Meet Shaira Bailey

Shaira was born in Tampa, FL and lived in various Florida cities. While in middle school she spent a couple years in the Netherlands where most of her mother’s family lives. She moved to Norfolk with her husband in 2021 for his new professor position at ODU.

Shaira attended the University of North Florida in Jacksonville majoring in Accounting, and successfully sat for the CPA exam after graduation. She currently works as a self-employed CPA and is also the Horticultural Assistant at the Hermitage Museum and Gardens. 

Shaira has had an active interest in plants for many years and this is what sparked her interest in becoming a Master Gardener. She loves food: cooking it, eating it, reading about it and growing it. She started growing vegetables about twenty years ago and has continued to grow them ever since. She particularly likes growing hot peppers, especially Scotch Bonnets. She also became interested in houseplants about five years ago and now has a great collection. Her favorite houseplants are of the Hoya and Rhaphidophora genus. Some of her current gems are her Hoya Australis Lisa and Rhaphidophora Decursiva.

Shaira was impressed with the hybrid option for classes and felt it was very conducive to the amazing diversity present in the Class of 2022. There were folks from all walks of life; a mix of ethnicities/cultures, ages, religions, education, family and career statuses. She highly recommends using the hybrid model for classes in the future. She has made many new friends and has learned a lot from them.

Shaira worked on a variety of projects to attain her fifty hours including the Significant Tree Program, the Fred Heutte Square Foot Garden and served on the Finance Committee. She plans to continue working on upcoming events and the Finance Committee. She recently completed a big project for the Finance Committee to compile five years of financial statements to use for our nonprofit status. Thank you Shaira!

Shaira is married to her husband, Gregory, and their “children” are fur babies. They have two dogs, Maia, an eight-year-old lab/pit mix, and Gimli, a sweet, goofy year-and-a-half-old Spinone Italiano (named after the Lord of the Rings character). Their “children” seem to have an affinity for her container veggie garden, especially tomatoes.

When Shaira isn’t doing Master Gardener activities she loves cooking, hiking, and traveling both abroad and domestically. She collects cookbooks and is always cooking something new out of them. She has hiked many parts of the Appalachian Trail, down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, countless state parks in Florida, and an assortment of miscellaneous trails in the Southwest. Shaira and her husband were married in Ireland, and some of her favorite travels include trips to Nicaragua, Bolivia, Prague, Albuquerque and Boston. Working in the gardens at the Hermitage is a huge part of her life at this time.

When you see Shaira, be sure to introduce yourself and welcome her to Norfolk Extension Master Gardeners.