Heritage Magazine: Growing Our Reach

Heritage Magazine: Growing Our Reach

Two of Huntsville’s industry titans are coming together to provide a unique service that will benefit homeowners, farmers and gardeners of all experience levels. The Texas Research Institute for Environmental Studies (TRIES) has launched its partnership with Bearkat-owned Kim’s Home and Garden, offering soil testing services to any and all patrons.

Established in 1991 and housed at Sam Houston State University, TRIES Analytical Laboratory provides quality analytical services and method development to the academic and local communities, as well as clientele within the municipal, industrial and commercial realms. The lab, one of the core research laboratories and facilities operating under SHSU’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP) serves as key partner supporting the university’s strategic priorities of engaging students, external partners, workforce leaders and the community.

Since joining the ORSP in 2022 as the business and administrative operations coordinator, Candace Prater and her peers have spent their time seeking partnerships with local businesses that would help establish TRIES Lab as a local leader in analysis and testing. On top of this, the ORSP team was also seeking to collaborate with those open to working with their student researchers. When Prater connected with Kim Bius, owner and president of Kim’s Home and Garden, she felt as though the stars had aligned.

“She’s right around the corner from us, and she hires students, which is a big plus in our eyes,” Prater said. “Collaborating with her on this initiative will expose students to several areas that they could go into for work outside of the lab. It will also help us connect and create partnerships elsewhere, not just through Kim’s, but through her clients and vendors.”

Bius, a 1983 graduate, has spent the last 40 years making Kim’s Home and Garden a community-centered business with the reputation and offerings to reach clients well beyond Huntsville’s city limits. The commercial landscaper’s paradise offered soil testing kits to clientele before this partnership but weren’t quite as in-depth as Bius envisioned. When Prater approached her with the opportunity to partner with her alma mater and expand her business’s offerings, she knew it was just what she was looking for.

“Any time that we can offer a service to the public that is on the expert level, we go for it because that expertise defines who we are,” Bius said. “Our customers can range from a homeowner, ranch or farm owner to gardeners and commercial landscapers. We cover a large gamut, but now we are able to offer this testing service to the full extent we had always hoped for.”

Through the testing of submitted soil kits, customers can identify factors that may impact things like crop yields, bloom timing and longevity. From there, Bius and her team at the garden center can step in and provide advice on how the customer can get their soil’s composition to be perfectly balanced for the plant varieties they aim to cultivate. Having the service on the garden center’s roster will also serve as a selling point, allowing patrons to have a one-stop shop to get all the supplies, advice and expert analysis on how to keep their gardens thriving during and after growing season.  

“You never know where a new opportunity is going to take you and this partnership lets us offer more of a full spectrum of services in the garden center,” Bius said. “Even though our center is among the best in Texas, this gives us another layer of expertise to add to what we already do.”

On top of its service to the community and growth potential for Kim’s Home and Garden, the partnership with TRIES Lab serves as a catalyst for a lab that has been here to assist the community since its inception. As both the lab and the business plan to grow together, the main thing at the front of the partners’ minds is how they can best serve the people of Huntsville and surrounding areas.

“There are many things we do at TRIES Lab, and our community needs to be made aware of it,” Prater said. “Kim has a stellar reputation, and people respect her, so when they see her sending things off to TRIES Lab, they’ll know it meets her standards and is something they can trust.”

The TRIES Lab holds accreditation in accordance with ISO 17025:207 and is certified under the National Environmental Accreditation Program (NELAP).

For more inspiring stories about all things Sam Houston State University, read the Fall/Winter 2025 edition of Heritage Magazine here.