30 Years of Beautifying Highlands

Written By: Marlene Osteen | Issue: June 2024

Back Row (L to R): Arasele Seriano, Savannah Lee, David Sims, Darin Keener, Parker Sims, Juan Godinez, and Crystal Dempsey
Front Row (L to R): Jose Soriano, Tino Soriano, and Gary Dalton
Not Pictured: Juana Soriano, Gavin Small, Harper Ramey, and Nancy Tilson

It’s been three decades and three months since owner David Sims opened the door to Highlands Lawn and Garden.

It’s been a remarkable journey, a tale filled with hard work and determination; a testament to one man’s perseverance and adaptability.

Sims’s story began three years prior to that opening, in Jacksonville, where he worked as a sales rep for Goodyear. In 1991, his wife, a pharmacist, had learned from her boss that there was a pharmacy for sale in Highlands and the couple decided to move and purchase the store.

In those early years in Highlands, while his wife worked, David started a landscape business – cutting the grass of about 100 yards. But Sims had been raised on a farm in Georgia, and so when he decided that opening a nursery was the closest thing to farming on a mountain top, he put away the lawnmower and weed eater, and bought an acre and half with a 100-year-old house on the Cashiers Road with an intent to open a nursery.

He bulldozed the grounds to create a driveway and erected a barn to store fertilizer and a temporary greenhouse. Two months later when a storm blew through the plateau and tore the plastic off the greenhouse, he tore that down and put in its place a permanent structure.

The initial years were challenging. With two established local nurseries, residents preferred doing business with familiar faces.

However, Sims persisted. Setting himself apart, he began accepting credit cards and maintained year-round operations, offering trees and plants to landscapers, and firewood to residents. He relied on his intuition that folks might prefer not to have to go into town to buy their plants. Turned out he was right.

“A lot of good people helped me, and I made a lot of friends.” he acknowledged.

Over time, Sims expanded the business, steadily increasing the variety of specimen and native plants, trees, and shrubs. Five years after opening, realizing that his retail plants weren’t observable to passersby, he purchased the neighboring property, adding another half-acre and constructing a second greenhouse visible from Highway 64. This decision proved to be a game-changer, significantly boosting customer traffic.
Sims took another bold step in 2004 and added a rock yard- providing a wide variety of rocks and other materials for the beautification of outdoor projects.

“The most challenging period was in 2008 during the housing downturn,” he reflected. “It took us four or five years to fully recover.”

To navigate the downturn, Sims made strategic cuts, such as reducing the inventory of expensive items like large landscaping trees. “

With fewer homes being built, there was less demand for such items, “so we focused on strengthening our retail offerings,” he explained.

Another setback occurred when the Covid-19 pandemic struck. Despite this, Highlands Lawn and Garden, with its seed sales, was classified as an essential business, allowing them to remain operational. Conducting business primarily outdoors also spared them from stringent distancing and mask requirements.

As the pandemic subsided, the population of Highlands surged, revitalizing the nursery’s customer base. Retail sales soared with the influx of new homeowners. Last year, Sims demolished the original house on the property to make way for a larger, third greenhouse,

A few years ago, Highlands Rock Yard became its own entity, and Sims transferred ownership to his son-in-law, Travis Ramey.

David and Parker Sims, 1995

Meanwhile Highlands Lawn and Garden remains a well-oiled machine led by Darin Keener, who has been with Sims since he was 16, now serving as manager. Parker, Sim’s son, practically grew up at the nursery, starting to help out at the age of four, and now works as assistant manager.

When asked if he sees more expansion in the future, Sims replied that, “I am 67 and after 30 years and two back surgeries, I don’t want to invest any more money in what it now costs to buy land here.”

In the meantime, he continues to work five to six days a week at the nursery (the business is closed on Sundays) year-round.