Searching for “Plant Gays” can yield quite the crop of LGBTQ-focused content on social media. Results primarily consist of photos and groups dedicated to members of the community who enjoy planting everything from decorative flowers to lush gardens that promote a more sustainable lifestyle.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, however, the benefits of gardening – and by extension continual care for flowers and plants – extend well beyond a beautiful selfie. The organization considers the activities to be exercise and essential for improving one’s health, something independent studies have long proven.
Physically, developing your green thumb can promote weight loss, blood circulation and flexibility while increasing your Vitamin D intake through responsible exposure to the sun. It’s essential for hundreds of biological functions, including strengthening your bones as well as your immune system.
Mentally, the therapeutic value of gardening has been shown to reduce stress and other symptoms of depression and anxiety. It can also provide a sense of community, something LGBTQ plant and garden enthusiasts have experienced firsthand for years.
That includes Central Florida’s Todd Meyer, who through his company TM Landscape Lighting has worked in landscape and lighting design for two decades. The openly gay industry veteran says around half of his clients are members of the LGBTQ community.
“Many of us appreciate our atmosphere,” Meyer explains. “Obviously that isn’t consistent with every member of the community, but we’re often in tune with our surroundings. We use our outdoors for activities like entertaining and landscaping and lighting can really extend our living spaces.”
Throughout the years he’s never lost a passion for his work because “you’re not working on the same project all the time,” he says. “You might have a week where you’re working on a on a big project and then the next week, you might have three little projects to help someone make their house a home.”
Meyer has worked throughout Central Florida to help clients realize their vision, and as far north as The Villages. His large-scale projects have included lighting The Capen House in Winter Park, which hosts celebrations of all sizes across its three acres at the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens, as well as redoing the landscape and lighting for the owners of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not in Orlando.
“My work varies,” Meyer says. Not only does he install plants for his clients, he also works with them to provide a master plan that includes hardscape elements. The man-made features are used in landscape architecture and include things like sidewalks, other types of walkways and walls, elements which complement vegetation and are ideally completed first.
“If they have a master plan, they know what their next step is throughout the entire design process,” he explains. “You want things to have an order and that continuity. That way you aren’t just going to Lowe’s or Home Depot to find plants that you like and get home to say, ‘Well, now where should I put it?’”
Meyer notes that because he’s in the industry, he’s also able to purchase plants directly from growers. It saves clients a substantial amount of money, allowing them to further realize their gardening dreams.
“You can drastically change a home with landscaping or with lighting,” Meyer says. “Having a home that’s nice on the outside is just like having one that’s nice on the inside. Every yard is different but can make you feel better about where you live.”
What started as a similar appreciation for nature from Michael Brinkmann and Doug Chenneville in Tampa Bay eventually evolved into another business. The partners met more than 25 years ago when Chenneville was working for a man who grew orchids.
“I always had an appreciation for plants and I would help him with maintenance,” Brinkmann recalls. “Doug was also involved in growing palm trees at a family farm, so we built a shade house.”
Eventually they opened their St. Pete Orchid Farm in 2011. Billed as a small, family-owned space, they’ve shared their love of flowers with the community near downtown St. Petersburg ever since.
The farm’s ever-changing inventory features orchids in all stages of growth, from seedlings to full-size specimens. The collection primarily consists of plants in what’s known as the Cattleya Alliance, a large group of orchids found from Florida to Argentina, but they also grow hybrid creations as well as other orchid-compatible plants like ferns and begonias.
The couple bought the farm in 1994, which boasts multiple shade houses and more. It also serves as their home, which means orchid and other plant enthusiasts are able to view their collection by appointment or monthly open houses.
“We’re an urban farm, but this is also our backyard. Our beautiful backyard. Sometimes we describe it as like a hobby that pays for itself,” Brinkmann muses. “We both love plants and love being here at the house enjoying them. Sometimes people come over and wonder why some of them aren’t for sale, but it’s because they’re a part of our personal collection.
“Neither one of us really get paid for this but it pays some of the bills and pays for itself or for projects around the house,” he continues. “Or sometimes it’s fun to go visit other nurseries and buy plants that we want to add to our personal collection or to the yard.”
Brinkmann says that guests frequently liken the farm to Sunken Gardens, St. Petersburg’s more than 100-year-old garden that hosts some of the oldest tropical plants in the region.
“We try not to make it look like a commercial nursery,” he explains. “We have a heavily landscaped yard with fountains, which is just appealing to us anyway, and then other people enjoy it too.”
From their perspective, members of the LGBTQ community are drawn to gardening and caring for plants because it can be a fulfilling process, giving them something to cultivate.
“Every day I come outside, walk around and see something new opening up and it’s just amazing,” Brinkmann says. “Everyone should come see the farm sometime. It’s just about loving something beautiful and collecting something that that you can grow and make prosper.”
Teaching others the skills required for that is a key part of the mission for Blue Trunk Community Garden in Orlando.
The organization’s goal is to practice ecological independence and to stress the importance of agriculture, community and trade to the community it serves.
“To plant a seed is to grow in oneself,” Blue Trunk advises. The first of their core values is to restore knowledge of agriculture, “the way of life for our ancestors and the calling to restore the earth we have inherited.” Rounding out the list are integrity, sustainability and expertise.
“A growing organization requires the knowledge of each individual to provide adequate services,” organizers advise. “In order to receive the community’s support, we must ensure that every individual involved knows their opinion is valued.”
Community Curator Itiba De Maji, who is nonbinary, works to make that a reality for all of the garden’s supporters. They serve as the main point of reference for any of Blue Trunk’s organizing aspects.
“We’re really focused on marginalized communities,” De Maji explains. “All of our leaders are members of a marginalized community or more than one, including LGBTQ+ folks. Much of our focus is having resources for free or low cost.”
Their efforts began with a seed bank after Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017. De Maji and their fellow Blue Trunk founders were among members of the community who sent residents seeds to reestablish their agricultural operations.
“When we weren’t able to continue shipping things to Puerto Rico, that’s how our seed bank started,” they say. “We began collecting even more and giving them out to people here and it became a community awareness project. Now we create spaces where everyone is able to embrace their own leadership skills. It’s about community empowerment.”
One of Blue Trunk’s key partnerships is with Central Florida’s Peer Support Space, which serves as a local hub for peer-led recovery communities. They intentionally create spaces that welcome the LGBTQ and other marginalized communities, like their Planting Hope workshop.
“The Planting Hope workshops Peer Support Space has in partnership with Blue Trunk are a chance for us to connect with both the Earth and with one another,” Co-Founder and Director of Peer Services Dandelion Hill explains. “Together we are growing food and cultivating chosen family connections among the queer, gender diverse community.”
“It’s a safe space for retreat and relaxation,” De Maji adds. “It’s been a very rewarding thing because we have been able to create a safe gardening space for our LGBTQ community.” They also call the partnership one of Blue Trunk’s most empowering, noting that the organizers have learned a lot from the experience.
It’s meant just as much to Peer Support Space. The organization will soon announce seasonal swaps for its plants and crops, allowing for even more members of the community to get involved.
“It’s wonderful because we know in these spaces we can show up as our authentic selves and that we will be celebrated and honored – plus we get to learn practices that will help sustain our well-being in the long run,” Hill says. “I personally have a flourishing garden now that’s been a significant contributor to my mental health – all thanks to skills I learned through Planting Hope. It’s really made gardening accessible and fun.”
Utilizing the outdoors to cultivate joy is something the Sustainable Living Project in Tampa also understands. The nonprofit urban farm and education center’s one acre plot of land is home to 34 grow beds, a water catchment system to divert and store rainwater, a solar-powered greenhouse, compost stations and much more.
“Our mission is to serve, educate and build community through that property,” Director Georgea Snyder explains. “That includes things like volunteer days, hands-on opportunities to get involved with plants and growing your own food, as well as some classes and workshops. We offer our space to the community and use it to focus on sustainability.”
After its 2013 founding, Snyder began her work with SLP as a volunteer. She helped the organization becomes its own entity after inheriting daily operations, creating an inclusive space for all.
“We tend to have a larger LGBTQ population,” she says. “We don’t necessarily target any particular group, but we try to be welcoming to everybody and obviously that includes LGBTQ folks. We’re happy to say they tend to stick around, I’m guessing because we’re an open space.”
Snyder says that unlike many gardens in the area, SLP is a secular organization. She believes that may also help attract members of the LGBTQ community, many of whom haven’t traditionally felt welcomed by organized religion.
“Almost all of the community gardens in this area are associated with some kind of religious organization, and that is what gives them a lot of staying power,” Snyder explains. “They don’t usually pay rent for their land and there’s almost a built-in volunteer base.
“I just felt strongly that this one wouldn’t be like that, just to open the doors up more,” she continues. “I’m not against religion, but whereas I didn’t necessarily want to belong to one, I did want to belong to a community garden. I think because there’s sometimes a stigma with the LGBTQ community and organized religion, maybe it’s easier for them to start volunteering with us.”
Having members of the LGBTQ community among SLP’s leadership also helped cultivate a diverse environment. “Like anything, representation matters,” Snyder says. Former LGBTQ leaders include Prin Ocea, who now works as the LGBTQ+ Programs coordinator at Tampa Bay’s Metro Inclusive Health, the second largest LGBTQ-focused health and community center in North America.
“There is so much to be learned at SLP and I cherish the time I spent there helping to facilitate the maintenance and productions of their compost piles, transforming local food waste into nutritious soil,” Ocea says. “SLP was the first community garden where my pronouns were respected, which made me feel so comfortable and excited about learning sustainability!”
Ocea and others are currently developing Metro’s 2022 LGBTQ+ Youth Summer Camp, programming that will introduce participants to Tampa Bay’s diverse resources. A trip to SLP will be among their outings and is currently scheduled for late July.
“I’m excited about introducing them to The Sustainable Living Project,” Ocea says.
Snyder is also eager to welcome them.
“This is really cheesy,” she muses, “but plants and nature represent the cycles that are in our lives. It can be important for marginalized communities to see that a garden isn’t always blooming.
“Gardening takes work, time and care,” she continues. “We have to accept cycles of blooming and pruning, and maybe when we’re not blooming in certain parts of our lives, working in the garden or with plants to find beauty in the cycle somewhere else can be helpful. When you’re marginalized that can resonate with you a little bit more.”
To inquire about services from TM Landscape Lighting in Central Florida, contact Todd Meyer at 407-898-4222. To learn more about the St. Pete Orchid Farm or to schedule an appointment, call 727-201-8264 or visit StPeteOrchidFarm.com.
Both the Blue Trunk Community Garden in Orlando and Sustainable Living Project in Tampa welcome donors and volunteers. Learn more about supporting their missions at BlueTrunkGarden.org and SLPTampa.com.
To learn more about Peer Support Space or Metro Inclusive Health, visit PeerSupportSpace.org and MetroTampaBay.org.
