Farm and Nursery at Chianina Microtopia

08/19/2026

Did I say soil is important? Attached is a file for different types of herbs requiring different types of soil as well as seed versus propagation.

Send a message to learn more

08/14/2026

Tomorrow is National Honey Bee Day, and we're doing something about it. 🐝

Saturday, 8 AM – 2 PM at the farm:

🍯 Ask the bee guy. Austin spent 2025 as a Florida State Apiary Inspector, so bring your questions whenever you come by — swarms in the wrong place, whether that thing in your soffit is honey bees or yellowjackets, how to keep a backyard hive alive through a Florida summer, or how to garden for bees without keeping any.

🌸 Buy 2, Get 1 Free on all pollinator plants — Salvia, Gaillardia, Coreopsis, Verbena, Ageratum, Evolvulus, Dianthus, Ruellia and Society Garlic.

📄 Free printed guide: 10 Plants That Feed Florida Bees — what actually blooms here, and when, so something's flowering in your yard year-round.

One in every three bites of food you eat depends on a pollinator. Most people never meet the ones doing the work. Come meet a few.

📍 Chianina Microtopia · Wesley Chapel, FL 🌱 Regenerate. Sustain. Empower.

08/13/2026

First day of school in Pasco County. 🎒

To every parent who got someone out the door this morning — and to everyone who's been up since five making sure it happened — we see you.

There's a reason we keep handing plants to kids. A seed doesn't care how the first day went. It just needs water, light, and somebody who remembers to check on it. That's a low bar to clear on a hard week, and clearing it feels like something.

Good luck out there today. 💛

📍 Chianina Microtopia · Wesley Chapel, FL

08/12/2026

🐝 Pollinator Plant of the Week — Gaillardia, "Blanket Flower"

Look closely at the middle of that flower. That is not a honey bee.

It's a native sweat bee, and Florida has hundreds of native bee species doing quiet, unpaid work in gardens all over this county. Most people never notice them because they're small, they're fast, and they don't look like the bee on the honey jar.

Blanket flower is one of the best things you can plant to feed them. It blooms in brutal heat, it shrugs off sandy soil, it wants full sun and very little from you, and it keeps flowering long after the fussier stuff has quit.

Deadhead it when the blooms fade and it'll keep going. That's the entire care routine.

Buy 2, Get 1 Free on all pollinator plants, running now. And Saturday is National Honey Bee Day — more on that Friday. 🌿

📍 Chianina Microtopia · Wesley Chapel, FL 🌱 Regenerate. Sustain. Empower.

08/11/2026

The herb bench is loaded, and this is the good stuff.

Greek oregano. Sweet lavender. Chocolate mint. Cinnamon basil. African basil. Lemon basil. Thai basil.

Here's the thing about buying herbs in person instead of off a shelf: you can crush a leaf first. Cinnamon basil actually smells like cinnamon. Chocolate mint is not a marketing name. Come find out which one you want in your kitchen before you commit to it.

A Florida note worth knowing - basil loves our heat and will run all the way to first frost, but it wants a haircut. Pinch the flower buds off as they form and the plant puts that energy back into leaves. Let it flower and it gets bitter and gives up.

Lavender is the exception. It wants sharp drainage and hates wet feet, so give it a pot with grit in the mix rather than a low spot in the yard.

We're also running Buy 2, Get 1 Free on all pollinator plants - Salvia, Gaillardia, Coreopsis, Verbena, Ageratum, Evolvulus, Dianthus, Ruellia and Society Garlic.

Chianina Microtopia - Wesley Chapel, FL
Open Monday through Saturday, 8 AM to 2 PM
Regenerate. Sustain. Empower.

08/07/2026

Florida-Friendly Friday

We're deep into hurricane season, so this week's tip is less about planting and more about protecting.

Move potted plants against a wall or into the garage before a storm - wind-thrown pots break more than pots.

Check young trees now, not the day before. Stake what's leaning, prune anything dead or crossing.

Keep mulch pulled back a few inches from trunks so water can't sit against the bark.

And plant Florida-friendly in the first place - deep-rooted, right-plant-right-place picks are the ones still standing after the weather moves through.

That's the whole regenerative idea, really: build something that can take a hit and keep growing.

After a week of closures and events, we're back to normal - open today and Saturday, 8 AM to 2 PM. Come see what came in.

And save the date: National Honey Bee Day is Saturday, August 15. We've got something in the works.

Chianina Microtopia - Wesley Chapel, FL
Regenerate. Sustain. Empower.

08/07/2026

We had a great time at Double Branch Brewing and Bites supporting local families and vendors with the back to school mixer!!

08/06/2026

08/06/2026

Come find us tonight!

We'll be vending the Back-to-School Parents Mixer & Community Showcase - tonight, 5-8 PM at Double Branch Artisanal Ales, 5956 Wesley Grove Blvd, Wesley Chapel. Free parking, all ages, and it's a free event.

We're bringing 50 free grow-your-own kits for kids - a pot, a coir pellet, seeds we packed here at the farm, stickers, a mini garden tool, and a step-by-step sheet to get it planted. First 50 kids, one per child, free.

We're also raffling off six succulents in back-to-school pots (free to enter, no purchase), and we'll have a handout for parents on what a plant on a kid's desk actually does for focus and stress, with the research behind it.

And yes, the farm is open today too, regular hours, before we head out.

Double Branch Artisanal Ales - Wesley Chapel, FL
Regenerate. Sustain. Empower.

08/05/2026

We're closed today - but the farm doesn't take days off.

Figs are setting. Every one of these started as a bump on a branch a few weeks ago, and by the time they're ready you'll have forgotten you were ever watching them.

That's most of what regenerative growing actually is: doing the quiet work, then getting out of the way.

Back open tomorrow (Thursday) - and Thursday evening we'll be out at the Back-to-School Parents Mixer, so there are two ways to find us.

Chianina Microtopia - Wesley Chapel, FL
Regenerate. Sustain. Empower.