The beginnings: King Arthur Nursery

Hello! My name is Kevin Schwab and, along with my wife Christine and daughter Emily, we own and operate King Arthur Nursery, LLC. The backyard nursery is in metro St. Louis, Missouri located in a very accessible area of unincorporated South St. Louis County referred to as Oakville.

I’ve always loved the landscaping and plant nursery life ever since working my way through college as a landscaper for Berg’s Nursery and Landscape, LLC in Austin, Minnesota. In addition, I gained valuable experience working with nursery stock by occasionally assisting my father-in-law at Sathre Nursery. Post-college, I began my career as a cartographer with the Department of Defense in St. Louis. It was here in 1998 that we purchased the house and property that is now home to King Arthur Nursery. Back then, the yard was literally a “blank slate” for me to foster my plant and landscape hobby, and over the years numerous beds were created around the house and throughout the nearly one-acre property.

As retirement from my career started to come into focus, I ran across a very wise statement: you should have at least 3 hobbies that you love as you head into the golden years! As I contemplated that advice, I was sure that plants would somehow be a part of the equation. My research began in earnest on what would be involved with running a backyard nursery - first as a hobby then letting it grow into more. I educated myself on the minute technical aspects of plant propagation, optimal potting mixes, fertilizers, irrigation, Winter protection, etc. The most daunting tasks have been learning the legal aspects and hurdles of starting a business along with marketing practices. Taking all this information into account and with 100% support from my family, we decided to go for it!  Our backyard hobby nursery was born on December 27th, 2016. I subsequently retired from my 33+ federal career in April of 2017.

I love all aspects of running a plant nursery. It’s a far cry from sitting at a workstation in a darkened room all those years! There’s always something to do when you have the goal of making the nursery grow every waking day. Since our beginning, we have purchased tried-and-true un-patented stock plants. From these I use softwood/hardwood propagation methods and grafting techniques to produce the clones that I can offer to the public. Our inventory has increased to over 150 different varieties, including: deciduous shrubs and trees, evergreens, perennials, hydrangeas, grapes, ornamental grasses, rare grafted Japanese maples, etc. Most of our plants are smallish in size, of highest quality and very reasonably priced. They range in size from rooted cuttings and liners to 1–3-gallon mature plants in containers. (Specific inventory information can be found in the "Plants" tab here on the website).

Whether you have a big or small landscaping project to tackle, please consider King Arthur Nursery as your source for a nice selection of high-quality plants at a very reasonable price. We know from first-hand experience how expensive it can be to make your purchases from a “big box” store or your local large nursery center. It doesn’t have to be that way. We can be your alternative. We pride ourselves in providing personalized service to the individual customer. We receive our customers by appointment only. You can contact us in a number of ways: through this website; our King Arthur Nursery Facebook page; and/or through Instagram (kingarthurnursery).

Thanks for visiting!

Kevin