About Meeks Garden Design
Meeks Garden Design is a passionate husband and wife team.
Eric and Malinda Meeks come to gardening from different backgrounds and professions.
About Eric
Eric, a retired Navy Deep Sea Diver Veteran, spent 20 years underwater serving our country across the United States, including multiple trips aboard. His passion for plants started after watching his Papa grow anything he planted in the dry climate of East Texas. Eager to start his own garden, he purchased two pots and tomato plants to grow on the balcony at his first duty station. This passion for plants only grew once he bought his first house. Starting small, he turned an eight-by-two-foot area in his backyard into a growing plot. Using some tree logs from a friend to build the raised bed, he filled it with compost and soil, then planted a tri-color beefsteak tomato and a gold nugget cherry tomato.
These two tomato plants grew to over eight feet tall. They produced so many tomatoes that he was giving bags away at church and at work. By the middle of winter, covered in snow, those two plants were still producing tomatoes.
The next summer, the garden plot increased to 32 feet long by 3 feet deep. The harvest that summer included everything from tomatoes, cucumbers with little spikes (those little things hurt), peppers, beans, cantaloupe, Thai basil, dill, and more.
The garden has only grown year after year. Now, the whole family is involved at every step of the process.
One year, when the seedlings were planted, his kids would make a point of walking by the dirt several times a day to see which new plant had popped up from the soil. The memories made during this time alone have brought his family closer and made them more passionate about growing and the food that ends up on the table.
Eric's thirst for knowledge and passion for plants are further evident by his bookcases of garden books. Eric doesn’t just collect books for fun. When he buys a book, he reads it and puts into practice what he has learned from those pages. Countless hours have been spent devouring garden books to help him produce more in his gardens. He is also generous with this knowledge and shares it with anyone willing to talk to him about plants.
He has always liked helping people grow better and plan smarter. It didn’t matter the time of day or the number of questions the person had. He is willing to talk with you to help you understand and provide a plan to move forward toward the garden you truly want. This all started in 2008, when guys from his team would sit with him and ask him questions about their gardens on the dive side. He was willing to offer guidance and suggest changes to help solve their problem.
When transiting out of the Navy, Eric wanted to take all the knowledge and experience he had about plants and gardening and help others with it. Meeks Garden Design was born from this desire. A company whose purpose is to help others enjoy the benefit of growing their own food, decompress from the stress of life, and have a beautiful space to do it in.
About Malinda
Malinda is the artist behind MalindaMeeks.com. She married Eric a year into his military career and has loved him through crazy schedules, deployments, relocations, and the transition into retirement. She has endured lengthy conversations about plants and visits to garden centers across the country. One of her favorite things to buy people is books, and she has gifted many garden books to her husband, Eric.
Malinda had the joy of growing up seeing her grandparents grow alfalfa for their cattle. Her exposure to mass-crop production differs from growing a home garden. When she and Eric got married, she enjoyed his little balcony garden but didn’t envision it becoming the passion it is today.
When the first garden plot was planted in the little corner of their yard, she loved making the toasted tomato, cheese, and basil sandwiches, and how the extra produce blessed the people who received it. She never saw the garden growing into the business it is today.
She recalls one afternoon seeing her children out the backyard window, trying to arrange toys and wood together so her children could scale the garden fence and eat the produce. It was not funny in the moment, but years later, as they still recall that day, there is much joy on the faces of her children when they explain what they were trying to accomplish that wonderful afternoon during a youthful summer.
Malinda was never against the garden, but didn’t truly get completely involved until the year she wanted to have fresh strawberries. And considering she has no restraint when it comes to plants, they didn’t just come home with strawberries from the nursery; they had a full cart full of produce. One of the plants that was purchased was a Cowhorn pepper. She’d picked this pepper out because of the name. While Eric had his collection of peppers, Malinda considered the Cowhorn her pepper. She knew nothing about it, but soon found out.
As a family that cooks a lot and Malinda’s love for breads, pizza dough is something they often make from scratch. One pizza night, with homemade pizza all rolled out, she sliced up some Cowhorn peppers and made a pizza. It wasn’t until she bit into her slice of pizza that she realized how spicy that little Cowhorn was.
Shocked by her mouth being on fire from the pepper, she quickly tried to douse the heat that was burning her mouth. She laughs about it today and learned some valuable lessons that night.
You always research the plants you intend to buy, and their names are very descriptive.
This growing project was the beginning of a bit of madness, some might say, including Eric, because the next summer, Malinda was poring over a seed catalog, picking out two pages worth of plants they were going to start from seed and plant in their new garden.
By the time she was finished planting all the seed trays, she had over 150 tiny little seeds all nestled under grow lights in her dining room. She was as giddy as her children, checking the seed trays multiple times a day to see what plants had emerged from their seeds. It brought her such joy to experience the whole process of picking out the plants, getting her hands dirty planting them, and seeing them pop through the soil.
When the idea for Meeks Garden Design came up, she was all on board. The idea of Eric using his gardening knowledge to help others design, install, and plant their gardens was a perfect fit for him. Coupled with Malinda’s art skills, gave them the opportunity to work together in a business that would bless others and their family.
Now, this husband-and-wife team works side by side, designing and installing custom gardens for people who want to enjoy fresh produce they grow in gardens that fit their needs and lifestyle.
The memories, health, and fun produced from having your own garden are worth the dirt you get under your fingernails. When you are ready to experience top-level knowledge, skill, and service, give us a call to schedule your custom garden consultation.