Robert Lashley
Willow Springs Market Garden LLC
Is an RN turned gardener who came to Arkansas in 1978 with a lot of other English RN's and never saw any reason to go anywhere else. He is an RN by profession, and now looking forward to retiring from the hospital work of 40 years. About 10 years ago a bout with depression and a severe physical illness awakened his spiritual side, and gardening became an extension of that spirituality.
Willow Springs Market Garden LLC was incorporated April 2006 and has grown (pun intended) ever since. Their goal is to grow the best produce in Central Arkansas without chemicals or pesticides. They use water from a 300ft deep well to drip irrigate the garden. Only organic fertilizers are used along with a bird and bug friendly environment.
Their product line is still being developed and certain crops such as apples take time to grow as plants. Various vegetables, tomatoes, peppers, greens, and small fruits such as the honeyberry and blueberry are in the field. Soap making is a recent addition to the product line where they use their own herbs in simple soap mixes that are free of the chemicals in modern liquid soaps. more info
Victory Gardening:
Starting Your Own Organic Garden
Saturday Afternoon, October 3rd, Concurrent Session 2:45 - 3:45 p.m.
Learn the true definition of organic gardening and how to start growing your own organic garden. Find out how to make compost. Discover what makes up a great soil, and how the soil is a living entity, and not just a static medium. Realize the value of working with what nature gives us instead of fighting it (bugs and garden diseases). Experience how gardening can be healing.