Goffle Brook Farm & Garden Center, Ridgewood

Anyone who travels along Goffle Road doesn't need a calendar to tell them when Spring has arrived—the blossoming pansies inside Goffle Brook Farm have marked the occasion since 1968. Today, some 40 years after Richard and Dancy Osborne opened it, the family-owned shop still maintains its original traditions, which include opening on March 15 every year and closing for the winter promptly at 5 p.m. on Christmas Eve.

The shop's celebration of the seasons has become an especially beloved practice. In the fall, Goffle Brook Farm transforms into a Halloween utopia, complete with a petting zoo, hay bales, and hand-decorated pumpkins. Come December, the shop aids decorating efforts with its elegant wreaths, which are handcrafted from balsam, frasier fir, noble fir, and, when available, bits of Santa's beard. The rest of the year, Goffle Brook Farm keeps customers stocked with high-quality gardening supplies, from seeds, soil, and mulches to flowers and the pots they go in.