LOUISVILLE, Ohio—Even on a windy, chilly Saturday morning in Louisville, Anthony Petitti Organic Greenhouse was awash in sunlight, warming the seedlings and bustling people who arrived to celebrate the business’s historic 100-year milestone.
Cindy Petitti-Walton, owner of Anthony Petitti Organic Greenhouse, has been involved in the business since 1993. However, the business began in 1924 as a landscaping company, Anthony’s Lawn Care.
“My late husband’s great-grandfather started [the business] with a real mower, a real push mower,” she recalls. “Then my father-in-law, Anthony Petitti Sr., took over the business in 1958, still landscaping and doing lawn maintenance, and then my husband took over the business in the 90s.”
The business was incorporated in 1995 as Anthony Petitti Landscaping, and Petitti-Walton and her husband completed landscaping and maintenance jobs. Petitti-Walton was well suited for the work, with a degree and background in landscape construction and contracting. The couple also expanded the business into the greenhouse retail space in 2003 when they bought an existing greenhouse and garden center.
But when Petitti-Walton’s husband unexpectedly passed away in 2006, maintaining both the landscaping business and the greenhouse became too much. She decided to give a portion of the business to her nephew, who was already running the lawn maintenance crews as Anthony Petitti Landscaping, while she focused on the garden center and the greenhouse.
Growing organic
Before 2007, Petitti-Walton’s greenhouse and garden center was like any other: stocked with commercial, brand-name soils, insecticides and other commonly used chemicals and reagents that people might use in their garden to promote bigger blooms and keep the bugs away.
But when her father-in-law was diagnosed with cancer in 2007, she knew a change needed to be made.
“When my father-in-law was diagnosed with cancer, they asked him what chemical company he had worked for,” Petitti-Walton said. “At that time I was like, you know what, there’s a lot of people with cancer in our green industry.”
While Petitti-Walton noticed the connection between workers in the landscaping and greenhouse industry being more frequently diagnosed with cancer in 2007, it wasn’t until 2015 that lawsuits against Monsanto, the company responsible for the herbicide Roundup, became prevalent. Some research studies have shown that the chemicals in Roundup are carcinogenic.
After her father-in-law passed away, Petitti-Walton decided to take the greenhouse organic. She stopped using synthetic fertilizers, insecticides and fungicides on anything edible. Her operation is not certified organic, but the products used are approved by the Organic Materials Review Institute, an international non-profit organization that determines which input products are allowed for use in organic production and processing.
Not everyone believed in growing organic at the time. Petitti-Walton remembers that another greenhouse owner said she would go bankrupt by selling organic products and refusing to sell synthetic fertilizers and similar products. She credits her faith for her greenhouse’s success.
The business continued to bloom in 2020 during the COVID-10 pandemic after people became interested in growing their own food in the wake of supply chain shortages. Now, Petitti-Walton says customers come from all over, including Zanesville and Cleveland.
Teaching organic
Petitti-Walton’s next goal became educating people on what she had learned. She is passionate about teaching others how to live and grow organically; she hosts several classes at the greenhouse on topics such as food preservation, homesteading and chicken-rearing. Some of her favorite memories are those of helping people grow their own gardens and raise livestock.
“The reward of watching a family work together is just amazing,” Petitti-Walton said. “Seeing kids go from hating vegetables to loving vegetables because they started that seed, they planted it into the ground, they harvested it, that reward is amazing.”
Levi Coon grew up in Louisville and says that it seemed everyone knew about Petitti-Walton and her greenhouse. When he was in high school, she visited his class and shared her expertise in organic growing and living.
“Cindy ended up hiring me to work at the greenhouse,” Coon said. “I was already interested in landscaping and horticulture, probably from visiting the greenhouse so many times as a kid, and I thought, what better way to learn than to work with it?”
As Coon describes it, he earned a paycheck to learn from Petitti-Walton every day he worked. He learned the necessary nutrients needed in soil for plants to thrive and how growing organic produced better and healthier results. He learned the “delicate but hard work” it takes to care for a large garden and the value of eating organic.
“I’ve planted my essential vegetables in a small garden where I live now, to not only save money but enjoy a much more fulfilling meal knowing it came from my garden and it’s all organic, the way nature intended. What I learned at the greenhouse has helped me to slow down, realizing things take time to grow and thrive. I know if something doesn’t have the proper soil, it will never reach its full potential”, Coon said.
Future of organic
When asked what Petitti-Walton thinks the next 100 years will bring to the business, she is confident that organic growing will continue to become more popular and that people will be interested in learning farming skills.
For now, Anthony Petitti Organic Greenhouse continues to be a one-stop shop for starting an organic garden. You can find flats of seedlings for vegetables like peppers and kale and potted herbs like basil and thyme for the kitchen. Bags of organic potting soil are available alongside natural insect repellents and fertilizers.
If you’re not ready to start your own garden, Petitti-Walton also hosts farmer’s markets throughout the month where local growers bring their fresh goods. She provides locally produced meat and eggs at the shop with other organic goodies.
Throughout 2024, the greenhouse will be promoting various anniversary events, including specials.
“One hundred years in business is living proof that you get what you give,” Coon said.
