It is important that shoppers and Park visitors think of us friends, which is why each month we highlight a new member of the Green Market family. This month, get to know the Conservancy’s Green Market Manager, Holly Hollingsworth.
Q: How old are you?
Holly: Thirty-two years old (with a smile).
Q: Are you from Atlanta?
Holly: No, I was born in Tarjon de Arzon, Spain, and then moved to Georgia when I was older.
Q: How did you come to manage the Green Market?
Holly: I was studying agriculture by doing four years of internships on three different farms, and through those internships I learned how to grow the food from seed to Green Market. I sold medicinal plants, in addition to a very wide variety of produce that we grew in northern Georgia. But after having spent seven years of my life working in green houses and studying horticulture and native medicinal plants, I felt the need to live in a city and have a whole new experience. So I asked the previous Green Market manager if there were any job openings in Piedmont Park. Needless to say there was an opening, and I am still doing it today going into the fifth year of the market.
Q: Why are farmers markets important to a community?
Holly: Farmers' markets bring traditions together with existing life styles. They help us to visualize both rural and urban lives that can be rewarding and practical in the modern world. To quote someone who said it best,
| The life and soul of a place, all of our experiences there, depends not simply on the physical environment, but on the patterns of events which we experience there…It is the people around us, and the most common ways we have of meeting them, of being with them, it is, in short, the ways of being which exist in our world, that make it possible for us to be alive. --Christopher Alexander, The Timeless Way |
Q: What would be your number one tip for someone planting a garden at their own home?
Holly: COMPOST, compost your yard waste your cooking scraps and by doing so, you will have wonderful soil to amend your garden with. The key to a healthy garden is through healthy soil. By composting you are reducing the amount of waste put into landfills, and compost is great for retaining water so you don't have to water as much. Recycle reuse! Compost happens!
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