Gonsalez, reiterating that shopping is also available after that day. “We’ll be open on Saturdays all of April and May,” she said, adding that the store at 902 W. Cherry Lane is open 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.