Today we’d like to introduce you to Chasiti McGhee.
Hi, Chasiti. I am so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
After finishing college, I started my career in the medical field, as encouraged by my family, and had a good time learning the different ways of operating within it. Three years in this career landed me at Vanderbilt Medical Center on the specialized surgery floor. It was a great learning experience, but ultimately, I had to take a different approach to healthcare and start with our food. Telling my family and friends that I wanted to study plants and be a female farmer was interesting, but so was life! My first successful organic vegetable garden alongside the Caney Fork River in Smith County was all it took for me to shift my focus to planting and growing altogether. I started college with a major in Horticulture at Tennessee Tech this year. In Cookeville, TN, I landed on a retired botanist’s land and was in heaven. Thanks to the botanist’s cultivated space, there was so much to research and learn within my lawn. With my head in the books and hands on the earth, I gradually attuned myself to my environment. Mississippi, my home, began calling me back, and I landed a job on a naturally grown vegetable farm where I learned to be the vegetable maverick I am today. I continued my studies at Mississippi State and learned to readjust to life in North Mississippi. In 2019, I decided I wanted to open a business, Phlox Design, LLC, and bring something unique to my area. Yes, this was just before the pandemic, and I had just given birth to my daughter, whew! It was a big growth spurt! Within my business, I encourage others to grow in harmony with our environment by creating sustainable garden designs, educating and installing native plants, and incorporating permaculture practices.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, has it been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My road has sometimes been smooth and has no speed bumps, but I know many have had a much more challenging ride. Being a mom and female entrepreneur and introducing a regenerative approach to gardening has not been without its obstacles. However, I have found immense support in my community that continues to strengthen and grow along with the gardens I tend. When starting the business, I wanted others to feel comfortable amongst their flowers, vegetables, land, and weeds. I want everyone to remember that we all are welcome in the garden, as we all come from the garden. I didn’t know that I would also be highly nourished, personally, in this work. My worldview has shifted from scarcity to abundance in the last 10 years, and this didn’t come without its growing pains. The work that we are doing is symbiotic or mutually beneficial to me, the land, and my garden pals. I’m grateful that gardening is a labor of love for me!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a gardener and specialize in plants! Helping to incorporate more food into our land is a big passion of mine. I’m constantly recommending clients add blueberry bushes to their gardens or bring more flowering natives to their homes. Adding strawberries to your flower beds serves multiple purposes: beauty, food, and weed suppression. Have you ever heard of a food forest? If not, go and research it! In the last three years, I’ve been learning and sometimes recording my experiments with native plants. Native plants are vastly different from our cultivated vegetables in that the vegetables have been bred for thousands of years, and germination rates are highly predictable and easy to manipulate. Native plants do not have as much germination predictability as our cultivated vegetables, and you have to develop a good sense of humor with these plants because you’re going to fail and succeed in the greenhouse. But in the garden, native plants are far superior to our cultivated vegetables because they adapt well to our climate. Vegetables and native plant species have a place in our gardens. It is much easier to live by trying to harmonize with the environment instead of dominating or controlling it.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
In the gardens I tend, I aim to create harmoniously, effectively, diverse, and beautifully. This ethos informs my direction and the aesthetic of the spaces I cultivate. When looking at a bed I have designed and planted, one can see that it’s aesthetically appealing, but there’s also a companionship between the species. The plants can support each other by providing shade for each other, conserving water in the shared soil, attracting beneficial insects, sharing nutrients, and building soil with their neighbors. The effect of this companion planting can be quite stunning, with diverse heights, textures, and ranging bloom times. Additionally, planting native plants and edible crops increases production, lessens soil erosion, and improves water quality. Native plants also help maintain a steady population of beneficial insects pollinating edible plants. Comfrey is one of my favorite herbs to use within spaces; it is multifunctional in its utility and beauty! Grow it!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phlox.design/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/design.phlox/
- Email: Design.phlox@gmail.com.
