Shannon O’Malley says it was easy to tend a vegetable garden in Pittsburgh, where she grew up. “In the summers up there, basically whatever you put into the ground would grow,” she says.

O’Malley found that wasn’t the case in Florida. After moving to St. Petersburg, she couldn’t get much of anything to grow in her yard’s sandy, nutrient-poor soil.

“I tried raised beds and everything and just couldn’t make it work,” she says. “My husband, Brad, and I decided to try some at-home hydroponic grow kits. And from there we just fell in love with the process and started to do research about actually making a business out of it.”

This story also features expert opinions, business briefs and people in the news: Brick Street Farms; Soule Medical; HRK Holdings; Scott Hopes; Cheri Coryea; Terrence Wright; Paul Nanda; Hillary Spencer; Brynne Anne Besio

 

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