Grown by "Little" Al's

Al’s Garden Center has lots of great pieces such as pumpkins, ornamental gourds, bales of hay, mums, and cornstalks to transform your front entryway for fall.  These decorative additions are available in mid-September, and are grown by our “little” Al’s, the grandchildren of Jack Bigej, 2nd generation owner of Al’s Garden Center. Our 4^th generation of growers is comprised of six of Jack’s 13 grandchildren.

 

For all of their hard work, our young entrepreneurs won’t be spending their earnings on “tricks and treats”. Their well earned funds go straight to the bank for their future college endeavors.

 

Growing up in the nursery industry means constantly looking for projects to peak the interest of our children at young ages...

 

About eight years ago, Peter and Samantha Russo, (oldest grandchildren now 17 and 15 years old), started planting and tending to a small batch of gourds. That small batch has grown into a large corner of a greenhouse and into a great variety of gourds ranging from birdhouse gourds to turks turbans, as well as several others.

 

Peter at 13 yrs. & 

Samantha at 11 yrs.

 

 

Annie and Greg Ruef, (now 11 and 13 yrs. old), decided to jump in feet first and started out by planting a 1½ acre pumpkin patch. They helped weed, water and hoe all of the pumpkins that we sold at Al’s that year. They now are busily preparing this year’s pumpkin crop for the fall season and have over seven acres of orange, plump pumpkins ripe for the picking.

 

 Greg at 7 yrs. & Annie at 9 yrs.

 

The latest additions to our fall growing team, Ryan and Jack Bigej, (now 14 and 11 years old), started out by growing potted stocks of corn.  Now they also grow gourds, corn, and Indian corn.

 

 

 

 

 

Jack at 7 yrs. & Ryan at 9 yrs.