The right partner

Construction is underway at Sarah and Michael’s Farm in Durham, North Carolina. The cut flower grower is expanding its site. Michael Turner, owner, says his operation doesn’t have enough space to provide their customers’ needs. He went to one of his oldest partners, Atlas Greenhouse. The company is building Turner an RT Gutter Connect greenhouse on-site. Turner says this is the second RT Gutter Connect house and his seventh or eighth Atlas structure. “They’re great to work with,” he says. “It’s kind of like working with family, in the best way.”

Sarah and Michael’s Farm started from scratch in 1998. The first greenhouse built for the farm wasn’t an Atlas structure and Turner says he was disappointed in its performance. When it came time to expand, a colleague recommended he meet with Atlas.

The meeting went well and Turner has been so happy with Atlas’ structures that he’s built a new house “every year, for five years or so.” While the farm originally started with a different structure, Turner says they’re moving exclusively to the RT Gutter Connect houses because they provide their crop, cut flowers, with the best environment.

“As we learned more about greenhouses and ideal growing environments, we made the leap to the RT Gutter Connect. Eventually, that will be the only structure we have onsite,” he says. “With the height under the gutter, and the air space, it creates an ideal growing environment.”

Turner says Atlas has been very quality conscious during construction.

“We use their crews to build the RT Gutter Connects,” he says. “I can be nit-picky and I’ve been extremely pleased with their work. Any type of upgrade or improvement can involve a lot of money. But Atlas is very down-to-earth. They’re price competitive. They have a structure that holds up extremely well.”

The farm currently has about 44,000 square feet of production area under cover, with plans to expand, Turner says. “We’ve been doing business with Atlas exclusively since 2001.” As demand for Sarah and Michael’s cut lilies continues to grow, Turner anticipates building out further. “We needed more space, so we started this new range. It’s smaller than our current RT Gutter Connect but we’ll keep building. It’s all driven by demand.”