McShane's to shut down Salinas nursery Sept. 30.

The monthly McShane's Nursery & Landscape Supply (455-1876) newsletter included an announcement for the landmark property on Highway 68 at the gateway to Salinas.

"After 12 years of serving the community as the go-to nursery and one-stop landscaping shop in Monterey County, it is with much pain and great sadness that McShane's Nursery & Landscape Supply announces that we will be closing down the nursery department."

The last day open will be Sept. 30.

The landscape supply piece of the enterprise will remain in business, but the nursery and its trees, plants, ponds, pottery and special project inventory and staff—along with resident cats Blackie, Mama, Princess and Stubby and Franklin the turtle—will all be gone.

Love and Willow Grey, which stocks garden-centric apparel, decor and gifts inside the McShane's, will be closing Sept. 30 too, and aims to relocate.

Much of that nursery selection is on sale with the impending shut down.

Owner Steve McShane stays on with the landscape personnel.

"It's the end of an era," says McShane, who is a Salinas city councilman and chair of the state nursery board. "The nature of nursery is changing rapidly."

He insists fewer people are engaged in gardening, while citing the likes Hulu, X-box and YouTube channels as part of the shifting puzzle.

"It's been a trend over the last 20 years," he says. "Modern entertainment has influenced that. We have more options, and traditional hobbies are in danger."

The absence of a normal springtime also hit hard, undercutting the boom time for nursery business.

He adds that the landscape division's focus on "drought tolerance, low maintenance and beautiful"—where demand is as strong as ever—will allow it to continue to thrive.

The nursery space will be up for rent. Local businessman Don Chapin, a partner in McShane's, is the property owner.

A thank you to the staff with their photos completes the newsletter:

Over the years, many people have come and gone through the front gates of McShane's Nursery & Landscape Supply.

Most of them found exactly what they were looking for; some found a means of finding what they couldn't find anywhere; and some just found a beautiful place to hang out for awhile and take a few pictures.

Only a handful walked through those gates and found a home away from home. We became a family and it is heartbreaking to see it all go.

As they say, the wind from one door closing opens another.

We had our ups and downs, but pulled through everything together.

"As they say, life's got so many chapters," McShane says.