Get your garden started with Kusar Farms

By ELLEN KOLMAN - Staff Writer - ekolman@starbeacon.com
Star Beacon

May 04, 2009 11:20 pm

— JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP — There is nonstop beauty at Kusar Farms this season.
The varieties of flowers, foliage, trees, and herb and vegetable plants are a colorful feast for the eyes and an aromatic delight for the nose.
Kusar Farms, 1348 Route 307 W., is owned and operated by Charlene Kusar.
“I sure do love it here. It is hard to feel down when you are constantly around growing things,” Kusar said. “Even in January, it is 70 degrees in the greenhouse, and I love the smell of earth and humidity.”
Kusar works 12 hours a day, seven days a week, through the months of January to July, but she doesn’t mind the hard work or the long hours because of the satisfaction she feels when everything is sold by the first week in July.
Kusar, who is also a Jefferson Township trustee, enjoys the flexibility of owning her own business and having five lighter months to concentrate on other projects.
“We are loaded with colorful geraniums and hanging baskets for the Mother’s Day and Memorial Day customers,” she said. “Rose bushes, herbs and topiaries are also big sellers for Mother’s Day.”
The season begins in the frigid month of January for Kusar, as she begins her seeds in plugs on heated mats.
“We start everything I grow from seeds or cuttings,” she said.
Kusar even mixes her own soil with a blend of dry soil, a natural organic fungicide and water-absorbing polymers.
In any given season, Kusar will plant 10,000 4-inch pots with cuttings, and thousands of flats.
This season, because of the economy, Kusar is expecting more people to take vegetable gardening seriously and is prepared with a wider variety of plants, including broccoli, 20 varieties of tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant, cucumbers, zucchini and various other squashes.
There are also plenty of culinary herbs and berry varieties, including strawberries, raspberries and blackberries.
“My customers are very loyal, and we strive to keep them,” Kusar said. “You are only as good as your help, and everyone who works for me doesn’t have to — they come here because they want to.”
Bea Arnold, of Jefferson, is enjoying her second season at Kusar Farms.
“Charlene is great to work for. She is very patient, and she has lots of cute, creative ideas,” Arnold said.
Kusar bought the farm 22 years ago and started her first greenhouse season in 1997.
“I had worked in a local nursery that did trees and shrubs, and I was interested in the flowers. So I sold my 1983 Harley Super Glide and bought my first greenhouse and built the business from there,” she said.
In fact, Kusar Farms has expanded over the years to include a huge selection of annuals, perennials, garden statuary art, creative potting containers and much more.
Kusar also welcomes school groups for field trips on gardening and plant life.
“The kids love seeing my minidonkey, pygmy goats and chickens, too,” she said. “I appreciate the closeness of a small town. My customers are my neighbors and friends.”
Kusar Farms is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, until sold out, around July 1. For further information, call 440-576-4603.

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