Ones To Watch: Raymond Bowdish
July 9, 2008 
His job–Head grower, head of maintenance and proprietor are some of the hats Bowdish wears at his small greenhouse operation in Lisbon, N.Y.
For the little guys–Never Tire Farm may be a small greenhouse operation, but it’s very adaptive. Raymond and his four major employees, who include his wife Megan, have stuck with their plan of becoming a supplier of quality plants while using no registered pesticides. Never Tire Farm relies on biological controls to solve its pest problems instead. “Most people are amazed that fewer than four full-time people can handle such a diverse crop in our little half-acre,” Raymond says.
Keeping it local – To inform customers that its plants are provided in an area of less than 200 miles, Never Tire Farms plans to customize all of its tags with its location over the next year.
Never Tiring–Away from the greenhouse, Bowdish has been working with the New York Farm Viability Institute to get grants for Never Tire Farm in its quest to eventually use grass pellets to heat his houses. Additionally, he has created an internship program through the SUNY Potsdam biology department that helps Never Tire Farm develop new ideas and deal with labor.
Twenty-five years from now–Carbon footprint reduction of businesses will become the norm as the economics of energy become a bigger issue, Bowdish says, and today’s version of plastic container usage will be replaced by biodegradable pots and prefabricated landscapes that arrive in pallet form with all the irrigation and media needed to grow crops Never Tire Farm sells.
Why he’s one to watch–Despite its size, Never Tire Farm uses sophisticated technologies and common sense production. The Garden Pallet, which Raymond invented, is the best example of that. “We have developed a system of delivering entire landscapes of bedding plants and perennials, bulbs and many shrubs that are in full bloom and require no site preparation,” he says. “The best part is our program can actually create spaces with no tilling in areas where there were formally green lawns.”
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