Birds of a feather flock to unique Maricopa nursery

It’s a shame Jack can’t talk; oh, the stories he could tell.

Jack is a resident of the Leaf & Feather Farm, one of Maricopa’s hidden treasures. The fact that he’s a capuchin monkey would seem out of place in most places of business. But not when he’s joined by hundreds of exotic birds, horses and native-grown plants…all competing for your visual attention.

The first question most people ask: why the name, the Leaf & Feather Farm?

“The name may seem a bit strange, but after one visit most folks agree that it fits perfectly,” said Bob McDermid, one of the two owners of the 3.3-acre nursery. “We chose the name because it describes our main focus. We are first a plant nursery, but we are also a tropical bird farm.”

McDermid’s business partner, Dan Heller, purchased the farm in 1998 as a retirement project. He had worked 27 years in the aerospace industry. Heller said at that time the farm was known as Nuewest Nursery. It had been closed and sat vacant for two years.

“We opened as Sun Country Nursery in April of 1998,” Heller said. “Our plant area was exactly 80 feet long by 20 feet wide. Our sales generally consisted of a few eucalyptus or cottonwood trees to local farmers. We never made a profit and closed again in 1999.”

Heller tried again in 2000, reopening the business as the Weekend Gardener Nursery. But, once again, poor sales facilitated the nursery closing after a few months.

“We remained closed after that until my friend, Bob McDermid, decided to give up his trade as a cabinet maker in Phoenix and moved to the farm in 2001,” Heller said. “Bob and I worked together to make improvements and decided to open once more in October of 2002 as the Leaf & Feather Farm. Bob truly made the business the success that it has become.”

“Our business is truly unique,” McDermid said. “First of all, every single plant, tree or cactus is either grown right here or hand-picked and purchased from a local farm. The result is that everything is acclimated to the Maricopa climate. Secondly, we sell only plants which have been proven to grow successfully in the Maricopa area.”

Then there are the birds…lots of them. Certainly, it would be completely accurate to say ‘birds of a feather flock together’ when describing the Leaf & Feather Farm. A stroll on the nursery’s grounds reveals an incredible and diverse array of feathered friends.

“Over the years, we have actually become an unofficial ‘rescue’ for large hook bills,” McDermid said. “We have peacocks, parakeets, macaws, cockatoos, Amazon parrots, African grays, cockatiels and many others for the pleasure of our nursery customers.”

Heller and McDermid sell plants to both commercial and residential customers. Their nursery inventory is so extensive they aren’t sure themselves how many plants are on the property.

“We have grown so much in recent years, it would be impossible for us to say how many different kinds of plants we have available for sale,” Heller said. “It is certainly hundreds. In fact, our cactus area, in particular, has grown each year, and we have plans to enlarge it even more.”

Helping landscapers and homeowners utilize more low-water-use plants is especially important to their business, McDermid says.

“We believe that we may have a unique opportunity to assist our community in the effort to ‘go green.’”

And that’s just fine with Jack. Just don’t ask him about feathers or flying…he’s feeling a little outnumbered.

Directions:

Take State Route 347 south past Harrah’s Ak-Chin for approximately two miles.
Turn right on Papago Road and stay on it for four miles.
Turn left on Brewer Road and follow it two blocks to Mayer Road.
Turn right on Mayer and look for the Leaf & Feather Farm on the right.

For more information and hours of operation, visit leafandfeatherfarm.com or call 520-280-6955.

Photo by Jake Johnson

(A version of this article appeared in the Summer issue of InMaricopa The Magazine)