Navy Song is many things, he is a dreamer, an educator, a retailer, a wholesaler, a landscape architect, a Chinese vegetable specialist, a landscaper. Navy has been a resident of the community of Stouffville for 15 years. “I want to stay in Stouffville forever,” he says, as “I like this area and the people who live here.”
Navy has been in the landscaping business for 20 years, but he had a dream – a dream of finding a plot of land in the Greenbelt a building a multi-faceted green business. He found the land, bought it and developed it over the past several years. It is located at 16110 Woodbine Ave., just north of St. John’s Sideroad.
Navy has developed a group of companies under the banner of Ocean Group: Ocean Nursery – the face of the business on Woodbine; Song Landscaping, who does everything from landscaping and irrigation, to driveways and pools; and Songsco.com, which is their e-commerce web site. He likes to be “24 hours busy”.
He has developed greenhouses, two warehouses, invested in over 100 pieces of heavy equipment, and has built a thriving retail and wholesale business. Ocean Nursery is growing 100,000 vegetable plants with one hundred varieties – half are hard-to-find Chinese vegetables. They have more than 1000 varieties plants, including a selection of trees, roses, peonies, Japanese Maples, grasses and flowering perennials.
Ocean Nursery is unique in many ways. They have developed a strong and efficient e-commerce site at songsco.com. On this website, you can order your plants for a pick-up in 2-3 hours or arrange for delivery and install. In fact, you can order your veggie plants right now. Ocean Nursery is also unique because they are probably the only nursery in Ontario that can provide full services in Cantonese and Mandarin language, which could be quite a draw for Stouffville.
Navy is outgoing, positive and well-accomplished, but he was nervous about the interview with OTR. He is shy in the spotlight, but many know him as “Principal Song”. Navy is always teaching, sometimes at the university or college level, and often with young people as co-op students. He has created teaching videos for online use and plans to make more. Look him up on YouTube or go to Navy’s landscaping website at songlandscaping.ca/how-to.
COVID-19 has been hard on this business too. They have struggled to find help. They are currently hiring a Yard worker, Yard manager, Landscaper, and Landscape Designer. Resumes can be emailed to: info@songsco.com.
In addition to plants, Ocean Nursery offers soil, mulch, gravel and other landscape supplies. They provide free design consultation and plant installation. Ocean also has bins available for garbage disposal.
For more – oceannursery.ca
