Community Roots, a Self-Sustaining Nonprofit Garden Center

Dayton, Nevada – Beginning Oct. 1 through the annual seasonal close of Community Roots in late Fall, customers will receive 30 percent off of their entire purchase. The garden center is located at 60 Second Street and Highway 50 in Dayton. Fall hours are Monday-Friday from 11am-5:30pm, Saturdays 9am-5:30pm, and Sundays 10am-3pm.

Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey Counties' self-sustaining nonprofit branch, Community Roots, is more than a nursery. It helps support many community projects, including organic school gardens, hoop houses and school garden clubs, and on-site training for youths and adults returning to the workforce. In addition, Community Roots hosts a yearly summer farmers market that adds support to local farmers, and to food entrepeneurs selling their cottage food products like jam, pies, breads and spice mixes.

Healthy Communities’ director Wendy Madson reflects, "Community Roots Nursery in Lyon County is unique – it’s a nonprofit with a focus on community. Our nursery started as a fundraiser about 10 years ago and its just grown by leaps and bounds in so many ways and we are thrilled with the opportunities that have been given to us. The land the nursery is on is donated by a beautiful woman in the community who saw our vision of not just selling plants but of creating a safe and beautiful and healing place for our community members. She has been very gracious in allowing us this space.

Within this space incredible things have happened. Summer time we get pretty full with kids. We put them to work with pruning, watering and creating beautiful baskets, trying to fit each individual with their comfort zone. One of our goals is to create a space of opportunity. We've had youth who've worked here who've gone on to work at farms, youth who've gone on to work in Reno. We're host to the Comstock Youth Works program, where youth come in and get job experience, and work on resume skills, and learn job skills like being on time and to being responsible. So we're a stepping stone for a lot of the kids to get to go out and get their dream job.

After more than 10 years of operation, we get to see a lot of people coming back with tears in their eyes and hugs and their business cards saying office manager, etc. About 90% of our employees started as volunteers. Our first volunteer was a customer who came in the first year we opened. I was desperately trying to handle all these things and she just dropped her handbag and started unloading a truck. She volunteered for the first year and a half and then became an employee. Her daughter was married here at the nursery.

Being part of this nursery is just truly a blessing and its a huge gift. It's funny. Everybody says ‘you do so much; you give so much’ but it's so much the opposite. We're really the ones who are receiving these huge gifts and it's the most magical, blessed thing... I started here having this idea of what could maybe be and I get to still be here ten years later and see all these incredible transformations. It's just amazing."

Read more about Community Roots' products and community support on their website at https://www.communityrootsnv.org/