Nursery deals with dike road closure

Our little county boasts, “Welcome to Wahkiakum: We’re a little out of the way but worth the adventure.”

Dan Silverman, owner of Skamokawa Gardens, believes with this slogan wholeheartedly.

“We run a first-class nursery,” Silverman said last weekend. “At least I think so.”

Silverman has owned and operated Skamokawa Gardens for the last 22 years.

“I may be the owner, but Dena is the boss,” Silverman said of his employee and friend Dena Friddle of Grays River. “She is responsible for all of the custom planting, special orders and big containers among other things. People will call wanting to talk with Dena. I’ll ask ‘is there something that I can help you with?’ and they’ll say, ‘no, that’s ok. I’ll wait for Dena’.”

Tucked away from SR 4, Skamokawa Gardens has dramatic views of the Columbia River and Steamboat Slough. They house brightly colored potted geraniums, vegetable starts, and moss and wicker baskets that Dena will refill year after year.

However, with the downturn in the economy and with the refuge road closed to protect the public from a spot where the Columbia is eroding the dike, Silverman and Friddle are seeing the beginning of a slow season.

“We’ve always tried to stay involved in the community,” Friddle said, “contributing to local fundraisers and events.

"But about 90 percent of our business actually comes from out of town. In the past, we’ve had people from Longview, Castle Rock and even Olympia making the trip to buy flowers. This is the slowest I’ve seen things in the 13 years that I’ve been here.”

“The road closure is absolutely affecting business,” Silverman said. “We used to see couples out for a weekend drive. Say, they’ve come from Longview. The husband wants to drive through the refuge to look for elk, but they end up in front of the nursery and stop in to buy something. We’ve lost that customer now.”

“With Mother’s Day, May is usually our busiest month but to a certain extent, we haven’t seen the same amount of people,” Friddle said.

“It’s a good time to plant,” Silverman insists, “there is no rush on tomatoes but everything else should be ready to go into the ground. There shouldn’t be any danger of freezing at this point.”

With the flow of customers measured and his brilliant plants ready to be placed in the soil, Silverman takes time to enjoy the wildlife that surround Skamokawa Gardens.

“I see a lot of osprey, otters and eagles, but last week I watched a flock of cormorants come in. In the middle, flapping and fighting, were these big white birds.

"I thought they were swans but when I looked closer, I realized they were pelicans. All these years here and that was the first time I’d seen them. Then just recently several more came, alone this time, a whole group of them.”

Silverman’s greenhouses hold a plethora of sturdy stemmed plants with deep green leaves and though they are not drawing the attention of many passing travelers, it appears that the birds are well aware of the sweet aroma.

With any luck, paying customers will soon be willing to go a little out of the way, too.