Meet Kelly Hayes | Johnny Appleseed Organic Invitational Contestant
Kelly Hayes is a contestant in the Johnny Appleseed Organic Invitational, an organic growing competition taking place throughout the 2022 gardening season! Learn more at challenge.johnnyappleseed.com.
ABOUT KELLY
Kelly is an elementary school teacher and self-sufficient homesteader on three peaceful acres in Cullman, Alabama. Kelly is deeply committed to connecting her students with nature and worked with the North Alabama Agriplex to create a children's garden club and outdoor learning center at her school. Kelly says her school’s outdoor learning center is a place where “students can come together, have fun, eat some veggies, and learn about sustainable gardening techniques, the importance of pollinators, rain collection, and composting."
As a teacher and parent, Kelly is concerned with the disconnect she sees between kids and their natural environment: “If I can do anything to help turn the tide of getting children back connected with nature and natural life cycles, eating the healthy food our bodies were designed for then I will feel I have accomplished something worthwhile.”
When Kelly is not teaching, she can be found tending to her chickens, making soap with milk from her dwarf Nigerian goats or working in her potager garden! Kelly is a firm believer in mixing artistry with functionality and executes these values on her homestead: “I usually refer to myself as ‘the fancy farmer’ because if I’m going to work, I want to be immersed in beauty! Our potager garden has dining tables for outdoor eating among our eight raised beds, strawberries towers, asparagus plots, and our cedar fence that surrounds the garden is lined with blueberry bushes that give us beautiful color year-round. Inside the potager we have a fire pit where we enjoy making s’mores on cool evenings.”
ABOUT JOHNNY APPLESEED ORGANIC
Johnny Appleseed Organic creates sustainable, ethically sourced soil amendments that produce the same results as conventional fertilizers without harming the environment. Powered by a science-backed blend of cutting-edge microbiology and fungi, ClimateGard™ and ClimateYard™ empower homeowners, institutions and commercial property managers to reduce or eliminate nutrient runoff while enjoying vibrant gardens and landscapes.
ABOUT MOTHER EARTH NEWS
The most popular and longest-running sustainable-lifestyle magazine, MOTHER EARTH NEWS provides wide-ranging, expert editorial coverage of organic foods, country living, green transportation, renewable energy, natural health, and green building. Lively, insightful, and on the cutting edge, MOTHER EARTH NEWS is the definitive read for the growing number of Americans who choose wisely and live well.