History

GROWING SINCE 1974

My brother Michael and I (I’m Ron) founded our landscape and contracting business right in our hometown of Kingston, N.Y. with not a whole lot more that a used Dodge Dart and a few push mowers. But we had big dreams.

When we grew out of designing and installing landscapes using materials from local nurseries and growers, we started our own nursery so we could provide our customers with higher quality plants at more affordable prices. We also added on commercial landscape design and installation.

As our business grew, so did our family. Michael married Penny, who now runs our nursery operations (and pretty much everything else, if truth be told.) Before long their son Mike grew from small acorn to strong oak, adding his college knowledge to the team.

In 1987 we threw caution to the wind and moved our nursery to a prime retail location with six sprawling acres along route 9W and Van Kleecks Lane. Those seeds took and we are still thriving there today.

Branching out once again in the 1990s, we started our own tree farm on one acre so we could grow the best trees and plant materials for our customers. Pretty soon we had ten acres, then thirty. And now, the Augustine Tree Farm spans 60 lush acres on the fertile delta of the Esopus Creek in Kingston. It’s a tree paradise where we grow more than 20,000 trees. They include 30 different varieties of the most spectacular hardwoods, ornamentals, and evergreens you’ve ever seen.

We continued to expand as customers appreciated the superior size and exceptional quality of our trees and the affordability of our prices. Soon we became the ‘nursery of choice’ among landscape architects, independent contractors, and commercial builders in addition to discerning homeowners throughout the Valley.

But we never rest on our laurels. We added an expansive stone yard and hardscaping design and installation to the nursery’s services. Then came irrigation, lighting, and water features.

Today, the Augustine Nursery is one of the premier commercial and residential landscape nurseries in the Hudson Valley.

Not bad for two kids from Kingston.

Family Owned and Operated Since 1974

Our Tree Farm

The idea of starting a tree farm scared the fertilizer out of us. But, our nursery and landscape business was growing dramatically. As a family we decided we needed a larger and more reliable supply of bigger and better trees of all varieties. Local growers specialized in the smaller garden variety trees you see in most nurseries and big box stores. The few that did grow larger specimens were charging exorbitant prices and couldn’t guarantee the quantities we needed. So, in 1997, we decided to dig in and grow our own.

We started small. First, there was just one acre. Then 10. Then 30. And today, the Augustine tree farm spans 60 lush acres on the fertile delta of the Esopus Creek in Kingston. It is a tree paradise. We grow more than 20,000 trees, which include hundreds of varieties of the most spectacular hardwoods, ornamentals and evergreens you’ve ever seen.

As always, we Augustines had great expectations. We simply wanted the Augustine tree farm to produce the finest quality trees of any tree farm in the Hudson Valley. Our goal was for Augustine trees to be grander in stature, truer in form and confirmation, and stronger in constitution than our competitors. And we did many things differently to achieve that goal.

Most tree farms cram as many trees as possible onto each and every inch of land. We don’t. We give our trees plenty of room to grow and spread out. Many tree farms over fertilize their trees to spur faster growth. While this works, it compromises the tree’s long-term health and growth. We don’t. We use a special organic fertilizer in appropriate measure to help our trees grow at a healthy and proper pace. We also weed and water at a level some might call obsessive. But if you’re not obsessive, you simply can’t grow better trees. And that’s what the Augustine Nursery is about. Better trees for better landscapes.