Jason Catana, who hails from Detroit but currently lives in Cedar, used to work for companies designing and manufacturing medical equipment. Catana said the firms were “relatively successful” and profitable, but work was taking him far from home and leaving him with little time to pursue his own interests.
So, three years ago, Catana decided to abandon his career path and move to northern Michigan with his wife, a Traverse City native. They purchased a home in the middle of the Leelanau Peninsula, where Catana set up a greenhouse and started planting — a lifelong passion of his.
His greenhouse grew into a small business called the Pollinators Meadow, which sells annual and perennial plants, hanging baskets, mixed planters, and vegetable and herb starts, all of which are grown on site. Pollinators Meadow opened for its second year earlier this spring, attracting returning customers and new faces with their selection grown in a pollinator-friendly habitat.
“Traveling all the time was taking away from the lifestyle that I sought after, and that’s what brought me here,” Catana said. “When I had the opportunity — my wife wanted to come back up and be closer to her family and where she was born and raised — we just jumped on it and decided to take a risk and try to do something different.”
Like many current residents, Catana used to vacation here before moving to Leelanau County full time. He said that he has fond memories of visiting the county during the summer with his parents and two sisters during his childhood in the 1980s. He said they would camp at Sleeping Bear Dunes or stay at the Homestead in Glen Arbor, where he remembers being impressed by the “beautiful” perennial gardens.
Before moving up here with his wife and setting up the greenhouse, Catana said that he “put (himself) through school with a little landscaping company.” Then he worked at a variety of medical device design companies across the country, variously focused on laparoscopic instruments, robotic surgical platforms, and natural orifi ce surgery devices.
“As I became a homeowner myself, I was wondering how I can improve my curb appeal, but also make it beneficial for others to see, as well as beneficial to some of our wildlife – insects, pollinators, birds, et cetera. So, when I moved up here, I had this vision that I was going to grow things, and I wanted to do it myself, so I had better control of what’s going on. And this is kind of what you see today,” Catana said.
Catana said that he was interested in planting from a young age, but really developed when he took an introduction to horticulture at Macomb Community College in Warren before going to Michigan State University. Later, he took more “advanced” classes, like a program through the University of Florida – Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension.
“That really springboarded my personal experience into something more structured,” Catana said. “It’s not just growing the stuff. It’s figuring out what that plant needs and at what time, and best managing those expectations of the plant. And that’s why we have great quality here today.”
Catana says that he enjoys the challenges involved in nurturing little seeds and root systems into big, healthy plants. He also said that he finds horticulture more satisfying than his previous jobs because he gets to work outside rather than in a stuffy office. He believes that staying in touch with the natural world is important, and prides himself on the seclusion of his greenhouse.
“We offer the experience of coming out to Leelanau County and experience some of this farmland, and experience some of the beauty that we have. The air is fresher, it’s cleaner. You hear these animals. This is real. … Since we’re growing this stuff right here on site, we all have the control over the inputs, what comes out of these plants, and how they turn out in the end. … It makes a safer product for our pollinators. Those couple things really set us apart,” Catana said.
According to the Pollinators Meadow website, the business focuses on cultivating an environment that promotes and protects pollinators like bees, birds, and butterflies. Outside the greenhouse is a habitat area with plant species that attract pollinators, and customers might find some of these animals flying around inside the structure fertilizing plants.
The Catanas also grow their own vegetables on their property, mainly for personal consumption. However, Jason said they sell some of their excess produce at a farm stand near the entrance to the Pollinators Meadow greenhouse, which is at 7452 S. Sullivan Rd. near Cedar.
