Austintown's County Gardens closing after 20 years

Austintown

Ray Mashorda is about to change his life.

That being said, it’s understandable that he would shed a few tears telling his story.

Mashorda has made the hard decision to close his business, Mashorda’s County Gardens at 5637 Mahoning Ave., after 20 years of helping people make eye-catching landscapes.

“There comes a time in everyone’s life when you have to say ‘when,’” Mashorda said.

Mashorda, 61, decided in February that his time is now.

The store’s liquidation sale will start July 14. All of the nursery stock will be 50 percent off, and all in-store and bagged items will be 25 percent off.

“There are some opportunities to sell my property and basically retire,” he said.

That doesn’t mean this process isn’t hard for Mashorda, who started in the gardening business at a young age with his father, the late Ray Mashorda.

His father opened his Country Gardens business in 1949 in Austintown. It closed in 1995 after he died.

Read more about him and the business in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.