Case Studies
The Garden Gateway of Utah

{Sponsored} Just over an hour north of Salt Lake City, you will find The Garden Gateway, the Cache Valley’s premier garden center for quality plant material. Established in 2002, The Garden Gateway offers a wide assortment of beautiful and unique plants, ranging from the original “Petunia Tree” to “Water-Wise Perennials,” all of which are plants recommended by programs like Utah’s Choice and Plant Select.

The owners, Moose and Adelia Mountcastle, met at Utah State University, where they studied ornamental horticulture. Moose started out studying Landscape Architecture, but he quickly found his passion, switching his focus to ornamental horticulture and business management. After graduating, Moose spent a decade working for other nurseries in the northern Utah area alongside his wife. Soon after, they realized their dream and opened their own business, The Garden Gateway.

Moose has over 29 years’ experience in ornamental horticulture, “absolutely loves the industry” and brings this love to The Garden Gateway, growing a wide variety of hanging baskets, patio containers, annual bedding plants, perennials and vegetables for anyone’s garden needs. “Providing high quality plants to my customers is what drives me; it’s what I enjoy,” Moose said.

The problem

Over the years, Moose felt that he was having issues with inconsistencies with the growing media he was using, and his plants were not the healthiest they could be or top quality. His goals were to make a change to create a beautiful crop, increase the overall health of his plants and better withstand the effects and stress of transplanting.

Investigation

About four years ago, he started looking at the different growing media available to him on the market and decided to trial different products to compare the results. In doing so, he tried two PRO-MIX products, PRO-MIX HP BIOFUNGICIDE + MYCORRHIZAE and PRO-MIX HPCC BIOFUNGICIDE + MYCORRHIZAE and found the results he was looking for.

Return on investment

Moose was able to cut back on the application frequency for preventative fungicides, which not only saved him the cost of the fungicides, but more importantly reduced the labor needed to apply them, saving from 35 to 40% in The Garden Gateway-Flowers use and labor. He also achieved his goals in producing beautiful crops and improving the overall health of his crops. “We’re definitely able to grow a better crop using PRO-MIX,” Moose said.

Moose’s Recommendation

After 4 years in using PRO-MIX, Moose “couldn’t be happier [with the results]. It has done a fantastic job, not only for us here in the greenhouse, but for our end user [retail customers] as well.” Overall, Moose is recommending the PRO-MIX brand for all growing needs: “HP BIOFUNGICIDE + MYCORRHIZAE and HPCC BIOFUNGICIDE + MYCORRHIZAE work wonderfully for what I do. They also carry a wide range of professional growing media that could meet the application that you need.” In using PRO-MIX, the sales and technical support from Premier Tech has been “awesome to work with” for answering questions and providing information that he needs.

On Oct. 21, 2021, learn more about The Garden Gateway’s results using PRO-MIX in a free webinar.