When I was 12 I started working at the local grocery store, Shh, that's a secret I wasn't old enough, technically! The first thing I did when I started getting a paycheck was put in a vegetable garden, I spent hours going thru seed catalogs and planning the garden. then I started to hang out at the local florists shop, I spent so much time in there talking to the wonderful owners, and dreaming about being able to have that big Benjamin Ficus tree, it was pretty expensive, but I ended up with it eventually!
Then growing up with my father in the military, we moved around a lot, but I always hung onto my love of plants!
As I grew up and began to not like school, we moved to Keene, NH. Where I was able to get into the Horticulture VoTech class, the last two periods of the day. It absolutely saved me from quitting high school!
I joined the FFA, and became the president of our chapter. We went to nationals, I don't remember how we did, but it was a fantastic experience. I managed our two little greenhouse, we did an annual bedding plant sale fundraiser every year for the teachers and students. We grew poinsettias one Christmas season, I don't think we did so well with them! But we also made hand-tied wreaths and kissing balls and centerpieces as a fundraiser. I totally loved making all of those! I also managed our flower shop, we sold roses every Friday, it was a few dozen a week! The experience that saved me, created me to!
I graduated and moved on thru life. I have met many amazing people that have inadvertently kept me on my path. I have lived and worked on one of the oldest and most successful Organic Vegetable Production farms for two years, an absolutely invaluable experience. I have taken and been certified in Permaculture Design. And have so Many Hours Of YouTube Learning, it's unfathomable!
In 2016, I quit my fulltime job, and signed a seasonal contract, to build a garden and create a farm to table program for a local casino. That summer another amazing man watched me toil in that garden. Building permanent beds out of subsoil, as the topsoil was removed in the construction. He would stop by and say hi, and then one day he came to the garden with another great man, who happened to own a greenhouse business in the area.
This man was ready to retire and had been looking for the right person to take over his 30year old greenhouse business for a number of years. Now this was a stretch by any imagination, I mean 13 Heated, 32 ft by 100 ft greenhouses is a far cry from the two little 20 ft x 30 ft greenhouses I managed back in high school, 20 years earlier! But, one visit and a couple of meetings later, I decided it was absolutely possible!
And off I went to figure out how to make this happen! With a few of the right professionals, my amazing immediate family, my incredible in-laws and friends we made it happen!
We closed the deal in the late summer of 2017. Here we are headed into our 5th season! We have a huge Following of dedicated, caring, and enthusiastic customers who have loved watching how we have brought this Garden Center along. they comment every year how great it is to see how we have grown, and love what we have done and plan on doing! So Here Is To The Next 30Yrs! come Join Us! It has been a pleasure sharing this with you!
ALL MY BEST
-Logan Keeney