By Kim Gooden, for the Tribune

Being a fourth-generation family-owned and operated greenhouse grower and retailer, which has been a backbone of the Albert Lea community for 121 years, has earned Hill’s Gardens Inc. the honor of being inducted into the Freeborn County Ag Hall of Fame.

“The garden business was founded in 1903 when Fred Hill returned to Albert Lea after working on the Trans Canadian Railroad and purchased the 40-acre parcel of land that we still farm on today,” according to Tony Hill, vice president and retail manager of the business, and great-grandson of Fred Hill.

Fred began the business, then known as Hill’s Market Gardens, as a truck farm. He grew the vegetables, and once they were harvested, he and his neighbor combined their produce, loaded it onto a truck, and took it to the small neighborhood grocery stores in the area.

Fred and his wife, Violet (Ruble), had four children, Doris, Charles Daniel (Dan), Viriginia and Jane. When Fred died in 1936, Dan quit school at Dunwoody Institute, gave up his dream of becoming a carpenter and building cabinetry for the then-booming resort industry in northern Minnesota, and returned home to run the family garden business.

Dan and his wife, Ethel (Highby), had four children, Carolyn (Kay), C. Douglas, Paul and James, and they ran the business from 1936 into the 1970s.

In the early 1950s, they decided to build a roadside stand to sell vegetables, apples and pumpkins. As business grew, and at the request of their customers, they added plants and flowers.

“It was then that they built a small greenhouse where they started their own plants so they could transplant and get an earlier harvest on the vegetables,” Tony explained. “That first greenhouse was a production greenhouse with a hot water boiler, quite progressive at the time, and they grew all the produce that they sold.”

In 1969, Dan incorporated the business, and it became Hill’s Gardens, Inc.

A cemetery urn service was added in the 1970s, which they continued for almost 30 years before selling it.

Dan’s son Paul and his wife Judy (Amundson) purchased Hill’s Gardens Inc. in 1977, becoming the third generation to run the family business.

A series of events that included having their produce hailed out three times in five years, a shortage of help, grocery stores having better cooling to handle produce from other sources, farmer’s markets becoming more competitive, and low prices causing profit margins to be narrow necessitated the decision to phase out the vegetable production.

“For a while we sold bedding plants wholesale to Wedge’s Nursery. But when we couldn’t keep up anymore Dan said, ‘Why sell them wholesale when we can sell them retail for the full price,’” Judy recalled.

In 1998, their son Tony joined the family business, and with the shift to selling bedding plants came the need for additional growing space. Two large greenhouses were also built that year.

Eventually there came a need for more storage space and another large building was added in 2000.

In the fall and winter of 2004 and 2005, the retail greenhouses were rebuilt and a new retail store was added.

Now, in 2024, there are 13 greenhouses, totaling 30,000 square feet of space, for growing plants.

“Currently about 90% of the annuals we sell are raised in our greenhouses,” Tony said. “We’re one of the few locally-grown outlets for annuals.

“The trees, shrubs and perennials are purchased from Monrovia, a network of nurseries, and Bailey Nursery, a Minnesota nursery.”

Perennials that remain at the end of the season are clipped back and put in the root cellar. Leftover trees and shrubs go in a greenhouse, and anything else goes in the glass greenhouse with in-floor heat.

Hill’s Gardens Inc. is considered an independent grower retailer, and while they consider themselves small by wholesale standards, they could not manage the work load without additional help.

“It was never just family doing the work,” Tony said. “We’re just big enough where we couldn’t do it all ourselves.”

Over the years, four generations of family members, along with many others, have worked in the greenhouses and retail area.

“Currently we have one full-time employee who is our right-hand man, and 18 part-time seasonal employees,” Tony said.

Tony’s children, Chase, Trey and Ahnnalie, are the fifth generation to help out, but whether they come back to the family business after college remains to be seen.

Paul died in 2022, but Judy continues to run the business with Tony and his wife, Sonjia. Her daughter Melonie (Hill) Robran manages the business’s website, advertising, open house, special events, and assists with some of the bookkeeping.

In the beginning, people relied on Hill’s Market Gardens for produce. Now many people rely on Hill’s Gardens Inc. for their plant, garden and landscape needs, as well as gift and decorative items.

“Many people wouldn’t have a garden if they had to start their own plants,” Judy said.

Tony calls their business a “specialty farm in controlled-environment agriculture.” It has grown significantly over the years and with the growth has come change. Two of the biggest changes have been discontinuing the sale of vegetables and apples, and adding drippers to water the hanging baskets.

“Other than that, everything is still hand-watered,” Tony noted.

One thing that hasn’t changed at Hills Gardens Inc. is the knowledgeable customer service and quality products that have been part of the family garden business for 121 years.