We recently connected with Heather Hendrick and have shared our conversation below.
Heather, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?
Not ironically, I think the garden has been my greatest teacher when it comes to the ideas of optimism and hope. Maybe it’s because I learn best when I get to see and experience information, but personally witnessing the life and death, ebb and flow of an organic, living system every season – year after year in a garden is a constant reminder that something beautiful is always waiting to emerge. I have gardened for the past 27 years. Through every season in the garden, I’ve walked through seasons in my own life of divorce, death, disappointment, and career-changes. My hands in the soil, the garden has been a faithful teacher reminding me what is visible now is not a complete picture of what’s growing below the surface. A garden that appears dead and empty can be vibrant and thriving weeks later. These principles have been engraved in my mind, and I find myself approaching all situations – even the bleakest, darkest moments acknowledging something better is right around the corner.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
We are a garden design, installation, and maintenance company in Houston, Texas. We make growing organic food year-round right in your own backyard possible for anyone.
During my 27 years of gardening, I made a lot of mistakes. While I believe failure can be a great teacher, when it comes to a garden setup, failure is not free. I wasted a lot of time, money, and resources in my early years of gardening. Monarch Garden Company exists to help others skip costly mistakes by setting up our clients’ gardens correctly from the beginning and providing ongoing support and education.
After installing a garden, we offer maintenance options and opportunities to grow as a gardener.
For most of our clients, our team stops by every other week to tend and care for their garden. We create a custom growing schedule for each client based on what they want to eat from their garden. Then we keep their garden gorgeous, lush, and productive all year long.
For clients who want to learn to garden, we provide education online and at our monthly gardening workshops where we not only teach people how to garden, but also show them how to bring the garden to the table and into their everyday lives.
In a world that’s becoming less connected to each other and disconnected from our local food sources, Monarch Garden Company focuses on connecting our community back to the earth and to each other.
When we install a garden, we guarantee our clients can eat from their garden every single week. In order to make good on our promise, our team has had to get really good at knowing exactly when to plant each herb and vegetable our clients want to grow.
For the first time ever, we are passing along our knowledge and growing schedule in our 2024 Planting Calendar. If you live in growing Zone 9, we tell you exactly when to plant every herb and vegetable, when to stop planting, and when to remove plants from your garden! This is the gardening calendar I wish I had 27 years ago, and now it’s available to other gardeners growing in Zone 9.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I’ve learned that even in business, we can’t be someone we aren’t.
It seems to be successful in business today, it’s all about scaling, going global, and having an enormous reach. The problem is, certain aspects of life like gardening, our food sources, and connection to our communities weaken as they expand.
If I can’t build a company that focuses on my local community, climate and ecosystem, true connection with one another, and a reverence and respect for the garden and earth, I don’t want to build a company at all.
Focus on our local community, climate, and ecosystem: We educate our local community on what to grow based on our climate and the plants that have adapted to thrive in our specific ecosystem.
True connection: we offer our clients opportunities to connect to us as a company and to each other through in-person coaching and workshops
Reverence and respect for the garden and earth: We honor the garden and celebrate nature in everything we do. She is not a product to be commercialized and sold, she is a sacred gift to be shared.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
When people find us through our website or social media and want a garden like one of our gardens or wish they could find a gardening community like ours where they live, or a similar company in their own state or growing zone, I wish I knew of more companies like ours to connect them to in their area.
Gardening successfully requires having resources and connections in your own city and climate.
If you’re a Garden Consultant or have a company similar to ours, we’d like to know about you so we can point people back to the experts in their own communities.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.monarchgardenco.com
- Instagram: monarchgardenco
Image Credits
Aiden Norvell
