Lending a Helping Hand

A volunteer helping unload the donated plants from Martin's Greenhouse.

For the past few years, Martin’s Greenhouse and Nursery, 3614 W. Western Ave., South Bend, has donated hundreds of plants to the Unity Gardens. Their generosity helps the many Unity Gardens in each neighborhood. 

Community engagement is what founded Martin’s Greenhouse in 1911. For more than a hundred years, the family-owned business has provided for customers all around the Michiana area, and even some from Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Grand Rapids and Chicago. Their once community greenhouse has spread out not just location-wise, but also through generations.

“We have grandmothers, their daughters, their daughters’ daughters come in year after year after year,” said Allen Neblung, Co-owner of Martin’s Greenhouse. “Three generations come in and we get a lot of people come in and say ‘my grandmother used to shop here.’”

Neblung married into the business, with his wife being 5th generation of the family business. Jean Martin-Neblung and her husband enjoy donating to the Unity Gardens because they know the impact the gardens have on communities.
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“It's a very well run organization,” said Neblung. “Sara [Stewart] and Mitch [Yaciw] do an amazing job of getting community involvement in their classes. Everything they do educational wise is to get people into gardening, which is great. We've always had a policy of every kid that comes into the greenhouse gets a free flower or plant because we want to see the kids getting involved.”

We offer the best product at the fairest price.

The Unity Gardens couldn’t be more appreciative of the donations from Martin’s Greenhouse. Even though the Greenhouse will not be opened until the Spring of 2021, we would still like to express how beneficial they are to this community.

“We offer the best product at the fairest price,” said Neblung. 

But it isn’t just their prices, it’s their customer service that attracts more and more customers.

“We attempt to carry out every customer's order to their car to make it simpler. We treat them all like they would like to be treated.”
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Their commitment to helping others should not go unnoticed. We hope to continue lending a hand to communities alongside Martin’s Greenhouse for more years to come. After all, they do have a hundred years on us.

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Author

Kayla Jackson, Unity Gardens Communications Manager.
Contact: kaylamj019@gmail.com