Mikayla Hicks harvests some crops from a garden. (KEVAUGHN BROWNE/COURTESY OF MIKAYLA HICKS)

Mikayla Hicks is CEO and founder of Planted Prayer, a gardening consulting company that, according to Hicks, strives to “set up for success.”

In addition to being a gardener, Hicks is also an anesthesiologist, and she started her business after growing her own garden during COVID-19. Hicks said she initially came up with the idea of ​​growing her own food as a hobby to relieve stress at work.

“Coming home after a rough day in the hospital and seeing new growth and life and all that, especially in such a dark time, really made me want to embrace it,” Hicks said.

Soon after, Hicks started her garden consulting business. Hicks’ faith carried over into her business, where she follows the Bible verse Jeremiah 29:5, which reads: “Build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their products” (English standard version).

Hicks believes that everyone should have the opportunity to eat home-grown food for health reasons.

“I just wanted to have the opportunity to teach other people how to take a little more control over their health by paying more attention to the food they eat,” Hicks said.

She believes that gardening and spending time outdoors is good for people and that she would like to see this more often in the near future.

“I would like to see gardening become something that everyone does every day,” Hicks said. “I would like to see people garden successfully and continue to do it for many years to come.”