Chattanooga Times Free Press features Bees as part of focus on giving to the community

The Edge, the magazine for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, included a story about how businesses are making a change in Chattanooga. Cath, owner of Bees on a Bicycle was interviewed by Mary Fortune and we are proud to be part of her report.

Following is an excerpt from the article. To read the full article, click here.

Bees on a Bicycle: Foster community, create beauty

When she opened her organic garden shop on Market Street in 2017, Cath Truelove knew she wanted to run a for-profit business, even though her focus is on growing community and supporting sustainability.

"We very consciously want to be a small business because we wanted to reach into the tax base," she says. "I know paying taxes is a good thing — it means you're making money, you are investing in textbooks and school lunches and our infrastructure. I really want to be part of the contribution of that in the community."

Her focus, though, is very much on promoting sustainable, organic practices and educating the community on topics from native plants and regenerative farming to childhood nutrition.

"Our motto is 'foster community, create beauty,'" Truelove says. "It's very much in the DNA of what we're about."

As she has grown her knowledge of gardening and landscaping over the years, Truelove has carved her own path in what is normally a chemical-laden industry, she says.

"I worked for a big box store and saw the pesticides and herbicides that went out the door," she says. "I asked myself when I opened Bees if perhaps there was a better way — for our gardens, our children, our community."

At the end of April, she'll begin selling heirloom vegetables, herbs and flowers in fully biodegradable 3-inch pots, Truelove says. "Thousands of them," she says. "I'm so excited about this."

She's also encouraging her customers to plant perennials, in part for the sake of reduced waste.

"If you're planting seasonally, you have a plastic container coming from the grower four times a year, but if you plant a perennial that lasts 20 years and has seasonal interest and you have one container," she says.

Bees on a Bicycle has stayed small, relying a good bit on volunteer help in addition to some part-time employees, but that has cultivated a close community of people who share a love for the mission of the business, Truelove says.

"Staying small has allowed us to have a one-on-one community that is a little bit more intimate," she says.

And the support of her customers and neighbors has become one of the best parts of the business, she adds.

"They call Tennessee the Volunteer State, and it is so true," she says. "I have lived all over the world — Texas, Massachusetts, California — and I have never seen the offer to help like I've seen here in Tennessee."

Author: Mary Fortune, Chattanooga Times Free Press