GENIUS HOUR

 Genius Project:  Christina Soldan

Discussion: I have had a passion for flowers and gardening that has stemmed from my youth. My grandfather grew roses for the local florist and I learned how to propagate roses together to create different colored variations.  I worked at the farmers market in town selling my grandmother's hollyhocks in 5 gallon buckets.  This passion has fostered my love for the earth and the beautiful flowers that bloom.  As an adult I have been involved in many garden clubs. I have shared my garden with other gardeners and the community with my home garden being on display.  I have collected seeds and plants and have shared them with so many. Gardeners are like teachers, they share!

I want to become a flower farmer when I retire from teaching.  This will take a tremendous amount of time to prepare for my entrepreneurship.  This project is going to require me to research a ton.  I need to learn about marketing, floristry (bouquets, arrangements), and growing.  I need to have a budget, land and eventually staff to help me manage.  This is going to be a big project that if I front load and research it properly over the next five years then I will be ready to start my flower farm. 

When I am still teaching I want to build a community of plants within my classroom environment.  My students and I collected, processed and distributed seed packets to family and staff.  We are hoping to have a plant sale in the spring.  I would also like to raffle off a garden to a staff member, where we plant a garden for them.  

The difficulty comes with the communication with family and staff.  Also, getting the approval from administration.  The opportunity also could be cross curricular with the agriculture department in my building.  Now that we did the seeds, and the distribution was via email, we could expand on this.

Another interest of mine is with the advancements of gardening and farming through vertical planting.  Over the years there have been agriculture advancements to not have to use the land but grow upwards like Jack in the Beanstalk.  I have witnessed this as a consumer in the markets seeing air plants or hydroponic or aeroponic.  My school is building a new agriculture wing and we will have microgreen beds and vertical towers.  It is agriculture inside, controlling the environment, nutrients and not using as much land and water. I do not know much about this but it definitely intrigues me and I might be able to incorporate this type of technology for my future flower farm.

So my dilemma is not which project I am going to do, because I plan on all three.  However, most of my time, efforts and research are going to be spent on developing my future goal to be a flower farmer.