Innovation
Sustainability
Our Perspective
Young’s Plant Farm is committed to the environment…
“We anticipate EPA guidelines to get stricter and our goal is to stay ahead of them. Those companies poorly prepared will run the risk of being forced out of business by the financial burdens of retrofitting and legal liabilities. We not only owe it to our customers, but have an ethical obligation to our families and the land.”
Greg Young, Owner/CEO
Recycle H2O
We have a commitment to be environmentally proactive. This means controlled water runoff through the use of rubber lined retention ponds and extensive water filtration systems. It also means scouting crops to reduce unnecessary chemical applications. We aggressively research new growth regulators and fungicides to make sure that the technology best suited for the plants, the public and the environment are being applied.
Plastics
In efforts to eliminate horticultural landfill waste generated by our product containers, we now offer a plastic tray recycling program at some of our retail store garden centers. Some types of horticulture plastics can go in curbside recycling bins, but the majority are discarded ending up in our nation’s landfills. In our efforts to gain long-term sustainability, we encourage customers to inquire about returning landscape market trays to their local garden center. We will then make every effort to recycle and reuse, thus reducing horticultural waste.
‘Wholetree’ Substrate
With rising cost of Canadian Peat Moss and unpredictable fuel costs, we have been forced to explore the use of a sustainable soil media produced on-site. Through research in conjunction with Auburn University and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), we have successfully implemented a process to transform an entire shoot of pine, including the needles, into a soil substrate. We take advantage of the abundance of timber in the Central Alabama region. In our case the substrate is used alone or with 20% – 50% of Canadian sphagnum peat moss, depending on the product. Thus far, the wholetree substrate has proven to be an economical and reliable alternative to conventional greenhouse substrates.