This type of business is sprouting up all over the U.S. It goes by different names: garden coaches, personal gardeners, garden trainers, garden gurus or garden consultants. In all areas of the country, unlike the rest of the economy, this type of business is booming.
A family team, Jimmy Williams and his son Logan, are now located in the Silver Lake district, east of Hollywood. The duo first started Hayground Organic Gardening on a garage rooftop with a small plant nursery and were forced to move when the business grew so much and so fast that they had to find more space quickly. They also have had to hire more employees, almost doubling from eight to thirteen people.
They also grow some crops of their own and sell them at the Santa Monica farmers’ market. Chefs from prominent L.A. restaurants count on them to supply fresh vegetables for soon to be prepared meals.
The Williams didn’t start in Los Angeles. They actually started on the other side of the country, in Long Island, N.Y. and moved out west. They also took with them a large collection of open pollinated seeds, including the family’s heirloom tomato, Goose Creek.
Before planting anything in a client’s garden, Williams interview clients to find out what they cook, how often and for how many, then they plant accordingly to the clients needs.
“People are realizing that food grown in their yard is better than anything they can buy,” says Jimmy Williams of Hayground Organic Gardening in Los Angeles. “Just about all of my customers tell me they never knew lettuce could be sweet.”
Now there are plans to open a retail nursery and they feel they have a compelling story to tell so a book is in the works, titled, Seeds to Skillet.
Photo credit: Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times
Hydroponics Dictionary
