Greyhaven Gardens hosts well-attended grand opening event

BY DENNY SCOTT

On Saturday, Greyhaven Gardens owners Michelle and Derrick Greydanus officially opened the business’ new storefront, offering some unique opportunities for the business and its customers.

In an interview with The Citizen, Michelle said the new building was designed to let them have a permanent place for dry goods, as well as a place to host special events that have become a staple of their calendar.

“The building has been in the works for about five years,” she said. “We do Christmas sales out here, which have grown over the years, and always host them in the furthest greenhouse from the road.”

Six years ago, Michelle said, they started hosting Christmas sales and they went over well, but to continue to do them would take some changes. She said that, annually, they have to turn a greenhouse into a store temporarily, and it takes a significant amount of work, starting in August.
“It wasn’t very cost-effective,” she said. “All the labour that went into doing that was costly.”

She said that having the storefront visible from the road was also a big desire in the planning, and the large structure is now the closest one to Londesborough Road where the business has always been located.
The greenhouses also have overhead drip lines, she said, which means that keeping products dry was a challenge.
“We needed a space that will always be dry,” she said, explaining it was necessary for pots and giftware as well as supplies like fertilizer.

The Greydanuses also have workshops throughout the year, but many around Christmas, and changing a greenhouse to and from a growing space to a work space to a workshop for the events was a lot of clean-up and prep work. She said the greenhouse was also not the most cost-effective building for heating when holding those events. The new store has a dedicated space for those workshops to be held, for which she is excited.

Finally, the new structure will have what Michelle called a coffee corner, where Coastal Coffee will be served alongside baked goods from Wilhelmina’s bakery. There will also be a slushie machine, she said. Unfortunately, the coffee corner wasn’t ready to be opened for the weekend grand opening, but will be in the near future. The site will be open all year round, she said.
As for the party, Michelle said she heard nothing but good reports, with people saying her that she and Derrick “certainly know how to throw a party” to having reports that the on-site food trucks sold out of product. 

“I know the bouncy castle was full all day, and we had a photo booth with over 100 pictures taken, and we had cars up and down the highway,” she said, “however I don’t know how many people we had in.”
She said the weekend was a great chance to unveil the store, which visitors called beautiful.

For more information, visit Greyhaven Gardens at 39843 Londesboro Rd, Londesborough or look for them online.