Please Help Taylor Family Greenhouse Grow

My name is Kristy Taylor, and I am desperately seeking funds to help me grow my business. I am acutely aware that so many people are in need and my guilt for asking has been difficult, which is why it has taken me so long to ask. I recently delivered plants to a customer, who has become a dear friend, and I left in tears. I had applied for a grant from the NC Tobacco Fund for $8,000. I knew I was perfect for the grant, a woman-owned small business dedicated to wildlife conservation and specializing in pollinator-friendly and native plants but it just wasn’t in the cards. They had 170 applicants and 70 grants. In consoling me, my friend said something that has stuck with me and the beautiful compliment and words has wedged into my brain. She said, "You are so generous with your time. Think of this as an opportunity for people to be generous with you."

I am ready to expand. I have so much business that I physically can’t do any more business than I did last year without some help. My greenhouse is being held together with duct tape and bungie cords, and it is literally rotting and falling apart. This is what I have been using as a greenhouse for the last 15 years.

This is exactly how the funds would be used. The following 3 photos are from the Poly Tex website. The Bench Mart Sr is 17' wide and 36' long (but can go up to 96') It will be 720 sq ft and has expanded metal bench tops that hold 480 flats. My current mess will only hold 80 and we have all cut our toes open on trays doing the tightrope walk down the middle of it and contorting our bodies to water half the plants that are UNDER the tables. 

Recently, a publisher from a greenhouse magazine called me because of my work with native plants (https://www.gardencentermag.com/article/blooms-for-the-birds/). I advocate for helping save our native birds and wildlife, especially the monarch butterfly. She said that nobody else would take the time to speak with her. She asked questions about my business model. She was surprised at how I’d been holding this together with so little. I spend as much time as my customers need to educate and recommend the perfect plants for their needs. For this reason, I’ve had the same loyal customers for years. Word of mouth and Facebook are my only means of advertising, and I am still growing faster than I can handle. I do everything myself. My only help is my 17-year-old daughter, a junior in high school, and my partner and fiancee, who works full time as an in-home nurse and has a 7 year old son, Jayden. So after long days, Jessie is up with me, past midnight, starting seed and tending plants.

I was ready to break ground on my greenhouse this year, we had a huge oak removed and some other tree work done. We start all of our seed (3000 or so) in our very small dining and living room because the greenhouse is only 25’X15’ and only one row of shelves. 

This is what my dining room looks like now, so it is creeping into the living room.

Once we have the seeds started, we move into the current "greenhouse" until it is warm enough to put seedlings outside. This is our lives every year from late February until mid april.  As you can see, it gets tricky playing "Plant Twister" and trying not to fall. It doesn't have proper ventilation and we water everything by hand. A few weeks ago, my doctor told me I have degeneration in my lower spine, I immediately knew why. (I've also had 5 orthopaedic surgeries from this work (so you know how much I love it!)

I was married for 20 years and divorced a couple of years ago. He left me with two teenagers and a house in disrepair. He owes me $18,000 in child support, lives in a tent, is unemployed, yet found money for a lawyer to sue me in an attempt to bully me into selling my house. That didn’t happen, but I had to deplete my savings-all of it-to pay for an attorney to defend me and my kids' home. I've paid this lawyer nearly $8500. This might not be huge for some people, but it is for me. There is no greenhouse but TONS of loyal customers waiting for their veggie starts and native plants. I only mention this to explain the question, "why don't your save the money yourself?" I did. "Why don't you get a bank loan?" I tried. After 4 years of him not showing up to hearings, his name is still on the deed to my house, which is why we couldn't use the equity in my home, even if my credit score is 785.

I am now a divorced single mom, a member of the LGBTQ community, a farmer, grower, master gardener, plant lover and a vendor at a very successful farmer’s market (in addition to my retail business). I know that there must be agricultural grants and loans for any one of those things that aren’t dead-ends which is all I have gotten from the Union County Ag Extension office. I am giving you this information hoping that you can help me with funding.

I appreciate your time and look forward to any help you might be able to give me. I love what I do. Below are some photos of what that is. I bring people joy. I make the world more beautiful. I help to save endangered species and edcate people so that they can do that too. I've been told that my enthusiasm for plants is contageous...I need to grow and I hope that you can help me become more efficient with a new greenhouse so that I can be more active in my community. I have gifts and knowledge to share. But working around this tiny structure that I have now just will not allow me to do that on the level that I know I can.

I realized that if everyone who followed my facebook page could give $10, I could order this greenhouse and get it done in the next couple months. The current structure won't last another year.