Sami and Val's combined experience support our customers with a focus on service and inspiring awe at every opportunity. Garden Essentials began in 1999 with Val Wilson providing amazing garden care service and outstanding custom containers for our family of customers and their gardens in the Calgary area. In 2009, Val purchased 'Amazon Iron' (now known as Garden Essentials: Practical Plant Support) and began manufacturing and selling our well-known and much-loved handmade iron plant supports to retailers across Western Canada. Sami Ladner-Zech joined the Garden Essentials team in 2004 and proudly became Val's business partner in 2016.
VAL wilson
owner & production manager
As our resident horticulturalist and Olds College graduate, Val enjoys teaching our crews by sharing her more than 25 years of professional experience with joy and abandonment! An innovator by nature, Val is known for coming up with amazing solutions to challenges that inspire awe with customers and staff alike - all with dirt under her nails!
sami ladner-zech
owner & Service manager
Sami is a practically trained gardener and art-school graduate (ACAD and NSCAD) with more than 35 years of experience. Her artistic nature and eye for detail ensure that our family of customers receive unrivalled service, beauty, quality, and support. As a born and raised Calgarian, Sami has a wealth of understanding of the unique micro-climates in our beautiful city and surrounding areas.
Our Team
We're garden experts and we're proud of it!
Our collective education and experience define us as garden-care specialists , but it is our innovative thinking and passion for life-long learning that sets us apart. We keep things fresh with our efficient, creative, and trend setting approaches to garden care, design and manufacturing.
The passion our team shares motivates us to bring our best to each garden, container or retailer. Our approach to a collaborative team environment allows us to support each other, to get the job done, and to lead happy, healthy and fulfilling lives. We meet challenges as opportunities to work together, adapt, adjust and be flexible during change. A sense of belonging to the Garden Essentials family is integral to everything we do.
The passion our team shares motivates us to bring our best to each garden, container or retailer. Our approach to a collaborative team environment allows us to support each other, to get the job done, and to lead happy, healthy and fulfilling lives. We meet challenges as opportunities to work together, adapt, adjust and be flexible during change. A sense of belonging to the Garden Essentials family is integral to everything we do.