Karin Fields, the Edible Gardening Gal

VoyageMIA | August 17, 2017

Karin Fields aka The Edible Gardening Gal

Today we’d like to introduce you to Karin Fields.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.

I worked at night singing in clubs, married a saxophone player and did gigs all over South Florida. After performing at SunFest and Art Deco Weekend, I looked out among the sea of people and knew that I had gone as far as I could, and it was time to do something else. While I had been performing at night, during the day, I had taught myself how to grow. When Mrs. Obama came into office I did some volunteer work in the public schools. I was then asked to participate in the installation of an edible garden on the Tori and Dean show in California. When I came back from the show, people started calling and asking me to make an edible garden for them.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?

The challenges were many. There was not much information available about growing food in the tropics for the home gardener. The hardest part was trying to separate the good information from the bad. We grow plants here that don’t necessarily want to grow in this environment. The gardening rules are a little different. For example, when we move here from another state, we naturally plant our tomatoes in June… and that’s wrong. If we plant tomatoes in June in the topics, it’s too hot. Our first tree is usually an orange tree... Nope... not here. If we are reading gardening books, they don’t apply to us in the tropics. So what happens is we try, fail, and sometimes don’t try again because we think we can’t do it. We can, we just don’t have the right information.

The Edible Gardening Gal – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?

The Edible Gardening Gal is a crew of green-minded gardening “Amazonian” women... okay, we have a guy or two! We build and install edible gardens all over South Florida. We teach at schools, gardening events, clubs, and libraries. Our specialty is taking the time to really make our clients aware of the logic behind growing in the tropics. We want them to learn, and spread the joy of “growing your own.”

We’ve had the same clientele for years… and are very proud of that!

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?

My proudest moments are always looking at the finished product… there are a lot of bits and pieces, and every yard is its own little eco-system. There is no one fit for all. It’s different every time. To watch it all come together is a beautiful thing!

Pricing

  • Service calls are $100. You can spend as much as you want for a garden. Pricing... Your biggest cost will be to invest in good soil. Our soil is sandy, it does not hold water, and is not nutritious enough to grow food. Once the garden is established, you can amend it by using your own compost. This is the simplest way to be green. Use your own food scraps! Once you taste and grow... you’re hooked!

Contact Info:

Flyer for an Organic Gardening 100 class
A beautiful garden
Photo of Karin being interviewed by NBC 6 Miami
A class of children
Miami-Dade Public Library flyer
Seen on "Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood"