Native Plant Nursery: South Coast Gardens – The Native Plant Gardener

Owner/Proprietor: Kevin Kavanagh

Address: 1634 Front Road, St. Williams, ON N0E 1P0

X (formerly Twitter): @scgardens

A few years ago, I was looking for a particular plant that, it seemed, none of the native plant nurseries had in stock. Someone suggested I reach out to Kevin at Southcoast Gardens and, sure enough, he had what I was looking for. It’s about a 2-hour drive from where I live in Ridgetown to Turkey Point, where Kevin’s base is, but I’m always up for a road trip – especially if it’s to check out a new (to me) native plant nursery.

When I arrived, Kevin was just heading to the Niagara Peninsula to a project he was working on, but knowing I had driven 2 hours (actually a little more because I got lost a couple of times – before I had GPS) he waited around then graciously gave me another 20 minutes of his time before rushing off.

South Coast Gardens has been operating since the spring of 2006 where Kevin operates a small retail outlet. It is open to the public on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 10AM – 5PM from May through early September or by appointment at other times of the week/through the year.

He does carry a lot of non-natives but increasingly grows and sells more native species. He now has around 200 species of native plants on offer, from your regular flowering perennials, annuals and biennials, to grasses and ferns, to shrubs, vines and trees. He clearly distinguishes between the natives and non-natives, but more than that he tries to educate customers about non-natives that are known to be invasive in natural systems.

To source his plants, Kevin collects local seeds or buys plants from local suppliers. He also buys plants from friends with a shared passion for growing native plants. He does dig plants from his own garden collections (e.g. from his nursery garden or some gardens of his clients that he installed in recent years) and emphasizes that his native plants are never wild dug.

Kevin does do garden designs and consultation but no longer does installations. His background includes a B.Sc. (Hons) from McGill University in Biogrography and an M.Sc. from York University where his thesis looked at edge ecology of Eastern Hemlock. He then did post-graduate research in Botany at the Univ. of Toronto (studies on Liriodendron tulipifera – Tulip Tree). He has always had a passion for using native plants in gardens.

Kevin does a large amount of public speaking on the use of native plants in gardening along with related topics such as avoiding invasive plants, gardening for birds, etc. He is an active member of the Grand Erie Master Gardeners and has also assisted local not-for-profit groups design native pollinator gardens.

South Coast Gardens provides opportunities for customers to see plants as they mature (especially trees) along with some interesting subtropical plants (e.g. Monkey Puzzle, Wollemi Pine, etc.) from around the world (they summer outside in pots and are brought into the greenhouse for the winter).

If you ever find yourself in the vicinity of Long Point or Turkey Point or, if like me, you just like the occasional road trip, I encourage you to check out South Coast Gardens. Even if you end up not buying any plants (though I’m pretty sure you will), the scenery in the area is worth the trip alone.