Harry George Hastings (1869-1962) was born in Springfield, Ohio on March 8, 1869. He later moved to Florida and in 1889 established the H. G. Hastings Company, a mail-order business specializing in garden and field seeds as well as nursery stock. Two years later, he married Miss Pearl M. Freeborn (1869-1937). The couple had two children while living in Interlachen, Florida: William Raymond Hastings and Harry Stanley Hastings. In 1899, H. G. Hastings moved his business and family to Atlanta. H. G. Hastings and Pearl Freeborn Hastings had their third child, Donald Madison Hastings, shortly thereafter.

In 1922, upon graduating from the University of Georgia with a B.S. in Agriculture, Donald M. Hastings, Sr. (1901-1991) joined his father’s firm. Two years later, he married Louise K. Brown (1901-1987). The couple had two children: Mary Louise who later married Thomas Hal Clarke, Sr. of Atlanta and Donald Madison, Jr. (1929- ). In 1942, Donald M. Hastings, Sr., succeeded his father as president of H. G. Hastings Company. With his wife, he co-authored The Southern Garden Book, which was published in 1948.