The small business got started with “a dream and a little bit of land,” owner Daniel (“Dan”) Doyen said with a laugh.

He and his wife, Theresa (nee Kobasic), made their home in Hyde on a plot that was initially one acre.

“We slowly accumulated a couple parcels at a time, and eventually ended up with seven acres of land,” Dan explained.

Hence the name, of course.

In the outdoor perennial section at Seven Acre Garden and Gifts, owner Dan Doyen shows an apple tree that grows different species from grafted-together branches. (R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press)

Being outdoors and gardening had always been a hobby, Dan said, and he came from a farming family. Dan and Theresa — both of whom grew up in Escanaba — tended to large private gardens of vegetables and perennial flowers at home before going into business.

“I always wanted to do something with the property — It was just a big hayfield. There was nothing there (but) grass,” Dan said.

After Flinn’s Flower and Garden Center, previously located at 101 N. 30th St. at the corner of U.S. 2, closed in spring 2017 upon Wally Flinn’s retirement, the property was purchased by Menards. The company was developing a new store in Escanaba, and the nearby land that had been Flinn’s was to become Menards’ detention pond.

Menards acquired the former flower and landscaping property as-is. They had no use for a bunch of used greenhouse equipment, but the Doyens did.

Theresa got in touch with Menards’ corporate headquarters in Wisconsin, and the company reportedly agreed to sell off the gear that had formerly belonged to Flinn’s.

Ruby the golden retriever sits on the porch at Seven Acre Garden and Gifts. (R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press)

“And then they (Menards) came back to us and said, ‘if you can get all this out of here in the next 30 days, we’ll reduce the price — or give you a rebate slip,'” Dan recounted.

With the help of a local excavating company and family members, greenhouse frames, pavers and more were pulled out of the old site and relocated to the Doyens’ property in Hyde.

“We had to remove it all, so we took all the frames down, piece by piece, screw by screw,” Dan said.

The excavating company pulled out the poles that had been cemented in the ground at Flinn’s. The Doyens hired another company to level the field that would soon become the home of Seven Acre Gardens, LLC.

“We put it together ourselves, just like we took it down ourselves,” Dan recalled. Reassembling the greenhouses was done by “my family, my wife and I, my boys, and my parents,” he said. Since he worked full-time, the efforts occupied weekends and evenings.

Decorative flowerpots, hanging baskets and more fill the greenhouses at Seven Acre. (R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press)

It took two years to get ready for business, between building the greenhouses, acquiring the necessary permits, getting the land rezoned by Ford River Township for commercial use and installing utilities.

After getting the LLC registered with the State of Michigan in June 2019, the first year in business used one greenhouse to sell plants out of and a second as storage.

After construction began at the end of 2017, the building that is now the office and shop was erected, but not finished, during the first season of business.

“The building inspector wouldn’t let me sell anything out of here yet, so we actually took an old desk with wheels on it,” said Dan, laughing at the memory, “and we mounted our POS system out on the front porch, and we sold everything off the front porch.”

He described as being like a farmer’s market.

As a new business, it was a struggle to become established, secure vendors, overcome competition and get the word out that Seven Acre existed.

“The first year, every single thing we sold we planted by hand, from seed, ourselves,” Dan said. “My mother, my wife and myself hand-planted flats, one seed at a time, with tweezers.”

Though tedious, hand-planting from seeds meant that Seven Acre Gardens was able to keep prices low, as they didn’t have to pay for seedlings to be shipped.

Even today, about 75% of the plants sold at the Hyde business are grown from seed on-site, Dan estimated, though now they utilize special equipment — a vacuum seeder — to speed up the planting process.

Currently, all plants at Seven Acre are started in one greenhouse (they now have three). Flowers take the longest to develop, so they’re planted first — around the end of January — while vegetables grow more quickly and usually get planted around March.

It’s always a guessing game; agricultural industries are truly at the mercy of the weather.

Dan explained that even is a heat-controlled greenhouse, the appropriate amount of sunlight to start cultivating plants is rarely available before the end of winter.

Some vegetables are usually planted in March, “in hopes that we’re going to be warm enough in April — (but) this year was cold… We had no spring. It was like instant summer.

“It’s a fine line you’re dancing around all the time with Mother Nature, because you really don’t know,” Dan said.

Unfortunately, when Seven Acre Gardens entered its second year of business in 2020, they were met with a massive, unexpected hurdle. Not the pandemic; greenhouses were allowed to be open, luckily for the Doyens.

However, access to Seven Acre Gardens (located at 5253 I Rd.) was nearly eliminated when the road was completely torn up in the spring of 2020.

“We almost went bankrupt our second year. We were stuck, in the end of May, with all these plants, and we’re still new — people are just learning about us — and now they can’t get here!”

Considering how hard it is for new businesses to survive their first few years even in good conditions, it’s almost surprising the Seven Acre made it out on the other side, given the toll the road detour took.

“We threw away so many plants that year, it took us two years to recover from that. We were this close to losing all of it,” Dan said, adding that he feels for the Ludington Street business owners who currently have no road in front of their buildings.

But Seven Acre Gardens made it through, and they’ve taken some steps to set themselves apart. Word-of-mouth from happy customers has been essential, and they’ve satisfied patrons by providing great products and excellent service, Dan said.

Considering that even grocery stores sell plants, there are more convenient ways for people to purchase greenery than to head off the beaten path to a small business. For that reason, “you have to be good enough… for people to come out and spend their extra time and their extra effort and their extra money.”

The key is making sure the plants are in good shape, having great employees who are helpful and providing information to shoppers about how to keep their purchases healthy and thriving.

Seven Acre provides some unique services, too.

While some greenhouses only operate from about May to July, closing in midsummer after the prime season for annual flowers and veggies has passed, Seven Acre continues to sell perennial plants and shade and fruit trees for several more months.

“People have learned that we still stay open with perennials, trees, and shrubs. We sell mums in the fall,” Dan said.

Additionally, they have another boom of business in early winter — Seven Acre Gardens makes garlands and Christmas wreaths, which they sell during the first couple weeks of December. They take custom orders and even sometime provide installation and decorating services.

Some of the winter offerings have provided fundraising opportunities for the Delta County Animal Shelter and Esky Band Boosters.

Currently, the perennial plant section at Seven Acre is kept outdoors, while the three greenhouses hold flowers, vegetables and herbs.

Dan showed off a variety of trees and bushes — all rated to succeed in zone five. Fruit trees and shade trees sell about equally, he reported. In two-foot diameter pots, healthy, 12-year-old maple trees stand awaiting purchase.

“Those are perfect for new new home builds, because you have instant gratification, instant shade,” Dan said, noting that they were “the biggest potted tree available on the market.”

Indicating the next major expansion for Seven Acre Garden and Gifts are the hard-to-miss bones of a new structure currently sitting behind the shop where purchases are made and merchandise like garden statues and pots are sold.

It’s metal greenhouse framing — and the new structure that the Doyens intend to establish will be an enclosed perennial space the size of all three floral greenhouses combined.

At present, Seven Acre offers planting services, but reservations fill up fast. One of Dan’s hopes for the large perennial greenhouse is that local landscapers will be able to find products there.

“I kind of want it to be more of an outdoor showhouse,” he said. “I’d really like to be able to someday maybe be a landscape supplier and be able to supply ornamental items to local landscapers, and with having a facility that large, I think I’d be able to hold enough stock where it would be a good market.”

For now, Seven Acre Garden and Gifts is enjoying steady business. The hardest part, Theresa said, is still getting the word out.

Located just a third of a mile down I Road off of U.S. 2 and 41 between Escanaba and Bark River, Seven Acre Garden and Gifts is open from 9 a.m.to 4 p.m. on weekends and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays.