Photography by Shawn LaChapelle

For the Smith family, owners of Mandy’s Spring Nursery in Granville and now Canopy of Saratoga, land is not simply the backdrop upon which we live our lives: It’s the heartbeat that propels connection, purpose, and creativity. And it’s been that way for three, going on four, generations. 

Since opening Mandy’s—a hub for locally grown shrubs, trees, and flowers—in 1994, Todd and Leonie Smith have welcomed upstate New Yorkers into the fold of their family’s passion. Many customers have already experienced the couple’s knack for stewardship and design, and have bought into their belief that plants aren’t just plants: They’re an outlet for connection. Leonie’s floral arrangements have been a cornerstone of local weddings and celebrations, while Todd’s landscape design business has helped families create the sense of home they desire. 

While Todd and Leonie’s story dates back more than 30 years, their nursery’s roots actually stretch all the way to 1939, when Todd’s grandparents bought Mandy’s Spring Farm, located just 10 minutes from the Vermont border. They devoted themselves to the pastoral life, growing farm-to-market vegetables for the local community.  

“That’s the same farm where I grew up,” says Todd, who remembers tending the family farm and helping his father, Peter, with the nursery before both he and his brother, Scott, went off to Cornell University to expand their knowledge of nursery stock and landscape design.

Over coffee at the family’s latest venture, Canopy—the 9,000-square-foot garden center located on Route 9 in Wilton—I sit with Todd and his son, Ford, as they talk about family: the people they’ve learned from, the values they’ve absorbed, and their passion for sharing their approach to life and business with others. 

“A big part of Canopy is the idea of all of these roots coming together,” says Todd. “It’s about community—about bringing people in and sharing our passion.”

For the Smiths, that passion boils down to home, garden, and good company. While these same values have always been present in the family’s other business, they wanted to create a place where others could come and actually experience these things. It was from this intention that Canopy was born.

Walking into the building, it’s impossible not to feel the Smiths’ passion: Canopy boasts a striking greenhouse cafe room, where guests can meet up for an espresso and light fare in the sanctuary of vibrant green plant life, and a floor of carefully curated home goods that strike a chord with anyone who cares about shopping local and living simply. During the center’s soft opening in November, the space was packed with local vendors for a holiday market—an event that gave customers only a little taste of what would come. 

Since then, Canopy has hosted a number of community events, from mocktail nights and live jazz shows to DIY workshops and a Valentine’s Day party for Saratoga singles. This summer, customers can look forward to more late-night programming, more vendor fairs and markets, an expanding cafe menu, onsite greenhouses, and maybe even weddings.

“We want Canopy to be a place that people can gather,” says Ford, noting that the team will offer a mix of free and paid programming to encourage folks to enjoy Canopy as a third space—something increasingly lacking in today’s world.

For the Smiths, it was important that this space be in Saratoga Springs. Mandy’s Spring Nursery is 45 minutes away in Granville—just far enough away to create distance between them and their Saratoga County clients. 

“It was always in our mind that, when we had the resources, we would come over here,” says Todd, emphasizing that as much as Canopy is a gathering space, it’s also a living design studio: a place where new and old clients can come get inspired, talk projects, and visually see just what is possible in working together. 

The building itself is a testament to the level of precision and regard for beauty that the Smith family brings to their projects as designers. While they originally intended to work with builders—and found a team they admired—the arrangement ultimately didn’t quite fit, and the family decided to take the build into their own hands, literally.

Ford fondly recalls juggling his branding and marketing duties while putting time in with his family during the build. “I put up the beams—the timber frame is something I’m very proud of,” he says. “It was a lot of work, and we did it all internally.” 

But the Smiths aren’t strangers to this kind of hard work. “I grew up building things,” says Todd. “We could have built a ho-hum humdrum building, but it’s just not in our nature. It’s not in our genes. We’re going to build something that’s a little different and better.” Then he adds, “Even with landscaping, I’ll always try something new.”

In opening a spot just beyond Saratoga’s city limits, the Smiths haven’t forgotten where they came from. They recognize that there are other local business owners in Granville that haven’t had the same opportunity to expand their reach on their own, and have made an effort to help by carrying their products.

“It was always in our mind to have a space that other Washington County producers could join with us,” Todd says. Now, when customers come to Canopy, they get to experience the best of what Washington and Saratoga county makers have to offer, right in one convenient place.

As the grand opening of Canopy draws near—it’s set to be a full-strength garden center by April—Todd says his excitement for serving the community continues to grow each day. When I ask what he and Ford are most looking forward to this spring, both agree it’s the sight of smiling faces coming in and out of the doors. 

“Selling stuff doesn’t do it for me,” Todd says. “Happy people do it for me.”