About Santosh Patel + Rockwood Forest Nurseries
Established in 1986, Rockwood Forest Nurseries serves the Kawartha Lakes community with everything from trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, and vegetable plugs to landscaping equipment, mulch, soil, river rock, screenings, etc. Plants are grown on-location in Cameron, Ontario, allowing their plants to adapt better to the Canadian climate than other growers who may carry imported stock. And with 25+ experienced employees available to help, Rockwood Forest Nurseries can assist with any of your gardening and landscaping needs, including garden design, soil analysis, product selection, and delivery of items.
New owner, Santosh Patel, offers much more than plants to the people of Fenelon Falls; he’s an avid supporter of our community, giving back in multiple ways. In fact, you might’ve seen his name at the Grove Theatre recently - he sponsored the Broadway night on June 10th! And in his effort to stay involved in the community, Rockwood Forest Nurseries participated in the Country Living Show, and Santosh made a sizeable donation to the Fenelon Falls Senior Centre.
Additionally, for the second year in a row, Rockwood Forest Nurseries has been a part of the Commonwell Care to Grow SEEDit program. It’s a program that’s trying to tackle food insecurity while increasing access to healthy, nutritious food, as currently, 1 out of 10 Ontarians struggles to put food on the table. The program was such a local success last year that Commonwell, actually provided Santosh with double the number of vouchers for this planting season!
Although the program has largely wrapped up for the year, Santosh is still offering vouchers to try to make his remaining vegetable plants more affordable. There are still vegetable plants available to purchase - but as planting season is almost over, he’s worried about the leftover vegetable plants that might remain. In an effort to avoid waste, he will be donating all the vegetable plants (approximately 1000 plants) to the Fenelon Township Public School to ensure the veggies still get used.
When asked what he loves about of Fenelon Falls, Santosh replied with:
“I would say, the small town feel. There is something magical about the community here and the growth in our town has transformed the look and feel of Fenelon Falls. The Fenelon Brewery also has a great ambience. I think Fenelon is a great place to be, whether you are a local or a tourist just passing through.”
And finally, we asked him to provide some advice on vegetable gardens for individuals who are just starting out:
“If you’re new to gardening, I would recommend not starting from seed unless you planted the seeds in January or February of that year. I would recommend starting from a vegetable plug of some sort and putting it into healthy soil. Have the plant in direct sunlight for at least 4-6 hours per day and always keep it weeded, that way your plants get all the nutrients they need.”
Please don’t hesitate to contact Rockwood Forest Nurseries if you’d like some more advice about landscaping and gardening, and thank you Santosh, for all that you do!
Check out Rockwood Forest Nurseries at www.rockwoodforest.com, and check for regular updates; they’re working out a promotion where you receive $25 of cash back on a purchase of $200 or more.
If you want to learn more about the Commonwell Care to Grow SEEDit program (and bookmark the page to sign-up next May!), head to www.thecommonwell.ca/seedit/
If you want to donate to the Seniors Centre, you can do so here: www.fenelonseniors.com/donate
Do you know a community member who has done something special for our community? We would love to hear about it! Please write a short article about the individual and submit it to submissions@explorefenelonfalls.com. Other questions are comments can be directed to that email address as well!
Thanks to Gracie Forbes, who interviewed Santosh to learn more about Rockwood Forest Nurseries and Santosh’s community efforts.
