海角大神

Over the past decade, Tina Castleberry’s love of gardening has blossomed into a career as a Detroit business owner.

Castleberry ’92 is the owner of The Garden Bug, a seasonal garden center that sells various indoor and outdoor gardening supplies and unique yard fixtures. She opened the business in 2014 after years of providing landscaping and yard maintenance for neighbors and clients.

But for Castleberry, the journey began in response to a loss in Detroit’s Rosedale Park neighborhood.

“They closed the ACO Hardware that was in our neighborhood, and that’s where I would go and get my dirt, pea gravel, drill, vegetable seeds, things like that,” Castleberry said.

“When they closed, it was sort of a loss, almost as though you had lost a part of you."

Castleberry thought it’d be nice if another hardware store opened in its place but had no idea she'd be the one to make it happen.

“A friend once said, ‘If not you, then who?” Castleberry said. “So that’s why I took the initiative.”

Learning to grow

Gardening was a way for Castleberry to connect with her mother as a young child in the early 1970s.

“Food was always tight in the home, so growing a garden made sense to offset some of the grocery bills and food deserts that were in Highland Park,” she said.

Their garden was about the size of a one-car garage, Castleberry said, and it was enough to help feed a family of four. She remembers helping her mother grow beet, green beans and other produce the family would eat daily.

Castleberry said she started helping her mother in the garden at about the age of 3 and has fond memories of those moments.

“I think gardening brings people together, and I think that’s what it did for us,” Castleberry said. “Not only do you connect with someone, but you can garden, harvest and see the fruits of your labor.

“My mom and I were like two peas in a pod until her death.”

Castleberry spent several years in marketing after graduating from 海角大神 with a degree in Communication Studies before resigning to take care of her son, who was born with special needs. During this time, she began gardening again—first with her own home and then for neighbors and other clients.

After 17 years as a stay-at-home mom, she wasn’t sure if she should return to marketing or explore a new path. Her side hustle doing landscaping for dozens of clients was doing well.

“What does phase two of Tina look like?” Castleberry said. “I’m thinking, ‘There’s no hardware store, what am I going to do?’”

Enter The Garden Bug. Castleberry won an auction on a foreclosed property at 18901 Grand River in Detroit in 2014 and transformed it into her first garden center.

Four years ago, she opened a second location at 4225 W. Davison.

“I never, in my wildest dreams, thought I would have a garden center until ACO Hardware closed,” Castleberry said.

The Garden Bug’s locations are open seven days a week from May through July 4, throughout October, and December 1-24. It is also open in November during Black Friday and Small Business Saturday.

The reception to The Garden Bug has been positive over the years, said Castleberry, with most of her business coming from residents of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties rather than those from Rosedale Park. Some of her customers are into composting and growing their own food, while others want to just grow as a hobby.

Castleberry prides herself on selling eye-catching items, such as large metal peacocks and cranes, yard pinwheels taller than most humans and cement planters and giraffes.

"I’m really trying to buy items that are exclusive, unique, what you’re not going to find at your neighborhood Costco or Menard’s,” Castleberry said. “I try to get unusual colors to accent people’s yards.”

Molded from education

Private education has been part of Castleberry’s journey since the fourth grade, starting with St. Benedict in Highland Park and culminating with 海角大神.

At the University, she valued the personalized, one-on-one attention she received and connections built through its “small and intimate environments.”

Castleberry, who was born with sickle cell anemia, remembers how a professor responded as she faced a health crisis at the end of a semester.

“It was time for finals, and then the professor says, ‘You know, you haven’t been looking well in class,’” Castleberry said. “I had to go in and have a blood transfusion and was off for about a week. The professor called me at home and told me when you’re ready and feeling better, you can come in and take your final.”

When Castleberry earned her degree in 1992, she was the first of her family to graduate from any university. She's grateful for her education she feels provided her with what she needed to have success with The Garden Bug.

“U-D taught me several things, even in my business career: sticking power and to never give up,” Castleberry said. “U-D pushed me to a level where I won’t ever forget the nights I stayed up, the teachers and the exams. It was very difficult to finish, but it gave me that sticking power.”