LEAN, GREEN, GARDENING MACHINE. Green Oasis Gardens and Gift Boutique offers classes, workshops, and social events. Not to mention oodles and oodles of great greenery. “Garden Goddess” Patty Marten says they help gardeners of all experience levels to make their green spots beautiful.

A visit to Green Oasis Gardens and Gift Boutique might start with picking up some gardening supplies – a bit of soil, some fertilizer, a trowel – but while customers wander the boutique, coffee in hand, it might evolve into something more. This friendly shop is stocked up with year-round supplies for savvy gardeners, but also offers a wide selection of forward-thinking fashions for women, cute home decor, gifts, seasonal trinkets, and other goodies to discover.

A lot of people feel nervous and afraid that they can’t (garden), but they can do it ... We have the knowledge base to help them succeed.
Patty Marten, Garden Goddess at Green Oasis

Owners Wayne and Julie Bollinger opened Green Oasis in 2010. The main office of their landscaping business, Greener Grass Systems, burned down in Chippewa Falls in 2009, and they worked the store into their plans for a bigger, better location. Originally, the site sold only gardening supplies, but with the help of “Garden Goddess” Patty Marten, it grew into a fun boutique offering a range of goods and services.

Julie and Patty, who got her title for her benevolent rule over the store and her gardening prowess, first expanded into women’s clothing with the addition of six dresses to the store’s inventory in 2012. Patty remembers wearing one of the frocks on the first day they were in stock, and watching them fly out of the store, selling out in one day. She expanded the offerings from there.

Now, shoppers can find a large selection of loose-leaf tea, a forest of clothing racks stocked with the latest styles, pot decorations, and more at Oasis, and shop the selection while sipping on a cup of house-brewed coffee.

Green Oasis offers a number of classes, including how to make porch pots among other projects. “The nice part is the mess stays here, and they take it home and they’re done,” Patty said. But for those who are more (or equally) about shopping as they are about designing potted flower arrangements, the boutique also hosts a number of social events. Ladies Day on Nov. 17 will feature vendors selling all sorts of crafted goodies – and the booth fees will support St. Francis Food Pantry – and the store is gearing up to host a “Shop Small” event Nov. 24. There’s a reason to stop in no matter what time of year it is.

Of course, Patty still lives up to her garden goddess title. She is always excited to answer questions – especially the obscure ones – about growing beautiful, productive plants.

“That’s what we’re here for,” Patty said  “We’re here to teach them and help them so that they succeed.”