The Growing Revolution - Smart PotCast Smart Pot®

In this week's installment of The Growing Revolution, we got to speak with Chris Blase of Blase Family Farms. Chris and his wife, Jill, started the blueberry farm in 2011 after coming home from a vacation in East Texas, where the family had a great time at a blueberry farm, picking berries. He thought that it would be a great idea to start one close to the Dallas/ Ft. Worth area so that folks didn't have to drive so far to pick fresh blueberries. The rest is history.
Chris started growing in ground, moved to raised beds, before finally growing his blueberry bushes in Smart Pot containers in 2018. He noticed a large difference in overall plant health and production since the switch and has reduced his watering needs by about 30%!

Besides blueberries in the Spring/ early Summer, they also have a pumpkin patch in the Fall, and also sell handmade items like popsicles, soaps, fudge and more. It's a great destination, situated on 26 wooded acres, where folks can get a break from the city, without having to drive for hours.

Chris actually has a full time job as a Dairy Scientist (cheesemaker) for a large local company, and in his free time tends to the plants and does general farm maintenance. It's his respite from the daily grind, and if you see the pics of his property, you'll see why. It's a slice of heaven in Rockwall, Texas.

To learn more about what Chris and his family are doing, go to www.blasefamilyfarm.com
To learn more about Smart Pots, head over to www.smartpots.com

We greatly appreciate Chris as a customer, and for giving his time in allowing us to learn more about his awesome blueberry farm.

Please "like" the episode and follow our account for more great episodes to come!

Welcome back to episode 70 of The Growing Revolution where this week we got to speak with Kyle Durr, Nursery Manager for Casey Trees. He oversees the general production on their farm in Virginia, outside of the Washington DC metro area. Casey Tree was started by Betty Brown Casey, longtime DC resident in 2002. Betty was concerned with the steady decline in the tree canopy coverage in our nation's capital.
By 2001, the canopy level was down to just 35%, so Casey Trees' mission is to increase that to 40% by 2035, and after planting 30K trees since inception, they are well on their way to hitting that goal. Casey Trees used to employ the ball and burlap technique for harvesting trees, but about a decade ago, they decided to try the Root Control Bag, fabric in-ground planters, and haven't looked back since. Their root ball is 1/3rd of a conventional root ball, much lighter and easier to transplant or install, and the tree is healthier leading to almost 100% viability for their installed trees.
If you want to learn more about Casey Trees, go to caseytrees.org
If you'd like to learn more about the Root Control Bag, go to treebag.com or smartpots.com
Please subscribe to our podcast so you don't miss one of our great interviews, dropping weekly. The video podcast is also available at https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-jP48BpQp3yvF4uiortfxLYpkDNrVylk&si=tghCorZvBiahtd6p

This week on The Growing Revolution, we spoke with Rick Jones who invented the Square Farmer saucer. His innovation solves two problems; its square design allows for less wasted space when multiple plants are in a given space such as a grow tent, and it raises the plant's container (hopefully a Smart Pot) out of any standing water from irrigation runoff.
Rick came from the world of selling solutions for making self-insured health insurance plans more affordable for businesses. In 2016 he had an "ah ha" moment when he saw that there were no other products in the marketplace similar to the concept that he had for the Square Farmer.

He didn't have any experience in manufacturing, wholesale sales, retail sales and distribution, but that didn't stop him from diving in headfirst, and learning as he went. As with most entrepreneurs, Rick did a few things then, that he would do differently now, which he touches on in this episode. If you are an entrepreneur, or thinking of becoming one, this is a great episode to watch regardless of what industry you are in.

If you want to try the Square Farmer trays for 10% off, use discount code "smartpot" at squarefarmer.com. We greatly appreciate Rick's time for joining us and for extending this discount to our viewers.

Please LIKE and share this episode with your friends, and subscribe to our podcast for more great episodes.

In episode 68 of The Growing Revolution, we spoke with Kayla, who goes by Prosperous Living on social media. She is a stay at home mother of 5 kids in the Homosassa area of Florida (north of Tampa). She hasn't been gardening for a very long time, but since she's been at it, she's been very aggressive with expanding her garden and for working as an influencer with Smart Pot, and other gardening related companies.
Living in USDA growing zone 9 has a lot of advantages, and Kayla is basically growing a ton of produce, year round! Her soil is pretty sandy and although she does grow in-ground a bit, she loves growing in containers and raised beds. Her favorite containers are Smart Pots, as they allow great drainage which is especially important for gardening in Florida, where it can rain buckets at a time.
We've got more great interviews scheduled for uploading this season. Please like this episode and subscribe to our podcast so that you do not miss an episode.

In this episode of The Growing Revolution, we recorded live from the MANTS (Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show) expo in Baltimore, Maryland. We got to speak with Andy Mallory, VP of Vendor Operations for the Master Nursery Garden Center Group. Master Nursery is a buying co-op organization that links up their member retail store with manufacturers like Smart Pot, offering them exclusive products and manufacturer rebates for purchases made within the network. We have been with Master Nursery for over 4 years, and it has been a great way to introduce our products to their member dealers, increasing our sales and netting discounts for the members. We greatly appreciate the hard work of Andy and everyone with Master Nursery, and for him taking time out of the show to do a quick recording with us.
Please subscribe to our podcast for more great interviews with industry leaders like Andy. More episodes are coming weekly!

This latest episode of The Growing Revolution, was a real treat to record. Our guest, Ryan Cook is a former Army Serviceman who enlisted at 17, served in 2 stints in Iraq before being medically discharged. He is born and raised in the mountains of West Virginia which is also where he currently resides.
Seeking a new passion after his service in the Army, he turned to homesteading, and especially gardening. His quest, was to become a state record holder in as many categories as possible. On his first season, he smashed a world record but then because of technicalities was not awarded his Guiness World Record Title.
This didn't deter the self described "Grumpy Old Vet", but only made his passion stronger. He has been forging partnerships with garden product companies like Smart Pot and others to make this dream a reality, and we support him 100%. His passion for God, Family and Country are pretty obvious and hopefully that rubs off on some of y'all who listen to this episode. His own channel can be found on YouTube by searching "Heavenly Hills Homestead" Definitely give him a follow.
We greatly appreciate Ryan for his service to his country, and now to the gardening community. This was a fun episode to record, and we hope that you enjoy listening!
More great episodes are coming weekly. Please subscribe so that you don't miss out.