The garage garden started simple enough. My wife and I love planting in the back yard, over the years our garden has expanded exponentially. Kelly loves being outside, tending to the plants, harvesting and cooking with what we can pick steps from the kitchen. I love seed starting, watching the seeds sprout and grow, all while drinking a beer in the garage (hence the logo Kelly drew for our website). When we first started our garden in the garage during the winter, I was working full time as a firefighter and a building contractor on my days off. Kelly is massively busy with our family of 5 children, 2 big dogs and the extra children she watches everyday. Due to time constraints our little starter gardens didn't do well and we'd end up at a big box store spending hundreds of dollars on plants.
Fast forward to a couple years ago, I stopped doing contracting and now had too much time on my hands during the winter on my days off. I started seeding in the garage, and year by year the seed starts increased and increased, adding shelves, adding lights, adding tables, taking over the entire garage. But with more attention to detail and the support of my mother and advice of Papa Dome our garage garden starts were a success.
This year was no different, I again added way too many seed starts and added more shelves. This year I challenged myself though, the goal was to not get so big that Kelly's car was kicked out of the garage for the winter. A challenge for sure, but it's been successful so far. With over 1500 seeds started and up potted Kelly's car is still in the garage!!!
The problem now, I have too many plants!! Vegetable, Herbs and Flowers way too many for our garden. So we decided we'd try to sell affordable plant starts locally to those who may want to avoid the big box stores or large nurseries. Our nursery, fully supported out of our garage, not taking up more than half the garage.
We hope you'll browse our webstore, and see something that may interest you. We'd love to have our plants in your garden and hear all the gardening success stories as the summers go on!
Update 2026: We were unsuccessful in the challenge of making sure Kelly's car has room in the garage. Our Grow room has expanded to include the ENTIRE garage. The good news, Kelly now has a car with remote start, so she can at least warm it up in the winter. We now offer so many more vegetable, flower and herb plants! We've also expanded our retail selections of fertilizers, soils, gardening equipment, seed starting equipment and seed packets!
We've branched out to work with local school PTO's and Scout Packs to host fundraising opportunities, this has led us to meet so many new customers that we now call friends. We've also grown to host "Plant Pop Up Shop" in participating neighborhoods in the area. We want to thank EVERYONE who has helped us along our journey thus far!
If you have any questions, please reach out and we'd love to have a conversation.
Mitch Whalen - The Garage Gardener
