Organic nursery in Silver Lake has a growing clientele

Eleven years ago, for example, Williams was in fashion design, with his own label and a couple of Manhattan storefronts that featured his sweaters and other knitwear. Williams, who never went to college "because I needed to go to work," wasn't really thinking about growing plants until a friend with dreams of a Manhattan rooftop garden asked for his help in putting one together.

Williams was happy to do it.

"Some of the best gardens in the country are on rooftops in Manhattan," Williams said.

The garden featured raised redwood plant beds and all kinds of vegetables and flowers. For Williams, it rekindled his connection to gardening, which had begun at an early age out of necessity.

"I was the second of 13 children. We gardened for food. We gardened or we would die. It was about growing food to have something to eat, but it was also just fun," he said.

Even then, in New York, Williams had a large collection of seeds, including the family's heirloom tomato, Goose Creek. The heirloom designation is a distinction that comes, Williams said, only after a plant's seeds have been kept and nurtured for at least 50 years.

His friend, a writer, said he needed to put a seed catalog together. When he balked, she offered to write one for him.

"She inspired me to go into business. She did my first catalog," Williams said.

Years later, Williams' business would get another boost. Living in Los Angeles, he lacked that perhaps most basic of all pieces of gardening equipment -- a truck. Williams rode to jobs as far apart as Venice and the San Fernando Valley by bus, carrying his tools and seeds in sacks.

One of Williams' customers was a life coach. Soon they were bartering, his garden skills for her advice on his business, including a contact for acquiring a truck and a van.

Now, with the recession in full bloom, Williams finds his business thriving.

It took in more than $175,000 last year. This year, Williams said, is even busier. At the downtown Santa Monica Farmers Market recently, one buyer wrote out a check for 26 blueberry bushes, at $110 each.

Williams said people are putting in gardens to combat the uncertainty of the economic times.

"This is one thing people can do," he said. "They can grow their own food. Then they realize how much better it tastes and how much money they can save."

Logan Williams has noticed something else. The clientele has shifted from mainly a 50-and-older crowd a few years ago to people of all ages and backgrounds.