GARDEN CITY, Idaho — This organic nursery and greenhouse is now located near Garden City, Idaho, but started 14 years ago in Boise.

“At that time I had an organic lawn care company,” said owner Lindsay Schramm. “We needed a place to house our lawn care equipment and trucks.”

When a former nursery on Boise’s North End came up for sale, she bought it and named the new enterprise the North End Organic Nursery.

“We did our lawn care company from that new location, and shifted into doing an organic nursery instead of organic lawn care,” said Schramm.

By 2015 the property needed major repairs.

“Rather than putting a lot of money into that property, we sold it and found a location in Garden City,” she said. “We kept the old name because our customers were already familiar with it.”

The nursery business grew.

“Our mission is to be a completely organic garden center, she said. “Inside we have an extensive selection of organic fertilizers and many house plants. This helps us through the winter months when there’s not much growing outside.”

In summer their business is famous for a large selection of certified organic vegetables.

“We grow more than 400 types of vegetable starts for people — everything from peppers and tomatoes to eggplants, cucumbers, etc.”

In the spring she hosts free classes for gardeners.

“Our most popular class is on starting and planning an organic garden. We want people to understand how to grow food without chemicals,” she said. “We also sell many perennials and annuals, trees and shrubs. We carry a little bit of everything that does well in our climate but our main focus is edibles, natives, and drought-tolerant plants.”

They also focus on plants that are pollinator-friendly, she said. “Many native and perennial plants are pollinator-friendly, but we try to bring in specific varieties for people to choose from. For instance, butterflies like certain plants and hummingbirds like other types.”

The nursery also promotes the concept of permaculture, which says that any plant should have at least three purposes.

“One could be providing shade, another could be providing food, or retaining soil, or feeding wildlife, or something to keep the ecological balance healthy for soil, etc.,” Schramm said. “We aren’t interested in plants that simply look pretty and need to be sprayed with pesticides. A plant should contribute something to its environment.”

The nursery also takes the Idaho environment into account.

“We are located in a high desert and want our landscape to reflect our area,” she said. “We are not trying to build a Wisconsin landscape that won’t thrive in Idaho and would be a drain on limited water sources.”

The nursery brings in a large number of fruit trees. In early March they come in as bare-root trees, with no dirt around the roots.

“These are grown in a field, dug up in the fall and the roots cut back a little and all the soil removed so they can be put into cold storage while they are dormant and not trying to grow. When we get them they are still dormant,” said Schramm.

In that form, they can be bought in large quantities at a reasonable price.

“We are not paying for shipping pots, dirt and all that extra weight. We bring about 2,000 trees every spring, more than 100 different varieties of apples, cherries, pears, pluerries (a plum and cherry combination), pluots (plum and apricot), cherry sprite plums, peaches, etc.,” she said.

“If it’s a fruit that will grow here, we bring it. We have many varieties of persimmons and the popular jujube,” she said.

She works with growers and decides which trees will do well in the area.

“We have a bare-root fruit tree sale in March, and that’s our busiest day of the year. At the end of each season we know that 2,000 fruit trees have been planted and growing food for people, and this is very satisfying,” she said.

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