With spring finally here and people beginning to plant vegetables and flowers, it means the outside of Cooke’s Farm Center in Ironton will soon come alive.

While the store has been open through the winter, selling things such as feed and tools, it is in mid-April when it undergoes a colorful transformation, with plants and flowers fully in stock outside.

The business has been locally owned by Bob Sells, who purchased it from the founding Cooke family who had owned it for several decades, since 2001.

He says customers come from all over the Tri-State area and he sees a large share of his business from 4-H families who are working the projects that will take them to fairs in Lawrence County, Boyd County and elsewhere.

Sells has long been involved with both fairs, sponsoring trophies and contributing to many of their functions.

The store sells a range of feed for everything from horses to chickens to dogs to guinea pigs, as well as farming and gardening tools and supplies, bales of hay, veterinary supplies and used farm equipment. They also offer small engine repairs.

The store already has many seeds for sale for this year and Sells said a couple popular items are seed potatoes and onion bulbs, which they sell in bags of various quantities.

Outside, some plants are already beginning to fill up the space, with broccoli, lettuce and cauliflower for sale.

Sells says the key to the longtime success is customer service. He said if the store doesn’t have something in stock, he will gladly special order it.

“You do everything you can to help them,” he said.

Cooke’s Farm Center is located at 3215 S. Third St. in Ironton and is open from 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.

For more information on the store, visit them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Cookes-Farm-Center-Inc-189861287761717.