A Garden Consultant’s Job

So, What is a Garden Consultant?

Hey friends! My name is Mailonie Nash and I’m a garden consultant! I basically use my years of experience to your advantage by being a guide. I help you to avoid years of pitfalls, mistakes, and commercial gardening traps while empowering you to be the best gardener you can be! I’m essentially your gardening shortcut. So… what exactly does that mean? Well, let me give you a little bit of my background.

I am 30 years old and have been gardening since 2018. I grew up in a loving home and was blessed with two awesome parents and a younger brother who have all been my biggest cheerleaders in life, apart from my husband of 3 years now. My father’s childhood stories were a huge part of what inspired the homestead-loving, garden girl I am today. He grew up on the island of Puerto Rico and lived a lifestyle that a lot of people in my generation are striving to get back to. He used to tell us stories of how he grew up with chickens, goats, pigs and more in his back yard. He also told us about the myriad of fruit trees and gardens at his families fingertips. His stories called to a part of me that looked around and said that there had to be a better way to contribute to the health of my family. And so I did some research, as I always do when I am embarking on something new.

Would you like to know what I found? There is so much conflicting information on the internet! I realized that gardening was as clear as mud! It was dirty business! Just a quick side note… If you’re not into puns, I am so sorry. My husband has corrupted me and I can no longer pass up on the opportunity for a giggle at the dumbest things. The only side effect so far has been happiness, so I think you’ll be fine! Anyways, back to the topic at hand. I found that the best thing for me to do was to just get started! So, I did what every new gardener does… I went to a big name brand hardware store! You know the one I’m talking about! They bring out plants every year like clockwork in the spring, and will usually have them out until the fall. I picked up some seedlings of tomatoes and peppers, lettuce and cucumbers. My dad built me some garden beds made out of plywood and two by fours. We got a few bags of a popular name brand bagged soil and planted everything up. Next thing you knew, BAM…. I was a gardener!

I think we got a handful of tomatoes and maybe a few peppers for our efforts. Our cucumber vines shriveled after only a few cucumbers and I learned that I had a deep seated… (seeded, hehehe)… hatred for Aphids. If you don’t know what aphids are, they are basically perfectly camouflaged teeny-tiny plant vampires. Once you have one… expect hundreds. Oh, how I wish that was an exaggeration. Needless to say, year one was a learning curve full of struggle, but the silver lining was the triumph of tasting a home grown tomato for the first time. Thankfully, I inherited the best of my father’s tenacity and my mother’s hunger for knowledge. The taste of that tomato was just enough to send me over the edge. I was determined to succeed! So, I did some digging! Man, I really can’ help these puns. I looked into all of the methods, square-foot gardening, no till, chaos gardening, intercropping, planting according to the packet spacing rules, planting in neat little rows, intensive gardening… the list really is endless.

And again I ask… would you like to know what I found? I found out a lot of these methods have nuggets of wisdom, but ultimately, the best gardens are the ones that are designed to work with nature and not against it. Did you know that Aphids have a few a natural predator? One of these predators are ladybugs… but not the cute little round beetle with black dots. It’s the larval stage of those beetles that most people would squash because frankly, their kind of ugly. Do you know what the big box store will recommend for your aphid problems? Pesticides. Pesticides are terrible for the human body which means you don’t want to ingest plants that have been sprayed with them. Pesticides, will also kill the creatures in nature that will literally eat the aphids and protect your garden! Those same lady bugs will also help you by pollinating your plants which means you’ll get more tomatoes! Now, those freaky little red and black spikey lady bug babies bring absolute joy to my heart and I make sure to leave them alone! I’ll even move them to any parts of the garden that have any aphids for them to eat!

That lesson right there took me a whole year of frustration and a decreased harvest to learn. As a garden consultant, this is what I do… I come in, and I save you years of lessons, expenses and wasted resources so that you can start gardening from year one with 6+ years of experience and countless hours of research and education. I will always be a student of the garden and the lessons it offers, and my hope is that I can help you start from a place of confidence and wisdom to save you time, money and effort. I’m here to help for as long as you need me, and if I do my job well, it means you won’t need me for too long.

Until next time, keep growing!

-Mailonie Nash

Garden Consultant