Gorge Garden Center opens new store in TD

“The space here is bigger, we have more storage and a better area for loading and unloading, we can use a pallet jack instead of doing it by hand,” Rutkowski said.

The store offers a full range of gardening supplies — traditional gardening, hydroponics and indoor grows.

Their focus is on nutrients — they stock both organic and synthetic — and enriched soil. You can find pesticides, containers, lights and timers for indoor grows or pumps for hydroponic grows.

And soil. A lot of soil. “We sell more soil than anything else,” Rutkowski said. The selection is extensive, with a wide range of mixes and amendments available.

About 80 percent of his customers are growing medical marijuana, one of the reasons they are happy in the port area.

“We didn't want to be in the main part of town, people like our being off the beaten path,” Rutkowski explained.

Others are traditional gardeners, and one man, in Hood River, is growing a traditional garden using hydroponics and water in which he also grows fish.

“There was no hydro store in Hood River when we opened ours in 2007,” he said. For a long time, they operated with just the two of them. Eventually they hired one employee, and now they employ two, one in Hood River and one in The Dalles.

Business has been slow — it's the slow time of year for gardens — but steady. “We knew we had a lot of people coming to our Hood River store from The Dalles. We draw from the whole gorge area, we have customers from Lyle, Goldendale, Arlington.”

They leased their new site in October, and opened their doors after the new year.

For the most part, the store has never had any problems in regards to its focus on marijuana growers as customers.

“We have never gotten any backlash. People have been very nice and receptive. We are really stoked to be here.”

He and co-owner Scott both have experience as gardeners, and offer free help and advice as well as product.

“I do my best to answer questions, we try to consult them to the best of our knowledge.”

Come spring, Rutkowski expects the store to be much busier.

“This is our slow season. When spring happens, people start buying seeds and we start selling soil by the pallet full,” he explained.

“It's a small business, but we have been growing. It's a slow buildup.”

Rutkowski hopes to continue that growth into the future. “I just hope that politics don't get involved, that things don't go backward from here.”

Gorge Garden Center is open Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Their phone number is 541-370-1500.