Hello!

My name is Brandy Duncan, I live in Carrollton, Ga and I am asking for support in pursuit of achieving my dreams of growing a cut flower garden for production. I am asking for financial support to complete the Georgia Master Gardener Volunteer Extention Program as well as Floret Flower's Online Workshop. My intention is to use the benefits from these educational systems to build my business and my garden.

I would love to share my hopes and goals with you:

I have plotted about 2,000 square feet in our yard to transform into a cut flower garden. I hope to sell these cut flowers at our local farmer's markets next spring and summer. I also dream of hosting community-building events, inviting photographers to shoot in the flowers and further educating myself and others on how to better garden in our little corner of the world. I think there is a wonderful opportunity to build connection, healing and joy within my community by getting my hands dirty.

After our miscarriage in October 2019, I started to put down roots...literally. I needed to nurture something, anything. I started with specialty roses. Let me tell you, roses are hard! But they taught me consisentcy, perserverance, failure, triumph and devotion. I thought I would be nurturing the garden, but in reality, the garden was nurturing me. When I found out I was pregnant with my daughter, Rowan, my relationship with the garden dwindled naturally. And then there was postpartum. Postpartum is the hardest thing I've ever endured. I've been lost through the changes of postpartum and into motherhood. It has taken a long journey of deep helaing work for me to be where I am at emotionally and mentally today. I have reexamined and understand who I am now, my evolving purpose, and how to contribute abundance in our household while remaining present with our family, which, for me, is growing flowers and sharing them with the world.

I hope to grow beauty and share it, share my education with the community, and encourage others to believe in themselves too! I am very passionate about individual healing emotionally, mentally and physically. Being presently curious in nature has changed me at my core, and I want a way to share that experience with others.

I've learned much over the last three years through trial and error and the University of YouTube; I feel the time has come that I want to invest in myself further with structured education. Here is how I intend to use these two channels of education to build my business and dreams.

The Master Gardener Volunteer Program is a course that educates home gardeners to be local educators. The course is 50 hours of volunteer commnity service and 50 hours of training education completed over the course of 2023. My intention is to take this knowledge and further invest in the community by being a resource to help build other home gardener's confidence in themselves.

The Floret Flower Online Workshop was created by Floret's founder, Erin Benzakein. Erin is New York Times Best Selling author, flower farmer, designer and instructor. Each year they offer a select number of scholarships and this year I applied but unfortunately I was not selected. I have been completely captivated by Floret's business practices and education opportunities. I think Erin and her husband are an inspiration and I hope to learn eveything I can from her and her team to bring beauty, income, healing and education into my community.

I don't often ask for help or support in this way but I know in the root of who I am that this is something bigger than myself that I can grow. Thank you for taking a few moments from your day to learn about my heart's ambitions. I hope to share the beauty of my labors with you soon.

All my love,

Brandy