CARIEVALE - At the Carievale Greenhouse, many hands made short work while friends and family helped Holly Bayliss, the owner and operator, with getting ready for the May 1 opening.
This will be her third season running the greenhouse.
Volunteers from the community came out for planting days last month, helping transfer the 250 seedlings into bigger packs to sell. The greenhouse offers a little bit of everything with flowers, veggies, seeds and trees.
“And if we don’t have it, we can order it in,” Bayliss said.
Bayliss and her mother started planting in March and the greenhouse will be busy and open until mid-June. In the fall, with the left over produce and plants, they will make an assortment of jams and jellies to sell, just to keep busy.
Bayliss found that while young, one of the secrets of life is loving what you do.
“It is nice to do something you are passionate about,” she said.
She bought the place from the Halls, a couple who ran the greenhouse for 50 years, but until then it had been empty for almost a decade.
“It’s about giving this town something,” Bayliss said while talking about what drives her and the projects she does in the community, like the hanging baskets on Main Street and putting in a shelter belt of poplar trees just down the road at the park and playground.
One of the focuses of the greenhouse is interesting and fun plants, from the tickle plant whose little firs react to human touch, to the moonflower whose big white buds only open at night. There is also teaching or practical options available such as building your own birdhouse or shower luffa.
Other plants smelled or looked amazing, like the strawberry mint herb or the tomato plant that looked like a delicate bonsai tree.
Even though the growing life seems to come easy to Bayliss, she will be the first to admit that there has been some trial and error over the years.
“The first year I started the tomato plants way too early and on opening day they were already two feet tall,” said Bayliss.
This year she has tiny tomatoes that are sweet and cucumbers that are the size of an oblong grape that you can just pop in your mouth.
Bayliss laughed when mentioning that the men seemed to always go straight for the spicy plants. For their fire-retardant mouths she has the plants that produce the world’s hottest peppers as well as another that produces the world’s most expensive.
“They are grown in Peru as a houseplant and produce peppers the size of a pea,” she said.
When explaining what intrigued her about this career choice, Bayliss shared how she had gone to a Carlyle greenhouse for a planting day and got inspired, but she has always loved growing her own plants.
“My mother had always been a gardener, and the greenhouse community is very helpful,” she said.
There is also the educational aspect to the job that Holly enjoys. She likes to get people out of their comfort zone and expand on what they think is possible.
“We got in a lot of grapes. Not many people know that you can grow grapes here.”
On Mother’s Day, the Carievale Greenhouse will be having the donut lady coming out with her treats for the customers.
“A lot of people bring their moms that day and I wanted to make it special for everyone.”
