Garden center, like everywhere else in the Miami Valley, doing its best in the drought

The North Dayton Garden Center has lost some plants in the drought of 2024 that’s inflicting so much misery throughout the Miami Valley and much of the Midwest, but scheduled watering is helping to prevent a bad situation from becoming a worse one.

“I mean, I can’t even tell you, it’s phenomenal. I mean, I’m paying for it,” said Rick Kassoudji, son of garden center founder-owners Pete and Shirley Kassoudji.

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As News Center 7′s Xavier Hershovitz reported at 5:30 p.m., the center on Brandt Road is watering plants every other day.

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“we’re going to have a hefty summer bill, and typically the fall is much more reduced,” Kassoudji said.

Customers who get a look around the garden center can see just how much water is being used. The ground is just soaked, Hershovitz reports.

“That’s not necessarily the end of the world,” Kassoudji said. " I mean, we got to move on.

He says it’s all about adapting to conditions. The garden center has lost some plants, but not enough to affect the business’s bottom line.

The loss is “nothing much more than usual,” Kassoudji said, “because we’re on top if it with hoses and such.”

The plan is to take things day by day because no one knows how long the dry spell will last.

James Dunlap, of Harrison Twp., just like the garden center, is taking things day by day.

He said he’ll continue to skip watering his lawn.

“The grass is dry,” he said. “I don’t have to cut it - ha-ha-ha.”

At least one Miami Valley community, the city of Bellbrook, is responding to the drought by asking residents to voluntarily limit their water use.

As previously reported by News Center 7 this week, city leaders said they hope residents will be proactive by holding off on washing their cars and trucks, watering lawns and using water for recreation.

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