Yamini 00:16
In New England, we love our gardens, especially because we have long winters. Right after the long, harsh winter spring cleaning is on our minds. We start with landscaping our yards, sowing the seeds for plants, bringing in beautiful flowers that mostly survive until the fall. Many of us also love a handy healthy snack from our yard. So we grow plants we can eat, we do edible landscaping.
Today we are talking to Renee Bolvar, an entrepreneur who turned her passion for growing green, and clean and healthy fruits, veggies and herbs into a successful business. Gardens by Ronnie, her venture is not just her sweat, blood and tears, but a dream to connect people to their food and nature. She’s a nurturer and her mantra, keep growing is something many will relate to. A certified landscaping professional, she’s not only on the board of the Massachusetts association of landscape professionals, but also the lead horticulturist at the best bees company. As if all this was not enough. She’s also a published writer and author.
Our conversation today will focus on her journey and we’ll cover a lot of ground ranging from information and amateur gardener might find useful, all the way to an experts point of view. Welcome to our show, Ronnie.
Yamini 01:41
Hi, how are you? So excited!
Thank you so much for coming to the show. How did Gardens by Rennie start? What was the story?
Renee 01:48
So Gardens by Rene started, about eight years ago, I was actually a stay at home mom. and it’s all I ever wanted to be and at some point, things changed and I realized that I had to get out. I felt like I was losing my mind. I wasn’t happy. I just could tell that it it. I don’t want to say it’s not enough because that sounds like a terrible thing to say. But it felt like it wasn’t enough. I really felt like I was caged and starting to lose my shit.
Yamini 02:20
That’s what I like to tell people. But so I started getting outside and taking down the swing sets, putting in more garden beds, planting more flowers, any opportunity that I had to get outside and get growing.
Renee 02:33
I was outside digging in the dirt and then I was at the bus stop one day and I was talking to a couple of moms and they were asking me tons of questions about tomatoes and basil and planting and that it is and a light went off and I kind of felt like where there’s a need and all of a sudden I realized that people want to know how to grow their own food. They want to connect to nature. They just don’t know how and more importantly, `they don’t have the confidence they don’t think they can. So Gardens by Renee started in my backyard. I had a launch party.
Yamini 03:06
I had about maybe 30 women who came over they were all here from Wayland. It was really fun. To be totally honest. When I did the launch, I felt like people were looking at me like she’s crazy. Like what is she talking about? She’s gonna, you know, put in raised garden beds and teach people how to grow their food. But after the launch party, I had two clients. So the first year Gardens by Rene was born. I had a couple of clients that signed on and that was plenty because at the time I still had the boys were 10 years old, like they’re my boys are now 17 and then I have twins that are 15 so it’s gotten a lot easier. Each year that Gardens by Renee, each spring I added new clients. I’m now up to about 75 growing bonsai
Yamini 03:51
That’s incredible
Yamini 03:52
Yeah, it’s huge. I love it. As the horticulturist lead for the best bees company. I also manage rooftop gardens all across the country for them, which is super fun. But anyway, that’s how Gardens by Renee came it really was just planting a seed one day and realizing that there was a need and my goal is to inspire people and give them what they need to do it themselves. Like I love the clients who hire me. But then two, three years later, they don’t need me anymore, which is fine.
Yamini 04:25
So you actually found a powerful problem that you wanted to solve and that’s how Gardens by Ronnie came into being.
Renee 04:32
Yeah, I also think that there is a huge disconnect and it’s a health issue and you can say with not just obesity, it’s the mental issues and I’ve seen I’ve had the experience with my gardening with people who have depression or anxiety, children, it it helps. So I do think that I am that type of person that I do want to help people like I would like to help them any way I can. And if it can be done in the garden, then that’s a bonus
Yamini 04:59
That’s amazing. Tell us more about what is edible landscaping?
Renee 05:05
Sure. So edible landscaping. It’s also called food scaping. Now that’s kind of a new trendy word, edible landscape. It’s vegetables, it’s herbs, edible flowers, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, anything that you can consume edible landscaping. I think if you were to look back, it would be like the Victory Garden phase. But now it’s more modern.
Yamini 05:31
More aesthetic, you would say,
Renee 05:34
I definitely think my gardens look just as good as they are, call it vanity, whatever. I want my gardens to be magazine worthy, like so when they’re when I install them I’m looking for when I come back and take photos or when I come back and do a video I want them to be magazine worthy. I think gardens should be just as pretty as they are productive.
Yamini 05:57
I remember growing up when I was little daddy used to do these, you know, he was just sow the plants and seeds in the kitchen garden and used to call it a kitchen garden. But I didn’t see much of an aesthetics going on into it.
Renee 06:12
Well, it’s also inter planting flowers mining in the flowers like most of my gardens, you’ll see cascading assertion assertion isn’t edible flower, but it’s also gorgeous. So I think people are the kitchen. I like the term kitchen garden. I use that on social media as well. But I do think you have to then bring in plants that look pretty. Another thing is I I feel like gardens have always been put in the back corner of the yard, one thing I say when I walk a property for a consult with a new client is we don’t put baby in the corner. Like we just don’t like my garden right there, right off the back patio. There in the center of the yard. I want it to be a focal point and an entertaining piece for people I want them to engage, share and feel proud.
Yamini 07:00
Renee, tell us about your love for gardening? How did that start? and who was motivation behind all of this?
Renee 07:07
Okay, so my mom is my motivation for it. We started gardening in Provincetown, where I grow up and I do believe it was done. based out of a need. She had four children and we lived not in a farm area, Provincetown, it was we our house backed up to a cemetery, my mom grew in the window wells, she grew in buckets, she grew in tires. It wasn’t your typical like, Hey, this is a garden area. She just did whatever she could, and we spent summers, I just can remember, it’s so clear. You know, we’d be in the halters and we’d be getting sun and then we’d pick a cucumber, and we’d eat it, and we just spent all of our time in the garden.
Yamini 07:53
Can we bring back our children into this kind of living? Oh, my goodness, we need that.
Renee 07:58
I don’t know if we can I certainly I’m hoping that we can and there are statistics out there that show that children who grow up with gardens in their life end up being healthier adults. So I do hope that and they want it like I work at a couple of daycare centers, children’s centers. Those kids I call them my little pickles, they line up at the box like little penguins at the zoo. and they’re like Miss Renee, Miss Renee. Can I pop tomatoes in their mouth spinach in their mouth kale.
Yamini 08:27
oh my goodness ,
Yamini 08:28
Who wants to eat a flower? They’ll eat violas they want they’ll do whatever. So I think that if we can bring it into them at a younger age, we have a better shot at it. Because there are adults that I know that won’t eat vegetables and I’m like, don’t understand my daughter doesn’t enjoy anything. Well, you get a garden in the backyard and she’ll start eating and my kids will eat that piece off the vine they’ll eat you know anything they can pick anything that they can feel a sense of pride with it. They did it plant a seed, pick a green bean, they’ll eat it. So we’ll get you a garden next day.
Yamini 08:58
Thank you Renee, growing in New England, what does it look like in all seasons?
Renee 09:02
So one thing that I think that people aren’t aware of is that we actually have three growing seasons here in New England. Most people think of gardening and I still hear it all the time. Oh, can’t plant till after Memorial Day. Oh, no planting. No. You can plant as soon as the ground is workable. You’re not planting tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini. In April, what you’re doing is an early spring crop. early spring crops could include lettuces, spinach, kale, and then snap peas, onions, things like that. So cold crops. So your first season would be spring, which so many people miss. They just don’t even get out of their house until May, which I think is crazy and then you have your summer crop, which everyone is summer season, which everyone is familiar with, and then fall, so it’s mid July right now. Pretty soon I’ll start sowing seeds for fall garden. I’ll let my clients have their tomatoes or cucumbers, peppers, they’re a plants and all of that. But meanwhile, back at my house In my greenhouse or outside, I’ll start sowing seeds for the third round in here in this area, it will be kale, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, Brussel, sprouts, things like that.
Renee 09:02
So in New England, we are challenged, but you can extend it either side by using row covers, plastics, tunnels hoops. If you’re fortunate enough to get a greenhouse, I have a lot of stuff growing throughout, usually November. I’ve had seasons where I’ve harvested carrots in December. It’s still challenging, especially for someone like me, like, I actually I hate the winter.
Renee 10:39
I’m not one of those like, Oh, yeah, no, I’m like, Oh, God. So I dread it. I actually already started a little bit panicking over it, because I’m like, Oh, my God, we’re already. I’m planning the third fall season right now. Like, I don’t want to be planning fall I want to be in the moment of summer. But the reality is, you have to plan ahead of time. So yeah, it’s challenging. It’s just it is what it is. I don’t. And there are, I think there are ways you can probably have some stuff growing in the winter. But I always find that by the end of the fall, I kind of crash and burn and then I need recovery time. My hands need a break. My back needs a break, and I usually regroup in the winter. But come January 1, the magazines like seed catalogs, the sketching board, everything. I’m already starting to have consultations with my clients in January, as we’ll be growing.
Yamini 11:30
That was exactly the question that was popping up in my mind, Renee, as to what do these a client ask you in winter?
Renee 11:38
Well, they want to know like, what’s next? and for me, I’m always like, what did we learn? What did we like? What did we not like? Like, last year, I grew a green bean called Dragon’s tongue and it was a yellow, beautiful green bean with purple pink stripes. It was just I picked it in the winter and I was like, Oh my god, this is the best thing ever. I personally wasn’t a fan of it. Well, I found out this year that several of my clients weren’t a fan of it either. So great. So we’re not growing Dragon’s tongue anymore. What are we doing next? So I was asked to do Harry COVID kind of a fancy been.
Renee 12:11
It’s just more like in January, I start planting the seed with my clients as to what do you want your garden season to look like this year? Right? You know, maybe you want more tomatoes? Maybe you want to skip doing the zucchini because it took too much space. Maybe there’s a new vegetable out there that you want to try. I do try to convince my clients to try new food all the time. Like her curry turnip are one this year they’re Japanese white turnip. I don’t know if you’ve seen them.
Yamini 12:36
Yeah, I think I have.
Renee 12:38
They’re delicious. It looks like a radish. You can just slice them, you can eat them raw, you can roast them, there’s so many delicious things to do with them. So I am always trying to say to my clients come on, like, let’s let’s be risky. Like let’s try something new. So that is done. In January, February, I started hitting up everybody for like, what are we doing? Let’s go.
Yamini 13:01
So who is your typical client? Many of us are like DIY enthusiast, and we do the research ourselves, and Google is our best friend and we think we can do it. But of course, some things goes wrong. Is that the typical person that’s that comes to you for like, mostly comes to you for help.
Renee 13:18
I would actually say no, which, but I don’t want to put those people off. I am available online for free. I post, you know, anywhere between two to six posts per day, oh, I see that my garden journey is documented on social media. So for those people who want to do it themselves, they just have to follow me. It’s going to include – Hey, I’m feeding today. Hey, I’m pruning today. Hey, it’s time to plant those second round of cucumbers for the season.
Yamini 13:48
It’s very educative.
Renee 13:49
It is so yeah, there’s your everything I’m doing is documented. So like for those who want to follow, there you go and if you ask questions, like, I’m going to answer them, I find that people don’t engage and I think again, it’s like, there’s a lack of like, maybe they don’t want to feel like they’re embarrassed that they don’t know, or maybe I don’t know.
Yamini 14:08
Or maybe they’re they just assuming that you know.
Renee 14:12
Realquick, because our attention is so short. But I’m there to help people grow. But my client is more. Right now, I’m working with some commercial sites, some corporations I am trying to get more rooftop gardens and more corporations to put in community gardens, things like that. But my client is mostly people who want the garden but they don’t want to take care of the garden. So Gardens by Renee does install and maintain. So those are mostly my clients.
Yamini 14:43
All right, Renee, you just spoke about a community garden and I read in one of your Instagram post about this. I would like you to throw some more light over it.
Renee 14:54
It’s new for Gardens by Rene this year, I decided that I needed to step out of my car. For its own. Yes, it’s working the residential, suburbia, more affluent. That’s works. It works great for Gardens by Rene. But again, I guess I get bored quickly I needed I want something else. I’m like, what’s next, I need more. So this particular one that you’re talking about, I’ve pitched to an investment company, and they’re hoping to build a large development, and included in that large development, they’re looking to do a community garden. So what I’d like to do is get in there, design, build, install the community garden. Then what I’ve pitched to them is to include educational workshops, and hands on learning with Gardens by Rene,
Yamini 15:44
That’s so important, resources are so important, workshops are so important.
Renee 15:48
Don’t just plop a community garden in the middle of a neighborhood, and then expect everyone to just know what they’re doing. Provide the people with the tools that’s going to help them grow a Successful Garden.
Renee 15:59
I always say this, like, I try to set people up for success, not failure. I think that if you just, you know, I think that if they just put in this community garden, and then there’s nothing afterwards like, there’s no follow up, there’s no lead. There’s no, I don’t know, they people are gonna need help. Most people who live in these areas in the city, like they don’t know how to garden. They’re not used to it.
Yamini 16:22
But they do want to garden. Reene, would you say when you were starting up, what were the challenges you face? Like taking the word out in the society in the people getting them to know that this is not that tough to you know, you may kill some plants, but you will eventually become a gardener, Right? That’s I read it somewhere. They say that, you know, you’re a good gardener, if you’ve killed many plants.
Renee 16:46
I think the challenges, we’re getting the word out that I was actually for hire, and that it was a job, not a hobby. That was a challenge. I think that being a sole solo person, I did have great support from my husband, my husband’s a plumber, he would literally take all of his equipment out of his truck, and then go install a garden for me and then go back to work.
Renee 17:08
Like, I couldn’t have done it without Craig’s support, like, for sure I’ve even hired my kids to help. So I think in the beginning, it was not having a team. There are other edible landscape professionals in our country, because there aren’t a lot, there’s, there’s probably a half a dozen of them. But they have help. So they have that investment in the beginning, they have the capital, they have the means to get trucks and to hire a crew and that wasn’t there for me. It was me.
Renee 17:38
So that was challenging and then as the business grew, because once I started managing that a little bit better, the challenge came with managing expectations of the client. So because we are I think an instant gratification nation, people, you know, they they go to the grocery store, and they get this perfect tomato or perfect looping in everything. You know, it’s just perfect and then or they go to a farmers market and so making sure that the client realizes like, we’re at, we’re growing organically. So there are going to be holes in the leaves, maybe the tomatoes not going to be perfect. something might happen where there’s a slug in your lettuce, or there’s a caterpillar on your cow.
Renee 18:25
That is still one of my biggest challenges. Because, in my opinion, you know, the option is to new get with chemicals, which is exactly what I don’t want to be doing. Yeah, it’s very hard and very challenging to grow organically.
Yamini 18:40
Because there are animals who love the crop as much as we do
Renee 18:43
In a healthy environment includes the pests. Like that’s just it like when you’re looking at these farms that don’t have any pests. Like that’s not a healthy environment, like pests are part of the ecosystem. Right? So I was at a property yesterday in Weston, and we were walking around, they have a large, they have their raised garden beds up at the front part of the yard. But then they have like a big field area where we have beehives and we went down to check on everything and there was a weed that was growing and she was asking me like, what is this? and I’m like, I don’t really know what that is. But when we went closer, this it was a huge area, like a big wide open field. When we got closer to the plant she was asking about there was tons of Japanese beetles on it. It was interesting because I was like it’s a host plant. I don’t know what it is. But whatever it is, the Japanese beetles are eating that instead of eating our green beans or our grapes. Oh yeah. thankful that in this environment, we have this host plant.
Yamini 19:39
So, it’s a symbiosis. It’s a mutual.
Renee 19:42
Exactly, and that’s the same with like, I just think that people don’t they see organic in the store, but I don’t think that they’re thinking at all about like what it takes to get from A to B.
Yamini 19:54
They are so used to polished dirt free soil free vegetables, clean and crisp looking vegetables. It’s something that we really need to work on to change this mindset. .
Renee 20:04
I mean, I see a hole in a leaf and I say, Well, I know there’s no pesticides on it, right? Like, that’s what I see, like, I don’t want to eat a bug. I don’t want to see a bug. I don’t like bugs, but I’m not gonna pretend like I’m like, Oh, yeah, I’m eating crickets now.
Yamini 20:23
When we think of edible landscaping, we don’t think of extreme aesthetics. How can we blend in plants that fulfills edible landscaping, but also looks good? What would be those suggestions?
Renee 20:37
Bachelor button, alyssum. There are so many beautiful flowers that can be planted and intermingled in your edible land.
Yamini 20:47
Right. That’s what you meant by inter planting.
Renee 20:49
Exactly and like I already said, like, I really want the gardens to look just as good, I want them to be beautiful and part of being beautiful is having diversity. So we need to make sure that we have cutting flowers and we have cascading flowers and we have blooms. It also really helps with like right now in my garden, which I’d love to invite you to come anytime. I have dill that I let go to flower. So instead of now that the plant is done, I let the flowers you know when the flowers bloom and then it’ll create seed pods. Then I’ll have seeds to sow again for next year. So I’m kind of self sustained in my yard. A lot of my plants I have the seeds I gather right from the plant that flowered, you know, a couple months before, but I love the way it looks. So to have like a swath of four foot tall Dell plants.
Renee 21:40
When you look at the garden, it’s just beautiful. So I have my purple cabbages and I have my green tomatoes but then I have yellow so I think it’s really important to plant and have it I do like to plan all edibles. I don’t have a lot of flowers in my garden that aren’t edible, akinesia you know that’s great for medicinal purposes. If people said your teeth.
Yamini 22:01
I drink tea.
Renee 22:02
I don’t make tea and it’s on the list. It’s definitely something I want to do. But akinesia is a flower that’s borders my whole garden.
Yamini 22:10
Coming to that edible flowers. Yeah, I hear so much about them. Do they add any nutritional value?
Renee 22:16
Yes, they do. edible flowers are super super popular right now. For example, chives, Mr. shim and which personally and is actually what we’ve always considered a weed but now people are eating it. You can buy it at Whole Foods. So chives, Mr. Shawn, purslane, and roses. They’re all rich in vitamin C, dandelion flowers provide vitamin A and C and the greens are high in calcium. calendula is a new flower for me that I planted a lot this year. I love it. It’s high in beta carotene and flavonoids.
Yamini 22:50
They do serve a purpose. Like it’s not just for the show. Okay, so as we know that you’re on the Board of Education Committee of Massachusetts association of landscape professional, what does that entail?
Renee 23:01
So we only meet a couple of times a year, I feel really honored to be on that board. Because when I sit in with a group of people that are outstanding, their top in their profession, in the landscape professional, they’re smart. They want to improve the landscape industry as a whole. So they’re looking for the innovative, trendy new, what’s happening in the agriculture and landscape field that we can then bring to our members. So the board gets together and we pick who the speakers will be, what we’re going to do for events, and what we need to be writing about in our newsletter.
Yamini 23:42
That’s like updating yourself and updating others.
Renee 23:44
We bring to the whole you know, group, the newest, the latest, the greatest, but we approach it from an education we want to inspire but we want to educate to.
Yamini 23:56
Tell us about the association with the best bees company. This is my favorite part because I know the best bees company and I wanted to know what is your association?
Renee 24:04
Okay, wonderful. Do you have bees?
Yamini 24:07
I didn’t but my neighbor does.
Renee 24:09
Yes. Okay, great.
Yamini 24:10
I see her wearing all those guys and trying to you know.
Renee 24:14
She’s doing it herself. She’s a beekeeper, and she’s so I’m not a beekeeper. I don’t want to ever beekeeper. I don’t pretend at all. But I am fascinated by them. I do realize that without bees, we’re screwed and it’s actually still getting worse with what’s happening with our bees dying. So it’s so sad and it’s so scary. But the best bees company.
Renee 24:40
I kind of started stocking Noah Wilson rich a couple years ago. He’s one of the founders of the best bees company. I really fell in love with him in a good way, so I stopped him, paying him, tweeted him, poked him did whatever I could and then I wrote an article for foodies of New England all about The bees company and then finally I got his attention. So after I got know his attention, they then hired me to be their horticulturist lead. So what I do for them is I help them with their rooftop gardens. They have clients that have rooftop gardens all across the country. I help them hire gardeners, contractors to install them and then maintain and then I’m responsible for the updates to the client. It’s fascinating. It’s super cool. It’s empowering.
Yamini 25:29
It’s important at this point.
Renee 25:31
We’re taking Baron. This is like a whole another subject, we could cover another time. We take barren rooftop spaces in Chicago, in DC, in LA in San Francisco in Jeddah, all over the place, empty barren, nothing up there, but air conditioners and whatever and the best bees company goes in and they put their beehives up there. Then we install growing boxes. It’s called pollinator habitat, up on those rooftops, I have pictures of praying mantises, ladybugs, butterflies, spiders, of course, the bees, and then the building benefits from the food that we’re growing, we do about 80% edible and then 20% flowers for the bees.
Renee 26:11
The herbs, bees love herbs, especially if you let them go to flower. So like oregano, so the tenants in the building, some of the buildings have 1000, you know, tenants, they’ll they get little herb bundles, or they get fresh tomatoes, or they get, you know, whatever we’re growing, peppers, tomatoes, it’s depends on the building and the location.
Yamini 26:32
It’s like an ecosystem where you have everyone involved and living together.
Renee 26:37
And people aren’t even aware of it. So it’s like, you know, it connects people to their food and connects people to nature and it connects people to each other. Because all of a sudden, you have these buildings that have 1000 tenants in it. They don’t even know each other. But then all of a sudden, they’re sharing this, or they’re sharing honey. I mean, honey is like the hottest thing ever, right?
Yamini 26:56
This is one of your vision to connect people with food and Nature.
Renee 26:58
Yeah, that’s why it works out really well. So I’m happy to work with them.
Yamini 27:02
That’s amazing. So now we will move on to the question sent to me by listeners, as this was on social media, so Alyssa from Cambridge UK asks, How important is space when designing? and what can you do with a small space? Like a patio?
Renee 27:18
Okay, sure. Yeah, it’s tough and challenging. But herbs. In the smallest space, you can still grow time, oregano. I think that herbs are your biggest bang for your buck when you’re short on space. Because you can cut a cut and come back again. You can keep using them and usually they’ll last throughout the whole entire season. So I think that although people want tomatoes, everybody wants tomatoes, right? It’s like everybody wants watermelon. Yeah, no, go with herbs, because then you’re going to be using them more and you can drive them. So that’ll take you through the winter. So I would say in a small space go with herbs.
Yamini 27:54
How important is space when designing? Like? I mean, how big a space Do you need for all that?
Renee 28:01
It depends on how much you want to grow. I mean, if you have just a small little area, most of the garden beds, they they’re about four by eight, I don’t really love the four by eight box, I like three by 10 three by 12. But you just I think that of course it’s important and the more space you have, the more you’re going to grow, but really like just use what you have. Okay, if you only had room for one bucket grow one bucket of herbs.
Yamini 28:27
Okay, cool. Yeah, Alyssa from India as I was here at my daughter’s place in New England, and I had to buy garden soil mix with manure, can we not use a soil we have directly.
Renee 28:40
So if you’re going to use the soil in the ground that you have, you want to have a soil test done. You want to make sure that there aren’t any lats. You want to make sure that you know what you’re growing in. You can send off a soil sample to UMass or University of Connecticut, they have a soil lab. It’s like 12 bucks, it’s super cheap, super easy. I would not grow in any ground dirt that I didn’t have tested first. The other reason why you want to get it tested is because you don’t want to just be randomly adding manure or fertilizers if not needed.
I think that we are all overindulgent. When it comes to fertilizing, everyone gets a garden and then all of a sudden they’re like, Oh, I got to add 10-10-10. No, probably don’t. You really want to do a soil sample, send it off and know what you need. Most gardens are over fertilized and it only goes into our water system and that’s like not what we need. So yes, you can use the existing soil. But get a soil test done first.
Yamini 29:37
Right. From venibic Canada. What is the watering strategy for houseplants and grow lights? Can that be used for growing some edible landscaping plants in extreme climates?
Renee 29:49
Sure. So I kill all houseplants. I can’t do it.
Yamini 29:55
I don’t believe you’re saying that I thought I was a one but there’s so many.
Renee 30:00
I don’t know, I just can’t do it. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I do think that it’s challenging with houseplants inside because of the moisture, especially with the dry heat, like we heat with a fireplace. So there’s like, you got to add a lot of humidity to it. I’m able to admit that I don’t know exactly how to do the house plant watering, because I kill everything.
But the grow light question. I do grow lights in my basement in the winter. That’s where I start all my seeds, you can definitely set yourself up, you can do it yourself. We were talking about that earlier, you can make some or you can buy some simple kits, but grow lights are fun to have in the winter. They pretty much get me through the winter because I’ll start kale and some lettuce and just some random plants just to still be hands in the dirt growing.
Yamini 30:47
Okay. All right. Thank you so much, Jenny. These were the questions from listeners and I had like 15 of them, but we decided to pick these three.
Alright, moving on to the exciting rapid fire round where I ask you, your favorites. It’ll be great if you answer them quickly, or you can take some time. It’s all right. Ready?
Here the question.We’ll begin with the first question your best food or drink recipe using the magical plants you grow.
Renee 31:14
Okay, that’s like choosing my favorite son. Can’t even that’s like not fair. So I have a delicious zucchini Medley that I love to make every summer. I have a shard appetizer. All of these recipes. I don’t mind sharing with you and your audience. Then I have recently and I have the recipe right here and I’m willing to share that with you and put this online or whatever. A strawberry rhubarb simple syrup.
Yamini 31:40
I’ve seen that on your story. Oh my god, that looks delicious.
Renee 31:43
This is so good. It’s great with cocktails like vodka and club soda. But it’s also good just as soda. So I make the strawberry rhubarb simple syrup and then you just add club soda and it’s just a drink. My husband and my kids love it. They think it’s the best thing they’ve ever drank. So I don’t know if that’s my favorite. I love to make a really good salsa, despacho. It’s just like all the food you get from the garden makes the best so it would be hard to pick like what my favorite.
Yamini 32:11
All right. All right. Pickeles?
Renee 32:13
Don’t get me started.
Yamini 32:14
I love pickles. What is the that one milestone you want to achieve with gardens by Renee .
Renee 32:20
So right now I have a producer and we’re looking to do a reality TV build show. That is my milestone. I’d like to do a book I want to do kind of a coffee table book with little philosophy, some beautiful pictures, and then a few recipes. But right now I think definitely the TV show.
Yamini 32:40
That would be amazing. People or artists that inspire you?
Renee 32:47
So I would have to say the children that love Lane’s special needs horseback riding inspire me. The veterans that come back missing, you know, body parts, but then they still go and I’m getting emotional. I thought it wasn’t gonna do that. But they go climb mountains and run marathons. They inspire me. I’m inspired by common, simple people. Like and I don’t know if that’s really the answer you’re looking for because you’re probably looking at it from more of a garden perspective.
Yamini 33:19
No ,our podcast is about regular women and so it’s amazing to even hear your take on it because yes, I was expecting but you know, that’s what listeners get they get your side of the view.
Renee 33:33
Yeah, I would say more every day the people that I see doing good like, we just recently did a great donation the other day to the food pantry here in Wayland Parmenter and it’s like to see all those women lined up at the table getting ready to pass out food those people inspire me. That’s the kind of inspiration that really.
Yamini 33:51
Yeah, and community is amazing.
Renee 33:52
Yeah Oh, good is out there. People just have to look forward look for it.
Yamini 33:56
Yeah, places or people you would like to photograph?
Renee 33:59
Bradley Cooper? oh I mean, his garden not what
Yamini 34:04
Bradley Cooper is single, by the way. So now, It’s like !
Renee 34:08
So I have a gardener out in LA that I worked with his name is Jimmy Williams and he gardens for him and I’m no longer working with Jimmy. But when we were working together I said to him, you know, no, I want to meet Bradley Cooper. He said well Renee, everybody at all I’m in want to meet Bradley Cooper and I’m like no, but Jimmy I’m special. Please get me into that garden. So when we were working with Jimmy out in LA, I actually thought I was gonna have like this small chance cuz I was like, I’d fly out there in a heartbeat. Yeah, that would be the garden I’d like to see.
Yamini 34:41
Okay, all right. Oh, one book. This is getting interesting. Now listeners. One book you recommend to read for people getting started with edible landscaping,
Renee 34:50
I would say teaming with microbes is my hands down. Favorite book for anyone getting into landscape, growing your own food, nature. Anything It all starts in the soil so teeming with microbes is my favorite favorite book.
Yamini 35:05
One folklore about a specific plant you’ve heard for example, you know, there is a myth about growing money plant in the house for money Or, you know, there’s this little bamboos, the small bamboo sticks, that’s for luck. Okay, so so what’s what’s the New England folklore?
Renee 35:24
Jeez, I don’t really know. I did recently hear that eating dandelion greens is a tire Radek. So I don’t know maybe I should start eating some dandelion greens. That’s that’s about it.
Yamini 35:37
Well, thank you so much Renee. This is an amazing conversation as a chore gardener, I think I learned a lot and I’m going to look into all the recommendation you gave for the plants. We come to an end and we have such an informative session. Thank you so much for talking to us Renee it was pleasure having you.
Renee 35:55
Thank you for having me. Thanks for growing with me.
Yamini 35:58
All right, people. You just heard Renee Bolivar, talking about edible landscaping. I hope you had fun listening to this episode and I just hope you figured out a way to rate review and like the episodes, I would love your feedback.
Please do not forget to send us feedback and also, if you know someone around you who has a story, we will be more than willing to know more about them.
Thank you so much, guys, and I will see you in the next episode.