Twitter Has Fallen Hard for This Gardening Grandpa

We might be entering into the colder months, but it’s always the right time to learn more about gardening—and Twitter only wants to learn from this gardening grandfather who is perhaps the most precious person online, full stop. In fact, the entire internet has fallen deeply in love with Gerald Stratford’s “big veg” content, and it’s easy to see why.

Stratford is a 71-year-old retired fisherman from Oxfordshire, England. He’s a lifelong gardener who, with his partner, Liz, grows “big veg,” as his Twitter bio states, like giant carrots, huge pumpkins, and suspiciously large bunches of “big boy celery.” What he and Liz don’t eat/ dehydrate/ turn into jam, they donate to local nursing homes.

Wanting to connect with other gardeners and share his green thumb, Stratford joined Twitter in February 2019 and has since garnered over 172,000 followers. His first viral post racked up over 80,000 likes in May 2020, and since then, his following has been growing steadily as more and more Twitter users stumble upon his endearing updates captioned with simple statements often capped with a “cheers.”

Alongside his Twitter account, Stratford also keeps an up-to-date website, bigveg.co.uk, where he shares his gardening origin story. “I am the youngest of four brothers and we were all expected to help Dad grow the vegetables for the family. I think my love of veg growing started then,” he writes, adding that he “always strived to emulate” his father’s expert gardening.

He also notes in his “about me” section that Liz is the “seed grower and flower person” whereas he is “the veg man.”

If you need a bit more light in your life, following Stratford’s gardening journey on Twitter will give you just that, plus big veg envy and perhaps a chuckle or two. Cheers, Gerald. Cheers.