Matt Tobin has been a horticulturist for 40 years and organically inclined for just as long, but he has more than a green thumb.
“I’m very conscious about organics and being green, but I like to call it bright green. A lot of green isn’t so green, it has a lot of petroleum wrapped around it,” Mr. Tobin said on a rainy afternoon this week at Eden Market and Garden Center in Vineyard Haven. “You are what you eat. If you eat good food, you’re good folk.”
Mr. Tobin owns Tea Lane Nursery in Chilmark where he grows strictly organically, mixing his own compost and soil. And starting this month, his plants and organic materials will be available at Eden garden center in Vineyard Haven. Mr. Tobin and his wife, Bridget, recently bought Eden from its founder and longtime owner Dee Dice, who celebrated her 25th year in business last summer and has decided to move on to other work and projects.
“It’s been quite an adventure,” Mr. Tobin said, sitting in the shed that currently holds watering equipment but will be converted into an office by his nephew. “We’re looking to purchase our annuals and perennials through Tea Lane, and Eden is going to purchase larger shrubs and things like that. I hope to have an influence of Tea Lane around the edges here.”
Much of Eden’s plant supply will be grown at Tea Lane Nursery.
“I plan to keep almost any product here at Eden . . . people are used to coming here for fruits, vegetables and flowers, I hope to embellish rather than detract,” Mr. Tobin said. “As Dee did over the years by offering more and more, I hope to offer more and more as well.”
Mr. Tobin and Ms. Dice have known each other for 20 years and have discussed the idea of working together for more than 10 years, he said. Mr. Tobin has run a Christmas tree sales business out of Eden since 2001, and in February Ms. Dice approached Mr. Tobin about taking over her business.
“It was just the right time and I had my 25th anniversary celebration. I feel like I have a million other interests and other things that I want to pursue,” Ms. Dice said this week. “It’s with a bit of sadness for sure, but it’s also very exciting for me to be trying to do something different.”
Ms. Dice will stay on for the first few months and help with the transition by assisting in ordering and making sure her friend gets off on solid footing. As for Ms. Dice, she said she looks forward to spending more time with her daughters, Sienna and Louisa, and figuring out her next step.
“Matt says he will keep the soul of Eden alive,” she said. “It’s fun working with him. We’re just going through ideas now — how come this didn’t work, how about doing this? It will be a new and improved Eden. It’s a win-win, he’s so thrilled he can hardly believe it and so am I.”
Mr. Tobin called it a natural fit for the two friends who “speak the same language but with a different dialect.” Mr. Tobin was heading into semi-retirement from Tea Lane, but found he was bored and wanted more to do. When the opportunity came to make Eden a permanent gig rather than just a two-month stint in the winter, he seized the opportunity.
“It was a reasonably profitable business in its own sense and it was a good opportunity for us to use it as an engine to help deliver more sales to Tea Lane,” he said. “I chose horticulture because I never thought I’d make it as a farmer because that’s really tough; landscaping is hard enough. But [now] I’m willing to delve into that somehow.”
One advantage Mr. Tobin will have will be more space — he plans to use his Tea Lane property to store plant material, compost, fencing, stones and other material, freeing up space at the garden center.
He also plans to try growing exotic fruits in Chilmark and sell them in the stand.
“You can actually grow kiwi fruit here supposedly,” he said, smiling. “I don’t know how, I haven’t done it but I’ve seen some.”
Some things will stay the same. Mr. Tobin will continue his Christmas tree shop around the holidays (he has his own wreath maker and ribbon machine).
“I hope it will be very educational for everybody involved, myself, my personnel and the clientele that come here,” he said.
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