Lisa Villegas living dream with The Seed Cupboard

ROYAL CITY - Lisa Villegas has dreamed of owning a plant nursery for as long as she can remember, and now she has one.

The Seed Cupboard is located just outside of Royal city on Road H SW. And it is no little concern. There is enough product to serve Royal City and the surrounding area.

“This is my retirement career. I don't plan on working for anybody else again,” Villegas said.

Villegas is serious about making her business work. She rises at 5 a.m. every day, does work on her computer – ordering, studying – for a couple of hours, and then spends about 12 hours at the nursery.

“My husband would tell you I work way too many hours,” Villegas said. “I'm not old, and I plan to do this as long as I can.”

Villegas has worked nearly all of her life. She started as a little girl at her mother's knee in the family garden in Nampa, Idaho. She started working for pay at the age of 14, scooping ice cream at a mall.

“The family garden was a big thing because we ate out of it,” Villegas said. “We canned I don't know how many quarts of tomatoes.”

Villegas spent her last seven years working for the Quincy Columbia Basin Irrigation District as a water master clerk at the Royal Camp office. She saved all of the money she needed to start the new business.

“If you have a goal and have a dream, you can save a lot of money,” she said. “I did not want to borrow money to start my business.”

There is a sign for The Seed Cupboard on Highway 26, just before H Road SW, but the business is difficult to see from the highway. So Villegas depends a lot on Facebook. More than 600 viewers received her spring post, and the number of viewers has risen to 1,200 since then.

Villegas was not going to open her business until spring, but friends encouraged her to open on Feb. 6. The weather was unseasonably warm and Valentine's Day was just ahead.

Villegas made up several fairy gardens for office use, but customers bought them as Valentine's Day gifts. She had customers all day, and that nearly brought tears to her eyes.

“Even to think about it makes me emotional,” she said.

The Seed Cupboard offers flowers – annual and perennial – shrubs, trees, roses, garden tools, gift baskets, potting soil, fertilizer, decorative bark, vegetable seeds, seed potatoes, Walla Walla onion sets, ceramic pots and much more.

“Since we live in zone 5, I bring in the hardiest plants,” Villegas said. “I have roses that will make it through our winter.”

Villegas noted that she starts about 50 percent of plants she sells. The other 50 percent must be shipped in. About 80 percent of what she has on hand will survive winter if she doesn't sell everything in a given season.

And Villegas has other business plans. She knows her season will generally be April through May. So in July she will open a fruit and produce stand on the same premises.