What began in 1966 as a small hobby farm and roadside stand, started by Mary and Jack Nootebos, has grown into a thriving full-service produce market now owned and operated by the Gill family. Carrying on the legacy with the same dedication to quality and freshness, Mary’s Garden is known for its sweet corn, famous carrots, new potatoes, and no-spray salad greens, all hand-picked daily using sustainable farming methods.

More than just a grocery destination, Mary’s Garden is a year-round hub for local flavor, community connection, and a network of local vendors offering everything from fresh eggs and artisan flour to small-batch sauces and homemade perogies. Whether a longtime neighbor or a first-time visitor, every customer is welcomed with the same warmth that has defined Mary’s Garden from the very beginning.

Following a change in ownership, Mary’s Garden had historically operated on a seasonal schedule, opening only during the harvest season. Under the Gill family, that changed entirely — the store was now open 365 days a year. But the community didn’t know.

Rather than investing in marketing to spread the word, the new ownership relied on the brand’s longstanding reputation and word of mouth alone. It was a natural assumption given how deeply rooted Mary’s Garden was in the community, but foot traffic told a different story. Customers had moved on, quietly shifting their loyalty to other stores during the years of limited hours, unaware that Mary’s Garden had become a year-round destination.

The challenge was clear: rebuild awareness, recapture lost customers, and bring new ones through the door — all while preserving the warmth, authenticity, and community spirit that had made Mary’s Garden a local treasure for over five decades.

The first step was meeting the community where they already were. I identified and engaged in local Facebook groups, posting consistently and following each group’s guidelines. Most groups allowed promotional posts on Sundays, and given Mary’s Garden’s existing reputation, the engagement on those posts was immediate and organic. The community remembered the brand, they just needed a reminder that it was back.

On the paid side, I took a deliberate, layered approach. I started with a tight radius of 5 to 8 kilometres to build awareness within the immediate neighbourhood first, then gradually expanded the targeting to cover all of Surrey as momentum grew. This ensured ad spend was focused where it would have the most impact before scaling outward.

To deepen community ties, I managed a collaboration with Tap, a locally loved farm-to-table restaurant and one of Mary’s Garden’s own suppliers. I coordinated with them to share photos of their dishes made with Mary’s Garden produce, turning a supplier relationship into compelling, shareable content that resonated with food lovers in the area.

One of the biggest breakthroughs came from bringing Mary’s Garden’s weekly specials to life online. These weekly deals, where select produce was priced lower than usual, challenged the common misconception that shopping local is expensive. In many cases the specials were cheaper than the big chain grocery stores, and making that visible online was a game changer for attracting new and lapsed customers.

To build a movement around the brand, I launched the hashtag campaign #ditchthechains, encouraging the community to choose local over the big box stores. The campaign gave followers something to rally around and helped frame Mary’s Garden not just as a store, but as a choice worth making.

Finally, I incorporated user-generated content into the strategy, actively encouraging customers to share photos of the meals and creations they made using Mary’s Garden produce. This brought authenticity to the feed, created a sense of community pride, and let real customers tell the story better than any ad could.