Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer McDonald.
Hi Jennifer, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’ve always loved DIY projects and home styling. As a little girl, I used to push my furniture around my room so often that my parents joked that it would have made more sense to have wheels installed on the bed and dresser. I grew up in Napa Valley, CA in a little rented house with a big garden in the backyard. My dad and I would spend hours outside together, he tending to the plants while I tended to eating whatever was freshly harvested.
I carried all three loves~ DIY, home styling and gardening into adulthood. During college, my freshman roommate would unlock the door to our tiny shoebox of a dorm room only to find that the bunk beds had been moved into a side by side configuration, or an L-shape, or back to bunk beds.
Fast forward to life with three kids, a husband, two dogs and one pandemic. Life felt a little heavy. We had a few garden beds in the side yard, and they made me so happy~ really, this was the one place where we could all go to forget about the woes of Covid, quarantine and vaccination rates. So, what’s a girl to do? I installed more beds. In fact, we went from 1 to 3 to 5… to 14 in a matter of a year.
Fourteen garden beds! I got serious about enjoying my passions. I worked on house projects. I DIY’ed my heart out. Then I grew stuff. A LOT of stuff. It was at this point that I also took a consulting job for a local garden company that installs raised garden beds. It was the best of all three of my favorite things, combined into one job.
Within one year, I had designed over one hundred gardens. I managed installations for approximately 60 of those special gardens. I was approached by a TV Producer who wanted to film my own gardens for a spot on Martha Stewart’s newest series, “Getting Down and Dirty with Martha.” It happened. I landed myself on MARTHA! Episode 8, Season 1 of “Martha Gets Down and Dirty” aired on August 5th, 2021. My segment was entitled, “Impress Martha.” I was so incredibly nervous before it aired that I didn’t sleep for days. Martha Stewart is no wallflower and her criticism of previous guests was nothing less than interesting. Martha was very rarely impressed, let’s just put it that way.
On the morning that it began streaming on Discovery +, I gathered my family on the couch at 6:30am in our pajamas and we were prepared to meet whatever criticism Martha had to offer. I had no idea what clips made it onto the show, or how things were going to be spliced. My husband gave me a little pep talk, reminding me that tough criticism makes for great TV and that even bad publicity is good publicity (I started to cry). We were prepared for the worst.
As we watched, I held my breath. Martha and her trusty lead gardener Ryan McCallister judged my gardens and my growing methods, and had this to say~ “She reminds me of me a long, long time ago. I am very impressed. As is Ryan.”~ Martha Stewart. Then I cried tears of happiness (!) and relief (!) and we ate cake. Because it turns out, in this house, when you have a major win like that, we eat cake for breakfast.
At the end of 2021, as I was writing out my goals for the new year, I realized something important. I wasn’t fulfilling my own potential. I was working for someone else, who was able to take the credit for all of the creativity that I brought to the company. It was time to step out of my comfort zone and do this on my own, as a business owner, an entrepreneur, a mom who has always taught her daughters to live by the mantra, “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”
My two colleagues who had also become great friends shared this thought and we decided that 2022 would be our new start, as business owners. And so, in January of this year, we launched Garden Girls, with the hopes of inspiring anyone who wants to start a garden to “Let yourself grow.”
Garden Girls is truly a labor of love. We bring a fresh approach to designing and installing kitchen gardens for Houstonians. We pride ourselves on living in and working in Houston, alongside our clients. We believe in simple, stylish and seasonal designs, that complement our client’s lifestyles. We want to create gardeners that feel confident in their abilities.
I haven’t left home styling or DIY projects behind. I’ve actually figured out a way to make our housework for itself through Instagram promotion and renting it out for photoshoots. Last week, we had a cat food commercial filmed in our kitchen. And as for DIY, I’ve taken on renovating a 1961 horse trailer that will be converted to a mobile garden pop up shop. This is on the heels of DIY’ing my way through a custom doghouse, which found its way to The Washington Post for my use of peel and stick tile.
Life is good. The last few years have taught me that there is a big difference between surviving and thriving. Surviving is doing the same thing over and over to meet basic needs. Thriving is discovering that the things you love the most, that help you grow and flourish, don’t just help you survive~ they teach you to truly live.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Nothing worth having comes easy. As a gardener, the most devastating struggle of the past few years was the freeze of 2021. Aside from pipes bursting throughout our house, and water literally pouring from the kitchen ceiling, I had to face the fact that I had lost everything in the garden that I had worked so hard to grow and cultivate. It was a very emotional few weeks as I spent hours upon hours pulling things from the garden beds.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I say “Other” because I think what I do is a combination of a few different things: Business Owner / Creative / Service.
I co-own Garden Girls with Jill Oliver and Nicole Shah, and we are Houston-based garden designers. We specialize in boutique kitchen garden design and installation and offer seasonal workshops and special events to keep our clients growing and thriving! We have extensive experience in garden design and installation and work with quality craftsman to ensure a smooth experience for our clients, from start to finish. Our gardens are turnkey, which is a huge benefit to new gardeners who may feel overwhelmed
I’m most proud of the lifestyle I’ve built for my three daughters, who help me in the garden regularly. I have children who understand the importance of organic growing methods and who can taste the difference between a garden carrot and a store-bought carrot. I feel incredibly lucky that I can share what I’ve learned with clients and their families. Gardening is something that we should all appreciate and incorporate back into our lives.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
To see my gardens, one would think that I also love to cook. I wish that were true. I find cooking to be a chore, more than an enjoyable experience. However, I can throw together a beautiful and tasty salad or party perfect bruschetta in three minutes flat (thanks to my own backyard ingredients). Another surprise? I love cookbooks.
Pricing:
- %5000+
Contact Info:
- Email: Jen@gardengirlstx.com
- Website: www.gardengirlstx.com
- Instagram: @gardengirlstx
- Facebook: @gardengirlstx
Image Credits:
Ashley Maresh
Harlow & May Studios
Phoebe Rourke
