Gardening is our past and must be our future | Ellie Salazar | TEDxEustis

Backyard food forests have sustained humans in all kinds of difficult times, including both world wars and in the recent pandemic. Food forester Ellie Salazar is on a mission to convince her fellow citizens that no one has a brown thumb! Originally a hairdresser with zero knowledge of gardening techniques, Salazar and her partner began planting crops in her yard out of necessity for fresh food. From that first bed and through lots of mistakes, she evolved a full yard of raised beds and a business teaching others to rekindle the craft of raising fresh food at home. In her house, an empty refrigerator simply means that all the food is growing outside. A professional gardener, business woman and artist, Ellie was born and raised in Central Florida for the past 27 years. She left college to become a hairstylist, then quit hairstyling to become a young mom. After finding herself in turbulent times, her hobby of gardening became a full-fledged micro garden operation that ended up feeding not only her family, but also friends and neighbors too. After meeting her partner Michael in 2018, they decided to turn their love for gardening into a business called Home Gardeneers and now to date have built dozens of edible gardens for residents here in the Orange and Lake county area. Edible gardening is their passion and spreading the culture of it is their mission. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx