Kolb’s Green Thumb Celebrates 60 Years

Kolb’s Green Thumb has been offering exceptional quality and service in landscaping and in their garden centre for 60 years at the same location —although the address has changed three times. It was originally zoned as a rural township address and it’s the reason the building sits so far back from the road with the parking lot situated out front. They were given a street designation, before finally acquiring their current 1501 Victoria Street North address. A true family business, three generations have worked together to make The Green Thumb a continued success. Not long after starting what is today the region’s oldest independent, locally owned garden centre in 1958, Werner and Martha Kolb started a family. Today their first and only child Barry, runs the business along with his wife Cindy and their daughter Amy. Both Amy and her older brother Andrew worked on the landscape crew throughout their school years. Today Andrew is a graphic designer/illustrator who created their website, and has updated their brand identity. In 1981 Barry and Cindy met at the garden centre when Cindy’s family was looking for some landscape help. “I literally grew up in the business,” says Barry who even as a youngster helped his parents out in the garden centre. “My grandfather put up the first shade house and the garden centre is still the original building, only the sign and landscaping have changed.” Although The Green Thumb has always been both a garden centre and a landscape design business, over the years the majority of their trade has transitioned from selling plants, flowers, and trees to landscape design and planting. “We have more of a niche market now since many people today buy their plants from grocery and big box stores,” says Barry. “We no longer sell annuals, just trees, shrubs, and perennials, but everything we sell is still grown locally—nothing is imported. The trees and shrubs come from another local third generation business and the fertilizer and other supplies come from Ontario Seed who’ve been in business even longer than we have.” Their landscaping is fully integrated from the design to planting stages and their extensive knowledge means they can look at any yard and tell what plants to put in, where to put them, and what to leave out so that in three to five years it’s transformed into a lush, green outdoor space that looks great. Barry’s father, Werner was also a founding member of Landscape Ontario, one of three horticultural groups that amalgamated in 1973. This was done to create better communication and technical advancement within the industry and saw the change as a positive move for the nursery, garden centre, and landscape trades. Barry’s mother, Martha ran the store until she was in her 80s. Today the store is run through the week by family friend, Molly. Barry attributes Kolb’s Green Thumb’s success to providing first-rate personal service. “Now we serve the children of people who bought from us years ago. Often those children have moved away from the city whether it’s for a job, school, or spouse, then move back to the area and find us again,” says Barry. Whether you’re looking for an elaborate backyard makeover or a low maintenance outdoor space, The Green Thumb is committed to making your surroundings a little greener.