Bringing life to gardens

1. Wingard’s Market owner and operators Wally and Delores Steinhauser, along with their son Zach Steinhauser, look to grow their family business by incorporating the educational Backyard Nature Center into their backyard birds and wildlife department.

2. Not only has Wingard’s Market increased its selection of backyard bird and wildlife products, it has also increased its selection of native plants that gardeners can use around their homes to attract various birds and pollinators. As gardeners incorporate more plants favored by pollinators like bees, butterflies and hummingbirds, they create a suitable habitat from the comfort of their yard.

3. As the perennials buyer for Wingard’s Market, Zach has a bias when he orders plants to sell — the more pollinator-friendly the better! For example, the bright red blooms of Penstemon are the perfect size for bumblebees to fit inside as they find nectar to feed on.

4. The long, tubular flowers that Agastache create are irresistible for hummingbirds and butterflies to feed on during the warm sunny days of spring.

5. Recently, Wingard’s Market dipped a toe into the aquatic plant market. Water gardens create habitats with immense benefits for local wildlife like frogs and dragonflies. Zach created a display water garden in 2022, and it has become home to a very charismatic bullfrog named Jeremiah.

6. & 7. Zach has also taken the initiative to create habitat gardens to use as displays for customers to understand how gardening for wildlife works. He has created multiple pollinator gardens on the property.

8. There are products that can help attract amphibians and reptiles to the garden like Treefrog Houses that make a welcome home for little treefrogs that have come to feast on the insects around your home.

9. & 10. Wingard’s Market recently completed an expansion of its Produce Market, creating more space for the newly minted Backyard Nature Center.

11. By incorporating aspects of a formal Nature Center, Zach has created displays that explain the importance of host plants and creating caterpillar habitats for butterflies that visit gardens.

12. & 13. Butterflies aren’t the only pollinators that visit the garden. By expanding their line of bee habitat products, Zach educates customers about the different types of native bee species that could call their backyards home.

14. Many visitors to Wingard’s Market live on Lake Murray in the Midlands of South Carolina. Drawing inspiration from larger outdoor department stores, the Wingard’s team likes to educate folks about the backyard wildlife they could have below the surface like turtles, fish and amphibians by incorporating a native fish tank in the Nature Center.