Like many hobbyists, Ami Polite’s foray into gardening didn’t start with the desire to open a company, or write a book for that matter. It was simply the desire to help her grandmother tend to her historic North Omaha home.
“You can’t just put six marigolds in front of a historic home,” she said. “That doesn’t visually make sense.”
But, with no experience in gardening, she wasn’t sure what to suggest.
Seasons of change
Her hunt for free resources led her to Lauritzen Gardens, where she became a volunteer assistant to a horticulturist. She continued volunteering even after she learned the basics and was able to implement those skills at her grandmother’s house.
For the next three seasons, her appreciation for plants grew.
“They look so fragile, but they can go through negative 20-degree temperatures and come back in the spring like nothing happened,” Polite said.
It was seeing the life cycles up close that led her to ponder the similarities between plants, and her own lived experiences.
For example, Polite spoke of a time when she was so uncomfortable with her natural hair that she never let anyone see it.
“I wore extensions all of the time,” she said. “I was in a relationship, and it wasn’t until after we broke up that I realized that this person never saw what my natural hair looked like.”
She also realized the same could be said for gardens.
“Sometimes people only visit gardens when they’re blooming, they don’t see the beauty of the dormant season … it’s like if people only see me when my hair is completely perfect. That’s not who I am all the time, so there’s a big chunk of me that someone isn’t getting.”
For several years, Polite would write down these observations and tuck them away in books and journals.
Cultivating environments
Slowly, she began helping friends and family with their projects and then taking referrals.
“Usually I’d be at a house and a neighbor would walk across the street and say ‘Could you help me out?’” she said.
The bulk of her days are spent maintaining about 20 gardens across Omaha, some of which she used to admire from afar, including one house in Elmwood Park.
“I would walk on the trail and I kept looking at this house thinking ‘Man, I wish I could work on that house one day,’” she said.
When the owner of said house called her, via referral, she was shocked.
“I thought, ‘I’m not qualified to work on this house, it’s like a mini botanical garden,’” she said.
But work she did, even after the gentleman passed away and new owners moved in.
“The neighbors loved me so much they told the new owners [before they purchased the home] that they would have to hire me to keep taking care of the gardens,” she recalled.
All the while she continued to make observations about the similarities between plants and humans.
“I decided I needed to do something with all these notes, or just get rid of them,” she said.
And with that, an evolution began. She utilized her love for music to create a book that has been described as part mixtape, part memoir, and part instructional. Twin themes run parallel in the book: learning to love her natural hair, and learning how to take care of plants.
The book, “Garden My Hair: A Growing Mix,” was released in May 2022. To promote the book she went to various fairs and got creative with her display.
“I didn’t want to just bring plants and set them on a table,” she said. “So, I started finding all these old speakers and radios and I would put plants in those.”
The promo booth grew into a living installation at each event. At AfroCon she built a DJ turntable booth surrounded by plants to promote her book.
While many viewers were intrigued by the installation, there was another reaction that Polite didn’t anticipate.
“When I talked to someone about being a gardener I could see them physically decompress and they would start telling me about their grandmother who would garden, and things like that,” she said.
These interactions prompted a question: how else could we bring plants, and nature, into our lives?
In search of nature
That question is guiding her into the next “season;” she is exploring becoming a Master Naturalist through the Nebraska Naturalist Association, as well as gaining a certification in wilderness first aid.
“I’m leaning into the horticultural therapy field …. That’s what excites me,” Polite said.
Horticultural therapy, simply put, is the belief that being in nature and working in nature can help mentally, physically, and vocationally.
The intent would then be to lead either individuals or groups in walks through nature, showing them the spaces in Omaha and surrounding areas.
“We live in a state that takes eight hours to drive across with forests, plains, and plants,” she said. “We need to be utilizing it.”
She’s also considering how to incorporate living installations into shared spaces, such as workplaces and event venues.
“I’m not just going to bring plants; I’m going to figure out what a company does and then create a display around that,” Polite said. “That way it’s not just plants to [the company], it’s a part of what they do and they can have a different connection to it.”
Network of support
Throughout her journey, support from fellow entrepreneurs has been pivotal. From the horticulturist who taught her the basics, to the professional networking groups she has joined, each connection has presented unique insights.
One of the greatest lessons was learning how to determine the value of her services. As a woman in a male-dominated field — Statista reports almost 93% of landscaping and groundskeeping workers in the U.S. as male in 2023 — Polite struggled with putting a number to her experience.
“I’m not doing what other people are doing, so it’s really hard,” she said.
But, talking to other business owners provided insight, and helped her have the confidence to raise her rates accordingly.
Now, when she begins to feel the imposter syndrome creep in
she remembers:
“If you truly didn’t know what you were doing, you would not be getting the business that you are.”
