A family and childhood full of gardening gave Class of 2025 intern Glenn Kiger his introduction to gardening and he has never lost interest. Growing up in North Carolina, Glenn’s parents had a big garden, as did their close neighbor, and Glenn spent hours watching and listening and learning as both worked and discussed their vegetable gardens. Unlike many kids, he remembers enjoying working in the garden as a child and eating what was grown, both the fresh vegetables and those his mother had canned or preserved in some way. In addition to his parents being gardeners, Glenn also had other family members who were farmers and gardeners and aunts who had a fish farm.

After his second retirement in 2024, Glenn knew he wanted to take classes of some kind because he loves learning and decided Master Gardener was a good place to start. He is hoping to use what he is learning in class to continue to improve his small yard in East Nashville. His ultimate goal is to have a beautiful, low maintenance yard that attracts birds and butterflies that he and his wife can enjoy for years. Gardening is a form of relaxation for him most of the time, but he recently injured an elbow while digging out some dead Pampas grass and has wisely decided to have someone else remove the remaining plants. He currently has vegetable and herb gardens in place and he also has some flowers and landscaping that were installed by someone else, but plans to restructure those in the future. His MG volunteer experience so far has been at Ellington, Meigs Middle School, and the Nashville Cemetery but is excited about working at Shelby Park too as it is close to his home.

Glenn and his wife are parents to 5 sons, 3 biological and 2 that were adopted, and have one grandson who is 3. Before moving to Tennessee, Glenn’s career in health-care management took them to several states including Texas, Louisiana, Virginia and North Carolina. He retired from the healthcare field in 2017 after 37 years and then became a full-time tutor at John Overton High School, where he enjoyed working with kids and the freedom to work greatly reduced hours compared to his previous career. He also became the boys tennis coach, which he continues doing even though he stopped tutoring in 2024. He says it is a great part-time job that only lasts 2.5 months per year, and he has played tennis most of his life. Travel is another interest and with a family wedding coming up in Ecuador, he is looking forward to that trip. Hiking, going to the theater and ballroom dancing are other hobbies he and his wife enjoy and along with gardening, will have more time to enjoy in retirement.