On a Wednesday afternoon, Jimmy Williams was sitting in a folding chair under the shade of a canopy at the Santa Monica Farmers Market. In front of him were plastic pallets with dozens of pots of the edible plants he grows at Logan’s Gardens, his nursery in Silver Lake.
As customers knelt to look at the offerings, including peppers, radishes, basil, oregano, chives, and lime, a person approached the canopy and asked for Williams by name.
The 79-year-old excitedly jumped up to give her a master class in gardening to help with her problem with growing strawberries in her greenhouse.
“It’s our main thing to give people the right information. We need to tell them how to grow them, the right pot size, when to water and when not to water. A lot of people just don’t know, so it’s our job to tell them, ”said Williams.
He has been running the nursery for about two decades and has always passed on his knowledge of plants. One of his first students was his son Logan Williams, 35, who gave the family business its name. And now the couple can reach a wider audience after appearing on a new Netflix show hosted by a cleaning titan.
Logan’s Gardens is at the center of the first episode of Sparking Joy, a new series from organizational guru Marie Kondo who made a name for herself thanks to her skills in cleaning up people’s homes on her previous Netflix show, Tidying Up.
But in her new three-episode series starting Aug. 31, Kondo focuses on businesses as she helps them organize their jobs and clean up their lives.
“Logan’s Gardens was a really fun project. I love their story because it’s a family run business and the tidying up was interesting for a company that focuses so heavily on outdoor and indoor spaces. The importance of tidying up the inside and outside is a great connection that viewers can apply in their own lives, ”Kondo wrote in an email interview.
Earth flows through the veins
More than a family business, Logan’s Gardens is a generational legacy. The Williams family is descended from the Gullah people. Jimmy and Logan Williams said that originally from farming communities in West Africa, the Gullah are known for their farming skills and belief that tillage is essential to the soul.
“They were brought here for their farming skills and forced to work freely in America for hundreds of years, and we are the last two people in our family left to do so,” said Logan Williams.
Logan’s Gardens sells all types of organic edible plants and also specializes in the design, installation and maintenance of edible gardens.
It all started when Jimmy Williams, who had learned to garden from his grandmother at the age of three, started selling plants from the back yard of his Larchmont home at farmers’ markets.
For Logan Williams, too, his lessons began early.
“I didn’t care about starting gardening,” says Logan Williams, who laughingly recalls that his father called him outside to garden when he was about 5 years old. “So that’s how I got into it, that was just life.
He admitted that, like most children, at first he did not share his father’s passion.
But shortly after they started selling their plants at farmers markets, Logan Williams finally stopped by.
“I was probably in my early twenties when I began to see the value in it,” he said.
It was then that he began to look very much like his father.
“One day I went to the Hollywood Farmers Market and I left and when I got back it was full of people and I thought I would listen. The whole time he was taking the information and talking to people and I had no idea, ”said Jimmy Williams.
And Logan Williams continues to reflect his father’s passion when he talks about their mutual love for gardening.
“My favorite part of what we do is just seeing people get our plants and make them part of their family, their family life,” he said. “And seeing kids bring me a flower that they grew at home or show me pictures of their strawberries at home is the most heartwarming and truly touching part of my job,” he said.
And for Jimmy, working with his son is about the satisfaction of growing food.
“It’s for the best. Having your child working with you and learning is the real pleasure for me to see how they develop and now they love them,” Logan said.
Roots of joy
Much of that father-son dynamic and their beautiful, exuberant nursery in Silver Lake is captured in the first episode of Sparking Joy, in which Kondo helps them organize their garden a little more.
With the plants, however, it doesn’t help that much, since the father and son have covered that. Instead, Kondo mainly focuses on a bit of clutter that they’ve accumulated in memory over the years.
Through a translator, the Japanese-born host asks them to search various storage boxes and put things that bring them joy and get rid of the things that do not give them joy.
“I think you can see the respect they have for one another on the show, and that’s so admirable. Every parent-child relationship has its own unique complexities, and seeing a father and son working together and seeing their business strengthen their bond is a testament to their commitment to the family, “wrote Kondo in the E- Mail.
For Logan Williams, the filming experience was pretty cool.
“I really enjoyed it. I don’t know how much my dad enjoyed sorting and working through things and all that, that’s not what my dad generally enjoys doing, ”he said.
The son knows his father well.
“It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. It’s great to be part of these shows, but it was difficult. It was long days and you had to keep doing things. The end result is great and you are lucky to be at one of these shows, ”said Jimmy Williams.
“It’s a lot harder than gardening,” he added with a laugh.
Familiar ground
But at the farmers’ market, where Jimmy Williams is in much more familiar territory, he continued to advise 75-year-old Vivian Nelson, who lives in Venice and who was struggling with her strawberries.
He asked her about the soil she uses, the size of her pot, how much space the plants have to grow and where she grows them.
In the end, he decided she had to get them out of her greenhouse, get bigger and deeper pots, and keep an eye out for squirrels and rodents that might be looking for a snack.
“He gave me information that I didn’t know so I’m very happy and I found Alpine strawberries here and I can’t find Alpine strawberries in other nurseries so I’m very excited,” she said before taking some of the strawberries .
Jimmy Williams then took a watering can, doused some of his plants, and went back to the canopy, ready for the next customer who comes to him with a gardening question.
“The older I get, the more I like it. I don’t know why, but I just like it. But if you think about it, growing food might be the most spiritual thing you do because if you take it away you’re done, ”he said.
Logan’s Gardens
Where: Wednesday and Saturday 8 am-1pm at the Santa Monica Farmers Market, 155-199 Arizona Ave., 8 am-1pm at the Hollywood Farmers Market, 1600 Ivar Ave. and private tours of your nursery on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Information: Instagram at @logansgardens.
Here’s how to watch: Sparking Joy will be available on Netflix on August 31st
