Welcoming in 2025

Wow, where did 2024 go?  I can't believe it is already 2025.  As we all recover from the holidays and start focusing on the new year, we just want to thank our customers, staff, friends and family that have supported us through the last 25 years.  Managing a small family business has its benefits and its challenges.  We have survived 2 economic downfalls, a pandemic, the loss of our matriarch and biggest encourager, political unrest, hurricanes, freezes, and astronomical growth just down the road from us. Our little farm is tucked away from the main road and has not succumbed to the commercial growth that most of highway 441 in Marion and Lake Counties have.  

Our focus in the coming year will be to continue providing affordable and simple vertical growing options for those that thought they couldn't garden.  I (Dara), especially want to focus on helping people understand how important what we eat effects our health. Farm-fresh, pesticide-free (not necessarily organic-more on that later) produce is just a small part, but so impactful on our health and the health of the next generations. The U.S. ranks 49^th in the world for life expectancy.  FOURTY-NINTH.  One of the greatest nations in the world and we’d prefer to eat at McDonald’s because it’s cheaper and faster than eating at home.  Eating healthy should be accessible and affordable to everyone. Instead, we are killing ourselves with food and letting other nations outlive us. 

We want to continue to provide opportunities for students to learn how vegetables grow and enjoy the fruits of their labor; to enjoy having a salad or some veggies at lunch and not a preservative/chemical-filled lunch that came out of a package.  The concept of farm to school is spreading as we see the widespread epidemic of obesity, ADHD, allergies, rising susceptibility to viruses, etc. taking over our children. Marion County, Florida, is on a mission to change how our kids eat at school, and we want to help spread that to other counties and states. Lunches provided to our children at public schools are so devoid of nutrition it’s a wonder they can focus at all in the afternoon after a meal full of junk.   I could get on a huge soapbox with this one, but I won't.    

Vertical growing was such a new concept when my father started Verti-Gro that many people shrugged it off and said they preferred the traditional way of gardening.  Well, the traditional way of gardening is great if you have the time and the right soil to do it in.  If you live in the Midwest where the soil is rich, then growing in the ground may not be so bad.  But if you work away from home and it doesn't rain for days or even weeks, then your garden suffers.  If you live in other parts of the country, like Tennessee (rocks and clay) or Florida (sand), you will break your back prepping your ground for a decent garden.  All types of gardening take work to have a healthy, bountiful harvest, but we strive to make it a little easier for you.  We also make it possible to garden where you thought you couldn't.  Many yards these days are small, and more people are choosing to live in condos or apartments because the cost of buying a home is so high.  This doesn't mean you can't still have that fresh-picked salad instead of a store-bought, 2-week-old bag of wilty lettuce.

Verti-Gro wants to be a small part of improving your overall well-being.   Losing weight, exercising more, and eating healthier make the top 5 New Year’s resolutions pretty much every year.  If eating clean and healthy is one of your resolutions, we can help make growing your own fresh vegetables easy.  One of the biggest hurdles with a garden is remembering to water and fertilize.  We’ve got you covered there.  Well, you still have to remember to fill your tank and add your fertilizer about once a week, but daily?  We got you.  Our systems come with all your nutrients, growing media, pump and timer to make your life so much easier while eating healthy at the same time. 

Again, thank you for supporting us through the ups and downs (taking on a new website was not in my wheelhouse), but we do know how to help you have the best garden ever this year.  Here’s to a bountiful 2025!