Our History

The Beginning

Kato’s started on the current site in 1952 when Masagoro and Tamako Kato purchased 20 acres of land near Abbotsford after WW2. During these early years the farm was primarily used to produce fresh fruits and vegetables for the local Vancouver market.

Re-Wholesale Berry Plants

In the mid to late 60’s the nursery also started to re-wholesale berry plants to other BC farmers.

In With The New, Out With The Old

In the early 70’s, the Kato’s eldest son George & his wife Sarah, who in time took over the nursery, started growing and selling ground covers, conifers, and shrubs for the growing garden centre industry. This brought an end to the fresh fruit and vegetable production although the re-wholesaling of berry and fruiting plants remained strong as it still does today.

Expansion & Growth

The rest of the 70’s and 80’s saw rapid growth with more and more of the property being converted to above ground growing facilities as well as more greenhouse structures. George & Sarah were nursery pioneers, having one of the first nurseries in BC with a fully automated potting machine. They also converted a tractor into a forklift to aid in the loading and unloading of trucks and were one of the first nurseries with a loading dock. While they did a great deal of in-house production during this time, they were one of the largest importers of nursery stock from California and Oregon. Most of this product was immediately re-wholesaled.

New Public Brand

The 90’s brought about a shift in focus with less and less being purchased and re-wholesaled and more and more in house propagation and growing. We also started to focus on customer service, providing weekly plant status availability lists and regular deliveries. We also started branding our plants under the “Touch of Nature” brand. This gave us a brand identity to market to the public.

New Owners

In 2004 we purchased an additional 10 acres adjoining our original 20 acres. On this we constructed a 1.25 million litre irrigation pond to meet our watering needs. With this pond we are able to reclaim about 70% of our surface water and recycle it. An additional 5 acres was leveled and graveled and put into container production. In 2007 George & Sarah’s son Michael purchased the nursery from his parents and has taken over day to day operations. His parents still participate in the nursery on a part time basis.