Trending
MARQUETTE -- Ondine Bonk, a 12-year-old resident of Marquette, has started a business selling native clover seeds. Her business, Clover Lover, was started both as a way of making some money and as a way of helping the environment.
"Clover has a ton of benefits for the earth, and people already know what it is," said Bonk. "So I did some more research, and it's really easy to harvest. It's everywhere."
Bonk harvests clover seeds both from her own yard and from other locations around town.
"So the clovers die, and the flower on the clover, you just pull it off," said Bonk. "The petals come off, and inside the petals are the seeds. I don't actually separate the seeds from the petals because the petals keep them safe, and it makes it easier for them to grow."
Bonk put up posters advertising her business this summer, with prices starting at $1 a packet. As her business expands, though, those prices will have to grow to $2 a packet, to help cover the cost of shipping the seeds to more locations, as well as including information in each packet about clover.
Bonk's hand-drawn posters advertise Clover Lover with a question, reading: "Do you want to support our pollinators, soil, atmosphere, and me, a 12-year-old entrepreneur?"
"Nitrogen in the soil is key to helping plants grow," said Bonk. "And so people will use nitrogen fertilizers to try and help whatever they're growing grow better. But the problem with that is it can release greenhouse gases into the air.
"So clover actually works as a natural nitrogen locker, so anything around it will thrive. If people use clover around other plants that they're growing, it will eliminate the need for nitrogen fertilizers."
In addition to helping other plants grow, clover also helps local wildlife by serving as a food source.
"Obviously, clover is edible to animals, like bunnies and stuff," said Bonk. "But it's also actually edible for humans, so you can put the flowers on salads, and you can make tea out of the flowers.
"Also, clovers are really good at helping pollinators thrive. And bees love clover, so that really helps the declining number of pollinators worldwide."
Part of why Bonk chose clover out of all the other plants is its hardiness.
"Clover is very strong," said Bonk. "So if you sprinkle a little bit of it, it will spread the next year and the next year. It can kind of help the earth itself, after you give it a head start."
Bonk is not alone, it turns out, in recognizing the benefits of planting clover, as her business has been booming. Bonk is using profits to grow it even more.
"I'm keeping (my funds) so that I can buy more origami paper and more washi tape, and be able to print stuff that I can put inside the packets, like information about the seeds," said Bonk.
The origami paper and washi tape are part of the packaging for her seeds.
"My main goal right now is to mail more to people," said Bonk. So far she has been hand-delivering most of her seeds, but one customer in Negaunee gave her a vision for how far her seeds could spread.
Those interested in purchasing clover seeds from Clover Lover can contact Bonk at ondine.bonk@gmail.com.
Annie Lippert can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is alippert@miningjournal.net.