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Meet Dillard Haley
Farmer Dill, or Dillard Haley, has reviewed 534 vegetable varieties in our database. Hailing from Richmond, Georgia, he is our first featured gardener on Vegetable Varieties for Gardeners (VVfG). To see the varieties Farmer Dill has reviewed, click here. If you or someone you know are interested in becoming a featured gardener, please contact us at vegvariety@cornell.edu.

Dillard Haley in his own words:

I am a depression baby, grew up on a small subsistence farm in Piedmont Virginia. Four rooms and a path, no electricity or running water. Food had to be grown, hunted or fished out of the creeks. Of course we had cows, horses, hogs, chickens, ducks and turkeys. My mother was the experimenter, trying any type or variety of vegetable she could lay her hands on. My father was more concerned with the corn, wheat and hay. I left at 18 with a scholarship to UVA, and served in the navy, taught in public schools or served as an administrator for most of my career. With the GI bill and a sabbatical I managed to add two more degrees. After retiring in Virginia, I was offered a college position in Georgia, and here I am. I have always managed to grow a small kitchen garden just about everywhere I have been. Now fully retired, I have time to indulge in experimenting and enjoying my second childhood. I try to grow some varieties from my childhood, some the old folks talked about when I was young, and of course the newest varieties on the block. It is purely a hobby. I give away most of it.