KAMSACK, Sask. — Having marked the 40th year of Chautauqua Gardens this year, Debbie Mandzuk, its owner, says she is fortunate to have had a job that she still finds thrilling and fulfilling.
“When I began, I thought I was beginning a backyard greenhouse hobby,” Mandzuk said during an interview held recently in her out-of-season, cleaned and empty Kamsack greenhouse. “Each spring I look forward to starting fresh.
“Although this business can be extremely stressful, I still realize that I’m in a place full of flowers, a product that brings joy to people’s lives.
“Working in a greenhouse, where there’s a blast of colour and it’s full of beauty, one gets a moment of euphoria,” she said. “How can one feel bad about that?”
When Mandzuk began her business in April 1986, working in a 20-foot by 10-foot greenhouse constructed by her father, a feature story was printed in the Kamsack Times, which explained that after graduating from the Kamsack Collegiate Institute and travelling for five years, she had returned to her home south of Veregin, where she said she had looked forward to living a simple lifestyle.
At 24 and single, Mandzuk had raised some eyebrows with her decision to continue the tradition of farming with her family.
While continuing the grain farm, she began work on Chautauqua Gardens, a greenhouse and market garden concept from which she had hoped to make the bulk of her living.
And today, 40 years later, Mandzuk, now 65, still gives credit to her father, Nick, who died in 2007, and mother, Lydia, who died in 1997.
“They supported me and I learned so much from them,” she said. “They were instrumental in the forming of Chautauqua.”
Chautauqua Gardens is now centred on Mandzuk’s farm, where she had moved in 1997. It is a quarter section of land located three-and-a-half miles south of Veregin, where she operates 14,000 square feet of heated greenhouses, including a main greenhouse of 6,000 square feet and four more greenhouses of 2,000 square feet each.
She has satellite greenhouses in Kamsack, Canora and Sturgis, supplies plants to a smaller greenhouse in Norquay and for more than 25 years she has been supplying Ace Hardware in Swan River with bedding plants.
“I give credit to the employees who manage and care for these outlets. They do such a good job.”
Mandzuk maintains that success of Chautauqua Gardens is very much due to “some very dedicated employees, who put up with me.”
Greg St. Marie, who has worked with Mandzuk each February to July for 18 years, is “my right-hand man, my soil mixer, who later in the season spends all day watering plants.”
“Some people have been with me much longer,” she said, mentioning one farmer’s wife, Sharon Uhryn, who has been with her for 35 years, transplanting seedlings in March and April.
“And from Day 1 of this business, the late Adeline Kazakoff has been a tremendous asset.”
In April her greenhouse usually includes six employees, mostly women, transplanting many seedlings, including tomatoes, cabbages and pansies.
Also on staff during the busy season is a delivery truck driver, persons who look after the towns’ greenhouses and other casual employees, including Cheryl Wonitowy of Kamsack, who creates all of the pots and basket arrangements that are sold.
“Cheryl is one of those people who is full of joy and enthusiasm and that makes a difference,” Mandzuk said, praising the many young women of Mennonite faith from Norquay and Hyas, who have been employed at the greenhouse over the years.
“Everyone has a place in this puzzle,” she said. “I’m grateful to have had staff that is steady, honest and reliable. I really value each one of them. They all contribute ideas and support us when needed, like when a blizzard arrives and we have to quickly move 200 flats of plants inside.
“Wonderful staff and many loyal customers have made this business succeed,” she said. “I’ve had many customers for 40 years and always see new faces.”
A widow, Mandzuk has three adult children who, while growing up were also valuable assets to the business. Her son Jeff now works in Regina and is a pianist; her daughter, Alanna, who while in high school could be seen selling baskets of strawberries at the Doukhobor events in Veregin, is a lawyer in Regina, and her son Reuben is a graphic artist who works at a Saskatoon art gallery.
What has changed in the business in the 40 years, Mandzuk is asked.
She explained that at the beginning, from 1986 until 2007, Chautauqua Gardens had included a large U-pick strawberry farm, which after her father’s death became too labour intensive and much too risky an investment to continue.
For a while she tried growing potatoes but found that venture unsuccessful and then she spent seven years working on heavy construction in order to supplement her income.
“It was really tough.”
Eventually, she concentrated on greenhouse gardening full time.
In her occupation, social media can be a wonderful learning tool, but it comes with its own pros and cons, she said, explaining that using a computer to go on line helps provide ideas, inspiration, advertising, learning and information that was not available 40 years ago.
“Forty years ago, we were limited with what we could grow and offer customers. We had geraniums, coleuses, begonias and asparagus ferns. We seeded petunias, pansies, marigolds and vegetables. Now we have nearly unlimited choices for ‘pot stuffers.’ Catalogues of what we can order are like an inch thick with hundreds of varieties.
“It is a breeze to order material to fill glorious pots. The selection available to growers is fantastic and it helps if a creative person uses that material.”
This industry has changed, and today customers tend not to be the gardeners of old, but rather people who want beautiful flowerpots ready made, she said. Many people, often with jobs, tend to have no time to be the gardeners there were a generation ago.
With plant breeding having become a big business, the job of growers is much easier to offer selections and varieties.
“It is amazing the progress that has been made.
“But what has not changed and is constant is the unpredictability of the weather, the rising cost of material and finding staff,” she said, adding that Chautauqua is still a hands-on operation.
“We mix soil, put in the seeds and plant pots by hand.”
Speaking to the Times in late August, Mandzuk said her days were currently filled with various maintenance jobs on the farm, like weed control and “tucking things away for the winter.”
It is in mid-February when she begins the season by starting to thaw out the greenhouses, which are heated so the water lines can thaw and so that by the end of February, she can begin to seed the plants that need an early start, like tomatoes, some petunias, salvas and pansies. They need to be seeded and then transplanted, all by hand.
She also prepares for the arrival of tiny plants called “plugs,” such as begonias and geraniums, from Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta.
The huge selection of plant material now available has made this job much easier, she said, describing how some plants arrive in boxes. She contrasted the current situation with how in the beginning, she had to rely on textbooks and telephones for information and to place orders, while now, with technology, one can obtain all the information one needs immediately regarding any diseases, pests or other problems and likely solutions and online ordering of plant material makes placing orders so much easier.
Mandzuk describes how so many new and exciting varieties of plants are patented so growers must buy them from the source and may not take their own cuttings. If they do, they may face prosecution.
Over time, small greenhouse operations in the area have started up to provide some competition, but they tend to come and go, she said, adding that when she began, there were no giant greenhouses at Canadian Tire, Superstore and Walmart that now offer competition.
Over time Chautauqua, as an independent grower, has earned the reputation for begonias.
“Chautauqua has become known as the queen of begonias,” she said. “We grow the most beautiful begonias. When we open in the spring for Mother’s Day, I bet that 70 per cent of our customers are from out-of-town, looking for our begonias.”
Generally, the industry’s change is for the better, she said. “It is easier to develop beautiful end products, but helping to alleviate the stress of business, like rising costs and labour, is the fact that I was blessed with an excellent crew.
“It is extremely intense working with perishables. With this, there are many variables like bugs, rain and snow at the wrong times and maybe a heater that goes out during a storm; it all affects the big picture.
“And we have a short window for sales, only six weeks, from mid-May to July.”
Asked what the best year financially has been for Chautauqua and Mandzuk said that surprisingly, it was the first year of the COVID-19 epidemic, when she sold out.
“That was the most successful. People stayed at home and put their energy towards their gardens.”
Customers often ask her “what’s new” in the gardening world and she replies that there are always new varieties, different colours of known plants, different shades of colour and more weather tolerant varieties.
“And we try to carry those things.”
She is asked what some of the most popular plants are.
“Bubblegum Vista petunias,” she replies. “Those are the petunias growing in pots on light standards along Kamsack’s main street. Also, Vista petunias and Cool Breeze cucumbers.”
Mandzuk says that in her Veregin greenhouse, she would like to sit all day amongst the colourful plants, but she says she spends the day walking in circles, making sure everything that needs to be done is being done.
“I’m happy with my life’s work. I hope I can continue to do it for a long time, as long as I’m able.”
Customers are invited to visit Chautauqua Gardens south of Veregin during the season and may contact the business via social media on Facebook and Instagram.
