Briggs Lake Nursery manager and designer Dawn Winters has always loved being creative. She went to college for visual merchandising and says ideas just pop into her head.

 

Along with designing landscaping and flower pots, Winters enjoys taking old junk, redecorating it, adding plants and using it for displays to sell at the nursery.

 

“I’ve sold a ton of stuff that was garbage. I go in the back and there’s piles of old stuff no one’s using any more,” said Winters. “I take it, redecorate it, and it sells.”

 

“People will also ask if we need things for our displays,” she added. “I don’t throw anything away. Ideas will come to me later.”

 

She said people like to see things visually. Many of her creations have been on display for a while, but no one buys them until she adds a plant to them and then they sell immediately.

 

One of her more recent works is an old Coca-Cola bicycle that was going to be thrown away. She redid it, added a basket with a nest and an egg, and it sold as soon as she put it out. 

 

She also repaints a lot of flowerpots and uses old kitchen items for planting, as well as remaking things such as old fountains into planters. She especially likes unusual things.

 

“The first thing most people do is go to my displays and see what I’ve done,” Winters said. “I’m always moving things around and making new things because we have a lot of repeat customers who want to see what’s new. They get ideas from my displays.”

 

She said it’s a challenge as summer goes on to keep up with what plants are flowering and what she can do with them.

 

Most of her displays at the nursery are done to highlight trees, plants and other merchandise for sale.

 

“The reason I did the display by the fence is to show the mink mulch,” she explained. “It looks good and it emphasizes the plants more than traditional colored mulch. No one believed me until they could see it visually. Now everyone wants to change to it.”

 

She enjoys creating displays for other people, and helps with the plant designs on landscaping jobs. People often come to her and with pots and ask her to decorate them, or show her photos on their phones and ask what she would do. 

 

“A lot of people have no clue what plants do,” she said. “There’s more to it then just liking the looks of it.”

 

Most of what Winters creates stays at the nursery. 

 

“I like everything I make but I’m not allowed to take it home,” she said.

 

She has all kinds of ideas in her head for things she wants to make but doesn’t have the items for, however she keeps her ideas for the future.

 

“I like to be creative,” said Winters. “My creativity comes out in the plants and redoing things.”