Today, we’d like to introduce you to Karsten Tuttle.
Hi Karsten, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I studied Landscape Architecture at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and ended up completing my senior project on urban farming, designing a high school garden and integrating it with the curriculum to enable students to spend about 20% of their time outdoors rather than in a classroom all day.
This particular course also met all the standards needed to be accepted at any UC or CSU campus. Although this project did not ultimately get built, it led me to work with the nonprofit Social Justice Learning Institute (SJLI) in Inglewood, where I became their Urban Farms and Gardens Manager.
We built five school gardens, maintained a community garden, and started our own urban farm at the office, which included 21 Tower Gardens. These aeroponic systems enabled us to save space and resources, especially water, by growing vertically. We used the produce toward our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program.
I left SJLI to work specifically with Tower Gardens and began learning much more about growing seedlings. I was mentored by the owner of SBTG Seedlings, Todd Mehl, who taught me the ins and outs of growing and that there is always something new to learn.
Todd had owned the business for about six years when he began looking toward other pursuits. Having run the farm side of the seedling operation for him, I was offered the opportunity to purchase the company in 2017. I did and moved it from the Los Olivos/Santa Barbara area to my hometown of Whittier. It operated there until 2022 and now resides just into Orange County on the edge of Anaheim, near Cypress.
SBTG Seedlings is a garden business that provides plant starts for fruits, veggies, greens, herbs, and edible flowers, with a specialty in aeroponic and hydroponic growing systems. We are an authorized seedling provider for Tower Garden and offer garden maintenance and design for home, school, and restaurant gardens.
One of my greatest passions is teaching someone how to grow and seeing the enjoyment they get from what they’ve started and harvested.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Sometimes, the greatest obstacle is the weather. Plants grow and especially start best in certain conditions. Learning the seasonality, even in sunny California, has been a challenge and continues to change every year.
We grow everything outdoors, and because the plants are open to the elements, sometimes they burn from too much sun or slow down from excessive rain or cold. We learned to utilize shade cloth in the hottest months and to start seedlings in the winter on heat mats to warm up the seeds for better germination.
The other big obstacle has been scaling. For most of its existence, SBTG Seedlings has been a one-person operation. This has included caring for and maintaining gardens, growing and shipping the seedlings, and working at a farmers’ market. It is now at the place where, in order to grow more, it needs more hands. This is both wonderful and a bit daunting.
We are also about to rename ourselves Seedwyze and will roll out our Giving Back Pledge, donating seedlings with every order.
I appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about SBTG Seedlings/Seedwyze?
Our goal is to take the first step out of the equation for you to grow, to make it easy and enjoyable, and to get the most from your garden. Gardening is a learning experience that puts you in nature, allows you to relax, and allows you to simply take in the world more fully.
We specialize in seedlings and starter plants for your garden and offer over 200 varieties of lettuces, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, herbs, flowers, and more throughout the year. Our seedlings are grown in rock wool, which allows customers to plant in the ground, raised beds, or pots, as well as in any aeroponic or hydroponic system. We also ship plants to all states except for Hawaii.
We are proud to help out home gardens, schools, and restaurants, and truly value the opportunity to help others grow and teach them about plants. We are also starting a brand new program, our pledge to give back. We will donate seedlings for every order, providing them to a range of organizations throughout the area, such as community gardens, schools, non-profits, etc.
Food insecurity was part of the reason for my senior project. Inglewood is considered a food desert. Quality options for good produce are lacking, and we want to be able to provide a way for communities to grow their own food. That’s why we want to give back; we can truly help others have access to healthy food.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Don’t be afraid to ask for help, be consistent, and keep working toward a goal for the business. It helps keep perspective. I wish I knew the time required to build and establish a business, though I also enjoy that I can make my own schedule.
Pricing:
- Seedlings range from $2.50-$4.00
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sbtgseedlings.com www.seedwyze.com
- Instagram: @sbtgseedlings
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/sbtgseedlings
