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This week’s interview is with Dominique of Pharmunique. She is a backyard gardener from Florida, who quickly learned how to garden during the pandemic, and shares how with her online community. On this episode, we discuss starter tips for new gardeners in a house or apartment, why volunteering the local community is important to generation food health,, ways to cook for prosperity in the New Year and why she must have her long nails and favorite skincare while gardening in the sun.
Find her at Pharmunique on all social media platforms, but start here: Pharmunique’s Instagram
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On this week’s episode I’ll talk to Dominique the CEO of farm unique she’s a fidan who loves backyard gardening she has grown her following on social media sharing how she has learned and utilized those tips create the garden of her dreams now she’s sharing tips on this
Episode about how to get started whether you have a home with a backyard or living in an apartment how she Volunteers in her local community to ensure that the youth understand where and how things grow and understanding how to cook for Prosperity especially ahead of the new year and always
Remembering your roots this is just something that Dominique is all about and I’m happy to share it with you H Dominique thank you so much for joining me on the beauty and Recreation podcast thank you for having me of course of course I would love for you to
Tell people you know who you are and what you do so I am a backyard Gardener I’m a black woman a daughter a wife a sister a friend a God Mom but most importantly I think my greatest accomplishment is being a gardener right now so I am a
Gardener and I’m a Floridian I’m a Florida girl who frolics around in her garden so that’s the basics of who I am so okay tell me how you got into gardening like where did this all come from so I like to say my ancestors led me to gardening we were in the
Pandemic and I was doing these lead meditations where it was imagine where you are imagine you’re in a room imagine where you work and every time I would close my eyes and imagine things I was walking around in all I saw was Greenery right and so I’m like huh I keep seeing
This Greenery so I had invested in some house plants I was like I’m going to take care these house plants I kept having these Visions or these dreams and I said you know I really think it’s gardening which is random but I think that’s what it is and so I jumped head
First into it I bought books I started researching I started following a ton of gardeners on the internet on social media Instagram Tik Tok and I dove had first um my husband and I were living in a town home at the time and so I told my
Husband I’m like when we buy another house I want a big backyard cuz I want a garden he was like okay and that’s what led me to gardening that’s kind of like the short condensed version of how I landed of gardening no I love it I I want to like
Take a step back to having a space that doesn’t have a lot of land to having a space that does have land that allows you to actually do this yes like what does that really mean to you to have that space Oh my gosh it means so much
Because it came in the middle of the pandemic and I just I you know the pandemic was very hard on a lot of people but for us because we had a town home and we were able to sell it and profit we were able to buy a home that
Was not what we thought we were going to be able to afford but because we had that property before and then we were able to purchase something new I kind of I walk around out here sometimes and I’m like I I am more than blessed more than blessed I’m living my parents Wildest
Dreams this is what they worked hard for uh for us to be able to afford something like this and I know my ancestors are like yes take care of that land that you have it’s not a lot it’s not huge um but it’s a big enough space yes it’s a big
Enough space and I I try to do my best to honor this area to honor this space and this walk in this garden and I’ll just come out here and I just stand and I look around sometime I’m like I cannot believe my hands did this like I tell
Myself that all the time I can’t believe my hands I I put my hands in soil and I grew this in a backyard and so it means a lot to me and I’m ever grateful and I always try to remain grateful and thankful for my blessings so did your mom Garden when
You were younger so no she didn’t Garden when I was younger but she tells me all the time about how when she was very young that everyone in the neighborhood grew their own stuff their own collard greens their own green beans tomatoes so I think come growing up in the 90s a lot
Of our parents kind of were working hard trying to you know get us through school so she didn’t have the ability and the time to Garden but she did when she was very young um what’s your favorite thing thing to grow collard greens why my favorite thing because I can so my
Garden over my bedroom overlooks uh my garden and I look out there and I just see those leaves on those collge I’m like oh it’s just there it’s the best thing I’ve been able to grow like I don’t know what the magic trick I had
Was I have videos about how I grew them but they grow so huge the leaves are like bigger than my entire face when I hold them and I just love growing them and then when I cook them and they taste like none other it’s my favorite thing
To grow by far and I’ve given them to uh my family they’re like we never had greens that taste that good I’m like really from these yeah I grew them from these so yes that’s my favorite thing to grow collard greens for sure oh okay so
I know you went to FAMU yes but what did you study when you were at FAMU I actually study Pharmacy I’m a pharmacist by trade um and so it’s always interesting because growing up as a child I was very big into the sciences and the maths that’s what I was a
Science math kid and I think once you start to get a little older especially those of us that are in the stem Fields you need a bit of a creative Outlet or an outlet that’s not as rigid Math and Science can be very rigid and so I think
It makes per sense that I’m gardening and growing herbs especially being a pharmacist so yes I’m a pharmacist and I think people think I put Farm as like a play on Farm but actually it’s Farm based as a play on Pharmacy so oh my goodness yes the same thing yes most
People do most people do but yes I am a pharmacist a legal drug dealer by trade so do you plan to um you know maybe one day take Farm unique and turn it into a gardening brand offer seeds or like do you go to the Farmers Market at
All and sell your stuff so what I want farming neque to be is an educational resource for people I want to teach people um how to grow their own food and so that’s the vision that I have for Farm unique is teaching people how to grow their own food how to grow
Different herbs and then I do have a vision of me growing herbs that are rare and maybe cultivating my own herbal tea Blends and herbal medicine um as a pharmacist I really want to bridge the alternative medicine world with the Western medicine world and be able to
Grow healing different herbs and kind of teaching people about that so I’ve got a couple different directions I want to see farmin grow in couple you got plenty of directions you could go into oh I love this so I saw something like zones and I I had never noticed this but like
What is a Zone in relation to gardening per I guess a backyard Gardener yes so the hardiness zones they were developed in like the 1920s and it’s basically a map that is talking about the winter and how Hardy um the environment will be for your plant to grow so gardeners are always
Looking for the right variety of plant to grow in their area so if you have a very brutal winter you’re going to look for plants that are more uh winter hardy and so the hardiness zones when you look at the map we start at the top of the
United States and you kind of flow down so the top is like Zone one zone two as you move down it gets warmer and warmer and so when you get to those High zon like eight nine and 10 um eight nine and 10 are the warm subtropical zones and
Then you get down further and so it just is talking about the winter and how a plant will thrive in that environment so the that’s what the Harden is on and I always tell people uh I liking it to this uh you know how black women in our
Hair typing system there’s some women who love it right um because it helps us identify our hair type but just because you products that go with it and the products that go with it but just because you have 4C hair your 4C hair May behave differently than mine but we
Are in the same category and that’s what the zone is so you could be living in zone 9B like me but it you might be in California so it may be a little bit more dry so the zone is a good General basis but you do have to learn your I
Think they call it microclimate in the area that you’re in so you may be in the same Zone as me but it may be more dry or more wet but our Winters are going to be similar so we’re not going to drop into very low winter temperatures so we
Can grow things a lot longer than gardeners that are in the uh zones like one two and three so that’s like what the hardness zone is oh wow so you can get away with with growing summer vegetables through the fall because the weather it’s warmer maybe your soil is very different yes
Interesting and so like I have like I have peppers growing and I got some here that I picked some peppers that I just picked out the garden usually this time of year a lot of gardeners that are in like let’s say zone five six seven they’ve already had a frost and peppers
Don’t do well in the cold and uh Tomatoes don’t in the co I had tomatoes growing peppers growing so I can grow my grow season is a lot longer than the gardeners that are in the um higher zones or higher up on the map zones hold on
So what are you growing right now O Okay so I’ve got peppers growing I I’m growing a sour sap tree which if you’re from the Caribbean um you might have be familiar with sour sap it has a lot of healing properties I have a bunch of lemongrass you can see it right here
Behind me I’ve got um collard greens of course growing um something interesting that I’m growing is loofah and so if you’ve ever washed your body with a loofah um those grow on a vine like the natural on so it’s behind me you can’t really see it but I have really big
Lufas they dry on the vine you peel the skin I have some videos on it you cut it up and you can use it like as a sponge on your body wash your dishes so that’s what’s grown I have onions I’m getting ready to plant some
Garlic um and I’m going to be planting like probably like 20 more collard green plants and that’s going to be my fault and cabbage it’s going to be like my fall gardening yes I have a ton of stuff growing oh so you ready for the holiday season and eating and feasting semi
Ready um I told everybody I’m like look we not we might not be able to eat a big po h of collard greens for Thanksgiving but on New Year’s I got y’all everybody going to bring in their good luck with my collard greens so I should have a
Bunch of collard greens ready for the New Year’s where a lot of people here in the South cook collard greens as good luck for the new year so that’s when I plan to give out collard greens to friends and family but yes I’m definitely ready for um The Fall season
Soups and stuff oh I also have carrots and beans growing I can’t wait to put those into a what kind of beans so I have bush beans green beans so they’re going to be your regular green beans that are growing and I think I have some purple some purple beans that when you
Cook them they turn green so they’re like they’re right here beside me as well you can’t quite see them but yes I have those growing too yes oh this is so amazing yes um so like you’ve been doing this for a bit you have this huge Garden
I’m curious is someone who’s always in the sun oh yes she’s like oh yeah it’s someone who’s always in the Sun what do you do for your skin like do you wear sunscreen do you yes I’m like at this point I’m like do you grow your
Sunscreen I wish I wish no I definitely wear sunscreen and I wear super glute I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of them but they they have a white container and yellow top Super GL and I wear at least SPF 45 uh if I can find higher I wear that I
Wear it on my face every single day and I have sunscreen that I wear on my body and I don’t that’s the first thing I do I brush my teeth get out the shower wash my face I’m putting sunscreen on and I have a spray sunscreen when I come
Outside I spray it and it’s also by super group I spray that down I keep myself uh drenched in sunscreen because like you said although you know I’m melanated I don’t want my melanin to crack okay so I got to keep that sunscreen on make sure I keep my youthful
Appearance yes and then like do you think the sun is contributing to like this acess face of yours well i’ I’ve been or is it the food I think it’s the food the water I mind my business I stay out of other people business okay uh the
Garden keeps me keeps my stress level down and so it helps with my skin but I do have I’m really serious about my skin care regimen like I use very affordable stuff but I’m very serious about it so every night it I’m taking about 20
Minutes to put my skin care on at night I go to bed looking like a glazed donut okay with all my skin care on every night I do not miss a night and then in the morning I’m really good at you know putting my sunscreen on I really think
That that helps keep my skin good I try to drink as much water as I possibly can and I notied like you know my skin my skin loves me for it and I I thank the genetics of my mother too so I’m like you know Mommy thank you for the genetics daddyy
I think all of it just gets married together and you know here we are so do you have any tips for people who are like oh I don’t really like get my hands dirty or o you know my nails and like what’s your whole thing like let that go and
Start well now I’m a nail girly and I think people I find that interesting I’m like no I get not one thing about me I’m gonna get my nails done okay but I wear garden gloves um most of the time I wear garden gloves and when I am in my hands
I get those brushes and I scrub really good under my nails every time I come out the garden I scrub my entire head and under my nails um so I say you know to each his own right if you’re a nail person you can still Garden right this
Is a short nail set for me sometimes I get them a little longer um plan your garden around your nails right so my nail um Tech she knows that she knows my heavy Garden seasons and so during that time we’ll go nailess so I’ll soak off
All the acrylic that I have on or the gel that I have on and we’ll take a nail break and that’s when I’m really hard in the dirt and then once I once everything is planted and transplanted outside then I can kind of go back to my nail sets
But in between that I wear gloves and if I sometimes I run out and I dig around a little bit without my gloves on I just really scrub under my nails and over my nails really good so that’s no excuse if you follow some of the black um black
Women who Garden like on the internet a lot of us are nail people like we we are black girls through and through now we’re going to get our nails done and all of us probably are doing the same thing wearing the gloves and or just scrubbing really good on our
Nails I love that you brought this up and you mentioned a few things like the the hair chart the curl chart yes and comparison with the zones and then like being a nail girl and gardening and since you’re wearing gloves all the time like have you ever come across a moment
Where you’ve gotten sick while gardening you know maybe a bug has bitten you just you know you hear all those things like lime disease from gardening yeah that’s a great question so I have not well I haven’t gotten sick but I have gotten bitten by a spider or a wasp and yes my
NE my leg swo up uh the area of my leg swoll up um what I would say about the Lyme disease is you have to be very careful when I’m out um gardening I try to pay attention to which way the wind is blowing and so if I’m putting soil
Out or I’m using something that’s uh dry and Dusty I try to make sure I stand in the opposite direction so that it’ll blow away from me in the wind and I don’t think it’s a bad idea to even wear a mask when you’re messing around with
The dusty elements so that’s how I keep from inhaling because I think the Lyme disease comes from people inhaling certain things uh some of the dry mixtures that people use so I try not to do that so I’m always looking like is the wind blowing let me like take this
Out away from me so that I’m not breathing it in that’s what I do is um Rin catching allowed in Florida I believe it is and that is that’s something I’m I’m hoping to get into when we get back into our rainy season I bought like a rain Catcher And I’m
Hoping to get into that um during the rainy season because the one thing with gardening in the summer in Florida when it’s really hot you use so much water your water bill is going to go up and so what I want to do is take that rain
Catcher and put it out and collect as much rain as I can but I believe it’s allowed in Florida so I’m double check I’mma double check just to make sure because I don’t want no issues with the law no issues with the law please don’t
Come by me yes please oh so okay we’re at the end of the year and we’re getting into 2024 and I think by the time people listen to this um they may have the urge to start something new and it might be gardening yes so like what are the top
Three things that people could Garden easily or kind of like I’m going to plant it and let it go and come back to when I remember so in the winter in the winter okay H in the winter I think collard greens are not that hard to grow in the
Winter um they like cold uh when they get that little frost on them they taste even sweeter um I don’t think that they’re very difficult to grow you don’t have to grow them from seed you can get the plant start at your local uh plant nursery put them in some soil you can
Grow them in grow bags I I have a lot of video of me growing things in grow bags they’re just like these fabric bags get some soil fill it up Put Your Collar green plant in there and you’ll be very surprised at how big and Luscious it gets that’s something that’s very easy
Um as we go into winter you can start if you’re going to start seeds you can start like your tomato and your pepper seeds and then when that first little bit of spring starts to peek through you can move them outside and you’ll have a good tomato and pepper Harvest and then
I also just say as a general herbs herbs are so easy to grow basil it’s prolific it you put it in the ground and it’s going to spread and grow I had like a a tree of Basil it just kept growing you snip the top off and you cook with it
And it’ll just keep growing so I always tell people that are new to starting out to try things like that uh basil as an herb cilantro is not that hard to grow either um it likes to be a little bit cooler so you can start with your herbs
Or parsley or something like that and then I would say like as a group collard greens or some type of kale they’re all in the same family so that’s a good set and then you can do peppers and tomatoes they’re they’re usually the first two things that people want to grow is a
Pepper and a tomato plant and I think you can start those in the winter they take a Peppers take a little bit to grow you can start it in the winter and by the spring you should have a pepper plant growing you should have little peppers growing
Wow I’m GNA try that I’m GNA try that I’m gonna try it I’ve never started in the winter I think I went in zone six five six okay okay okay B said so I’m not I’m not in Maine I’m like middle of the United States so yeah it’s probably
Five six five six seven yeah you probably around five six or seven have you considered doing like community service and gardening yes so I was um volunteering at a community uh Farm Garden that was in downtown Orlando they’ve moved location since but I really H it would really feed my soul to
Be out there gardening um it’s in the middle of a food desert right so you got what people would consider the projects or you know a building of like Section 8 housing um right across the street you know it’s a you know a black neighborhood downtown uh there are no
Grocery stores very close by so this Farm um they came there had a plot of land and they started gardening and they would feed the community with that right like they were a I think it’s called a CSA program where they could take food stamps and very small amounts for the
Food there and I loved going there they they just moved location so I can’t wait to get back connected with them yeah but I think the Community Gardens are so important especially in food deserts um where there is no grocery store nearby a lot of people and I learned this when I
Was out there that we would see the little black kids come and look over they wanted to come volunteer they were like so that’s how things that’s how collard greens grow like they grow in the ground like I never seen a collard green plant like oh that’s how grapes
Grow they grow on a vine I’ve never seen grapes grow and so it was like opening up their eyes to how things grow because a lot of people have never seen things growing they just see them in the grocery store if they have the pleasure
Of getting to a grocery store so I love volunteering I can’t wait to get back into it wow I never had the like wherewithal to place like not knowing what something looks like from its root and then seeing in the store and then actually see on your plate and understanding like the
Perspective and I really appreciate you sharing that because it’s one thing to say oh I didn’t realize the egg was the chicken and that the chicken breast was coming from this or like beef Came From This and like there are people out here like you say are in food deserts they
Actually don’t have any green space to just start they don’t have the funds to buy all these things just to start in their apartments and homes or like good Lighting in apartments um no so I really appreciate you sharing that yes I think you can get
Away with much more outside of where you at right now yes and something I think is important to call out for I know talk about affordability and I really do want to do a little bit more work on that but one thing I think people might not know
Is if you do get food stamps you can buy seeds and live plants on your food stamps so you can buy like um a fruiting tree so maybe you want to grow an orange tree or something like that um you have to check VI your local areas but you
Should be able to purchase seeds and um fruiting plants on your food stamps so I think it’s good to know that a lot of people don’t realize that but I think it’s really good to know that especially um in communities where people they want to better themselves they may have a
Little patch of land somewhere um but you definitely can buy them with their your food stamps grow your own so how do you get over the intimidation of starting though you have to that’s a really good question you have to be ready to face the fact that
Not everything you plan is going to grow and you have to have the patience that uh that it takes to grow things I think uh people even with my collar greens people like oh let me get some of those I’m like do you know how long it took me
To grow that you got to wait a minute now let me let me let me replenish let let some more leaves come up on there now y’all want my collagr y’all y’all think they grow like that like it take a little minute now and so you have to be
Ready to be patient because you’re not going to plant it today and then Harvest it tomorrow and it teaches you that life lesson about patience um so I would say you have to get over the fact that some stuff is going to like you’re going to kill some plants even the best
Gardeners Master Gardeners kill some of their crops they kill some of their plants it’s very common you will learn you know you might try to plant something like for instance if I tried to plant um lettuce in June I did that and I was like now girl that lettuce in
Florida in Florida ain’t going to survive now what was doing everything else grew but that lettuce a I tried to grow brussel sprouts in the middle of the summer you know so it’s a learning lesson right you have to take the good with the bad it definitely teaches you
Those life lessons like some of your stuff is going to die I think people are so afraid of that so the advice a lot of gardeners give people starting out is to start small don’t invest don’t spend so much money you might want to start small
I always advise people if you if you have a little bit of outside space stting grow bags right so you only need a bag or two of soil and a couple of seeds or a couple of plant starts so you get the hang of it then you can expand
Out and maybe get something like what I have but I wouldn’t before you get a knack for it I wouldn’t invest all the money in huge beds and all that soil before you know what you’re doing a little bit because it can be depressing to waste money if something if nothing
Grows yeah so that would be my I’ve uh killed a few plants I’ve grown many things too I’ve grown peppers and lavender and basil and and salad greens which are really easy to grow very easy that’s another that’s a very easy thing to grow people do not
Realize and they grow very fast right very fast like R yes you got your Romain you got your Leaf lettuces you got the lettuce that bunches your butterhead lettuce all of that grows super fast you put a radish seed in the ground so you put your you put your lettuce and then
You put a little radish now you got a whole salad in about 30 days cuz radish takes like 30 days to grow so you got you got a whole you got a whole salad right there if you start your Tomatoes a little bit before got your tomatoes to
Go in there too so you can definitely grow a full big bowl of salad lettuce I definitely people can do it have you done cucumbers not yet I don’t know what it is about cucumbers that intimidate me something about that plant she was just talking about intimidation something
About something about something about a a cucumber just because here’s my thing if you don’t grow them right they can be very bitter and I have to find the right time to grow them so it’s not too hot so that they don’t they don’t come out tasting
Bitter but I I think the reason why I say that is because and a lot of the gardener groups I’m in um the people that get these huge cucumber Harvest and they start cutting into them they’re like it’s bitter it’s very bitter I’m
Like oh no no no no uhuh let me wait let me find a cucumber one of the on it’ll play you it’s like oh it’s so huge it’s perfect and then it’s disaster that’s why I haven’t grown it yet but I’m gonna try I am gonna try but it does kind of
Give me pause I’m like I don’t want no bitter cucumbers though so I might just buy those at the farmers market instead of growing them right now do you have like a flower bed or anything like that or like a pollinator yes I have a flower bed um I grew really
Tall sunflowers in it and zenas and marry go I plant marry gos everywhere so if you go on my page now you’ll see videos of marry gos all over the garden they’re great for pollination they also help for pest control and then I have like a in ground flower bed um I
Actually just ordered like those really pretty flowers that people put in bouquet I actually ordered the um I think they’re called like the flower bulbs for them and I’m going to plant those yes I’m going to plant those in my flower bed for the spring and I’m hoping
To get those really beautiful big bouquets that like Brides uh the type of flowers that brides want to um hold at their wedding so that’s what I’m hoping to do this year but yes I always try to keep flowers growing I have like I have some little zenas over there they’re I
Think they’re still surviving and popping up and pollinating helping uh helping the bees get a little food and pollinate the rest of my plants I always grow flowers I love growing those so I um want to close with some additional tips yes so we went over like the things you should
Grow but what are some things people should know that maybe you learned along the way that you’re like you should you should totally know this from the get-go what I would say from the get-go um um my tip that I would give is to take the free classes offered in your
Area so there are uh different entities that offer free classes that you can take about gardening and they can give you specifics for gardening in your area um there was a class that I took with a Master Gardener and it was free he gave so many tips and he also told us places
We could go shopping in the garden area in the in the Orlando area where we should go shopping like local nurseries um I got so much value out of that class and I learned that all over the nation there’s usually always a free class either the library has it uh or your
Local extension office which is usually connected yeah it’s usually connected to a university and an extension office they study the agriculture in your area so they’re going to study um the um native plant life but they also have a lot of research on gardening in your
Area and they offer services so I tell people try that first right us on Instagram and Tik Tok that’s great as well but you also want to make sure you’re honing into local stuff as well so I would say that is a really good place to start and that would be one of
My first tips um and then I would say spend some time after you take your class really spend some time educating yourself and planning out your garden um one of the main mistakes that I made in the beginning was I grew everything at the same time and you want to do
Something called secession planting so that you’re always able to harvest and eat from your garden right so if you’re going to plant lettuce seeds two or three weeks after you plant those plant more so by the time you’re harvesting those lettuce seeds and eating that you have more growing um so
Secession planning that’s something that you should look up if you want want to always be harvesting from your garden um that would be a big tip that I would give something that I did not do my first year gardening and I had some regrets of that because I had big
Harvesters but that was it I had to wait for everything to grow back again okay so that’s what I would that’s like a really big tip that I would suggest to anybody that’s getting into gardening I thought you were going to say like secession planning planting yes it’s
Like I have lettuce I cropped the lettuce M now I’m going to put a different vegetable there you can yeah oh okay you can you can do that that’s called crop rotation right and that’s something that’s good to research so that you are not so there are certain
Crops that are going to deplete um nutrients from your oil from your soil so for instance if you have a crop that’s going to suck out the nitrogen from your soil you may want to after you harvest that crop plant something like beans there cuz beans are going to add nitrogen back
To your soil that’s something you should look into too as well crop rotation but with that crop rotation so you plant your lettuce here now we’re going to move it over here and plant some more over here you can rotate your crops um there are certain crops where you want
To you definitely want to be careful not to plant certain things after them to make sure um or you want to make sure you’re replenishing that soil because it probably depleted the soil of a lot of stuff so like corn very nitrogen heavy it’s going to suck up all that nitrogen
Out your soil so you might want to put nitrogen back in your soil or plant something that’s going to add that nitrogen back to your soil so crop rotation and secession planning those are those are those are like you know those are like medium level gardening tips that I think people should know
Even when they’re starting oh that’s perfect so where can people find you and like watch you garden and learn from you yes so I am on Instagram at Farm I am on Tik Tok at Farm unique with anore and then I am on YouTube my YouTube channel is a baby YouTube
Channel but I am on YouTube uh under Farm unique and so Farm unique everywhere is where you can find me and on YouTube I do some Vlogs so you get to see my personality uh while I’m in the garden and then on Instagram and Tik Tok I like to do more educational based
Videos so that’s where you can find me come follow me and learn how to garden from me oh thank you so much for sharing like all this wealth of knowledge I’ve learned something me too and I hope everyone else has too so Dominique thank
You thank you so much I’m so happy to be on the podcast thank you for having me yes thank you