Welcome to Brookmeade Sod Farm! Since 1968 Brookmeade has been proudly farming in Hanover County, Virginia. Locally owned and operated, current and only owners Louis and Ginger Brooking started Brookmeade in June of 1968. Louis had graduated from VA Tech’s Agronomy Department specializing in Turf. Having his degree and being raised on a farm led to starting one of Virginia’s first Sod Farms. When Brookmeade first began Ginger was employed as an RN in Richmond working the night shift. She spent her days mowing grass and handling administrative duties, while Louis was 100% on the farm. Together Louis and Ginger have been hands-on running the company since 1968. The Brookmeade family has now grown to three farms with 20 employees, many of whom have been with the company for over 25 years. Louis oversees 300 acres of sod, all in Hanover County, Virginia. The Plain Dealing Farm located in Ashland and the Vontay Farm in located in Rockville. Vontay and Plain Dealing Farms are production only for deliveries and installations, while the main farm on Rt. 54 handles all of the scheduling, farm pick-ups and daily operations. Brookmeade sells wholesale and retail at the location on Rt. 54 – 12 months a year, weather permitting. Located 1 mile west of Patrick Henry High School, when the schools are closed for bad weather, so is Brookmeade.
A large part of the business has been new home construction, subdivisions all over the Richmond Metropolitan area. In these neighborhoods, new homes require a front lawn before closing. Brookmeade’s Sod is growing all over Richmond from grassy areas in Kings Dominion, Innsbrook Office Complex, Hollywood Cemetery to the newly renovated Virginia War Memorial. Landscapers and Irrigation companies contract Brookmeade to install sod for their clients providing sod around buildings and parking lot islands; in addition to handling homeowners’ sod needs. Although Brookmeade Sod Farm has been in business for 53 years; many homeowners are not aware they can buy directly from the farm. Brookmeade offers Turf Type Tall Fescue in square yards of 16″x81″ all year, Zenith and Meyer Z-52 Zoysia bag of plugs and/or by the square yard. Zoysia is available to harvest when the temperatures warm up.
Many homeowners find they have small sod needs to cover areas where they may have taken up a tree, changed landscaping around an addition, or even put in a pool and tearing up the lawn in the process. Harvesting to order, with a minimum order of 1 square yard Brookmeade provides sod to fix these areas, as well as complete lawn renovations. Some residential customers are Do It Yourselfers handling all of the sod work themselves, having Brookmeade deliver large amounts of sod when ready to install. Brookmeade offers farm pick up, delivery and expert installation. Save your back, let us do the heavy work. BSF’s reputation has been built on providing service to their customers both before and after the sale. There is always a turf expert available at Brookmeade to answer customer questions and provide follow up after the sod has been installed.
Louis and Ginger have continued a relationship with VA Tech, working with their Turf Department providing test plots at our main farm for research for the past 25 years. Louis is extremely knowledgeable but is always learning and willing to pass on all he knows to the customer. Louis has dedicated his life to turf, he is quite the local expert as well as being recognized state-wide and internationally as one of the leaders in the turf industry. The Brookings commitment is demonstrated by their endowment of a scholarship at VA Tech for a graduate student in the Turf Department.
Brookmeade is open all year, harvesting, delivering and installing sod, weather permitting.
Louis Brooking, Jr. a Virginia native grew up on a grain and cattle farm in Henrico County before attending VA Tech, majoring in Agronomy. In June of 1968, Louis and his wife Ginger began the operation of Brookmeade Sod Farm. Louis is dedicated to turf research and biotechnology, which is demonstrated by supporting Virginia Tech’s Plant Pathology Department which studied Brown Patch on his farm for over 25 years. Louis is a past president of Turfgrass Producers International and remains active serving on the Past President Council. He has been President of the VA Sod Growers Association three times and has served on the Board of Directors for both TPI and VSG. He is a past Chairman of the VA Agribusiness Council. Locally he served as a board member of Henrico and Hanover County Farm Bureaus, Hanover Country Club, and The Ashland Youth Soccer League (also past president.) Recently Louis ended his 19 years of service on the Board of Directors for the Virginia Agribusiness Council. He is currently active with the VA Farm Bureau Green Industry Advisory Board; as well as a business partner with Hanover County’s Partners in Education. Extremely knowledgeable, Louis is always willing to answer any questions about Turf.
His character and dedication to the Turf Industry have been recognized numerous times with the following awards:
Louis resides in Hanover County on the farm he started in 1968 with his wife Ginger. The Brookings’ have two sons, Louie and Matthew. Louie is close by, working at Brookmeade’s Vontay location. Matt is a computer engineer, residing in Northern Virginia with his wife Jeni and the Brookings’ grandchildren Isabelle, Ryan, and Olivia. Louis has enjoyed world travel with the International Turf Producers learning about sod production around the world. In 1993 Brooking spoke at Beijing University to a fledgling turf industry that has gone on to become world-class. His favorite pastime, by and large, is working on the farm and seeing the product of his labor.
Brookmeade Sod Farm is proud to brag on our own Ginger Brooking’s talents. Ginger is semi-retired from the daily farm operations but still available when needed. An incredible artist, Ginger creates one of a kind Santa Clauses, “Virginia Old World Santas” and teaches others how to make them as well. She is also a published author of two children’s books.
