Erica Hanks : A Gardener with Style

At first glance Erica Hanks’s southeast Charlotte home seems as quiet as a Chic-Fil-A on Sunday morning. A sweeping front lawn sets the family’s handsome two story home well behind the tree lined street.  A small brook ambles across the property like a hedgehog on a country road, while a gentle breeze carries the chatter of cardinals and blue jays. Off in the distance a tennis ball is served. Inside, it feels more like Monday morning on the trading floor.

As a mother and professional wardrobe stylist with celebrity clients peppered across the country, a typical day might include preparing pancakes with Greek yogurt and fresh fruit for the kids while packing for a mid morning flight to a photo shoot in New York.

Erica’s work has made big waves - from advertising corporations to professional athletes – And she stays busy.  Her clients have been featured in the Huffington Post, Vogue TV, Marie Claire, ESPN, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Forbes Magazine, Southern Living Magazine, and the UK's Daily Mail.

With a schedule this hectic, most people would send a well-heeled personal assistant out for groceries, or get really cozy with local restaurants.

But Erica wanted her family to share the experience of growing their own organic produce at home. 

 

Her requirements were simple, but firm :  A smart looking raised bed design, tall enough to keep hungry rabbits out, and made with wood that hasn’t been treated with any chemicals. Her organic garden needed to have enough area to grow a fun assortment of the family’s favorites : kale, spinach, lettuces and chard, and, naturally, she wanted a smart looking border filled with glacier pebbles that would tie the design together nicely for a clean, elegant look.

Sturdy raised bed design? Untreated, cedar? Organically grown spinach? Now you’ve got our attention.

The centerpiece of Erica’s organic garden is an L-shaped Kitchen Garden design increased to a height of 25”. The 4’x4’x25” square bed nestles nicely with the L, allowing 2’ of space between the beds. The Microfarm Kitchen Garden design is made with locally milled red cedar, and filled with a blend of pine fines, mushroom compost, and Stalite PermaTill.

This soilless grow medium maintains the perfect balance of drainage and aeration, allowing plant roots to thrive and absorb water and nutrients more efficiently. Our organic nutrient blend of blood meal, bone meal, kelp meal, rock phosphate, and dolomite lime provides plants the ideal range of slow, medium and fast release sources of macro and micronutrients to deliver harvests that wow.

And because Erica’s schedule isn’t going to slow down just because she has a new organic garden, our maintenance team will be making weekly visits to ensure that the family’s fresh organic produce is always just a few steps away from the kitchen.