COVER STORY
Member Highlight on
MEADOWS FARMS NURSERIES AND LANDSCAPE
Roadside Stands
All photos courtesy of Meadows Farms Nursery
M
eadows Farms Nursery celebrated their 61st year in business in 2021, and is the area’s largest independent garden center. What started as tomatoes being sold door to door in little red wagons has grown to what is now 18 locations surrounding the Washington, D.C. area and a fullservice landscape and hardscape division, as well as a grounds maintenance division and Mosquito Shield franchise. With locations from their Great Big Greenhouse location in Richmond, Virginia to Burtonsville, Maryland and many areas in between, there’s almost always one near you. This includes one location in West Virginia. Meadows Farms Nurseries is managed from the top down, starting with President Jay Meadows. Decisions are made there and passed down through collaboration with the Vice Presidents, who also serve as regional managers over the nurseries, who have their own management staff to oversee day to day staff and operations. In this way, the nurseries are all managed in a similar fashion, with everyone working from the same blueprint. Meadows Farms’ retail nurseries offer a great selection of plant material, as well as hardscape material, including bulk and bagged rock, flagstone, bulk and bagged mulch and soils, sod, and a full selection of quality plants of every kind. Meadows also offers a significant discount to Landscape professionals and is happy to special order for companies in need. They can also offer special pricing for large volumes of their products. This flexibility continues to grow the wholesale side of the business, as well as the retail and landscape sides and stems back to the roots of the company.
14 • VNLA News • Winter 2021
Bill “The Farmer” Meadows
The late Bill “The Farmer” Meadows was born and raised near Beckley, West Virginia, where he married his childhood sweetheart, Betty, and enlisted in the Army. When his enlistment was up, Bill and Betty returned to West Virginia and enrolled in Marshall University. After receiving their degrees in Education, the Meadows moved to Fairfax County, Virginia, where Betty worked as a librarian and Bill as a Physical Education teacher and football coach. During his ten years of teaching, Bill developed a plan for keeping his students and himself productive during summer vacations. He would go to the Farmers’ Market in Washington, DC and buy tomatoes, which his students would then sell door-to-door
