The Flower Friend Who Designs Joyful Yards - Christina Koether! - Yard To Table

Episode Transcript
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Trevor (00:14):
Well, hello there, Ellen,

Ellen (00:15):
Well, hello there.
Trevor,

Trevor (00:17):
if that is your real name, it is, it is, it's true. I
do know it's your real name. Itis.

Ellen (00:21):
It was almost Christine,

Trevor (00:23):
that's true. It was almost Christine, but that ended
up being your middle name.

Ellen (00:27):
It did. And I'm grateful. I'm grateful for that
because I like Ellen.

Trevor (00:31):
I also like Ellen. Who doesn't like Ellen, everybody

Ellen (00:33):
But I might have liked Christine. It's all about
likes Ellen.
perspective.

Trevor (00:40):
That's true. You know?
It's funny. I was thinking thatour last name and your last name
now is Crafts.

Ellen (00:48):
Yes, it is, legally

Trevor (00:50):
legally via marriage, and it's that's a tricky name
sometimes.

Ellen (00:56):
Now I thought that I was trading in for an easier name.
When I took your name inmarriage crafts, because my main
name is Scherer, when I stilluse Scherer Crafts. Yeah, not so
much. No. It's amazing how manypeople...

Trevor (01:12):
with a K, yeah. And if we were crafts with a we were
craft with a K, we would (A) bevery wealthy and (B) have an
unlimited amount of macaroni andcheese,

Ellen (01:23):
which would make me very happy. That

Trevor (01:24):
That would be awesome

Ellen (01:25):
processed cheese product.

Trevor (01:26):
I do love macaroni and cheese,

Ellen (01:27):
kind of you know, not our jam in this podcast,

Trevor (01:31):
no, not at all. That's about the farthest away from
this podcast as you couldpossibly get.

Ellen (01:37):
But if I tell people, spell it like arts and crafts,
arts and crafts that helps.
That's true sometimes.

Trevor (01:42):
Well, today we're going to spell y, a, r, d to table,
yard to table, one more episodeof yard to table.

Ellen (01:51):
And I gave a little spoiler with Christine, because
it relates to our guest today.

Trevor (01:58):
Ah, Christine, it's a little bit of a, it's a, it's a,
it's a foreshadowing. It is asit were,

Ellen (02:05):
it is. And I am super excited, because our guest today
is really somebody we met in thebeginning of our journey here at
Stonebrook, and who has reallybeen integral to sort of our
process with our garden andhelping us plan and I'll give
you a little bit of her bio. Ifyou wouldn't mind, I would take
a bio. Okay, here we go.

Trevor (02:25):
I mean, I'm not going to take a bio. I'm going to do the
podcast. Yeah, don't take a bio.
I won't take it.

Ellen (02:28):
We're working right now.
Okay? Our guest today is aflorist, a garden designer, an
advanced Master Gardener, veryexcited about that flower farmer
growing right in her ownbackyard, and her company
nomadica is based here inWestern Connecticut, where
everything she grows is groundedin supporting biodiversity and
targeting a predominantlynative, pollinator friendly
plant mix in all herinstallations are important,

(02:50):
which we know very well. Shebrings joyful imagination in the
gardens that she designs frombespoke vegetable trellises made
from clients found wood. Hint,hint, we know where those are to
hanging. Gordon for the visitorto walk through. She is an
exceptional floral artist thatcreates the most unique
bouquets, arrangements andflower installations, and she

(03:10):
uses primarily local growingplants and flowers, which is
also amazing. So we welcome tothe podcast today, our flower
friend and an influential forcein the gardens at Stonebrook.
Christina Koether

Christina (03:25):
thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be
here.

Ellen (03:30):
We are so excited to have you on

Christina (03:32):
Thanks, guys.

Trevor (03:33):
It's Christina, though,

Christina (03:34):
yes, but my mother was Christine,

Ellen (03:36):
I know, but that was the hint. Oh, it's

Trevor (03:38):
a hint. It's a good hint. It was a hint. It's

Christina (03:39):
a great hint, because my mother was Christine.

Ellen (03:42):
Oh, yeah,

Trevor (03:43):
I didn't know that.
That's cool. Yeah, I love thateverywhere, everywhere.

Ellen (03:48):
That makes it special.
And we literally met in ouryard. Well, did we meet before
that?

Christina (03:53):
I don't know. I was trying to remember. I don't know
how we found each other.

Ellen (04:00):
Maybe we have most of our meetings in the yard, right?
Yes, that's right,

Christina (04:05):
and they're beautiful gardens. Yeah.

Trevor (04:06):
I think our kids, you know, obviously, all of our kids
go to school together, which isalways a good connection point.
But I think that, I think it wasmaybe like on Facebook or
something, and you sort of,you're good on the on the
Facebook, the Face libre, socialmedia of it all. Yeah, we'll
hunt and find people that arethe the gems.

Ellen (04:27):
You know what? I think you're right because, well, I
know, I know you're rightbecause I'm amazing social
media. But besides that,

Trevor (04:32):
I'm just happy that I'm right.

Ellen (04:35):
No, but I think it was, again, I'm not really trying to
understand our community, andmoving here, you're looking to
all your local resources. And wehave a couple local Facebook
pages that are very hyper localto our area. And I remember, you
know, you posting just somebeautiful things. You know,
originally from, you know, wewant to talk a little bit about

(04:57):
nomadic and sort of theevolution of your cup. Company,
but the things that you weredoing and the things that you
were making, and I believe youhad put out that you were
starting to look at Gardeninstallation and landscape
design, and that's what it was.
And I and I said, Oh, I gotta, Igotta call her. So that's where
it began.

Christina (05:15):
Og garden,

Trevor (05:18):
we might be the OG, I think we might be the OG

Ellen (05:22):
one of the things that drew me in was that you have
this statement on your websitethat Nomadica is based on the
belief that the discovery andjoy should be part of your
everyday life. I love that. Andyou also say, I believe your
yard is an extension of yourhome, and you should have spaces
and moments that ground andinspire you? Yeah, exactly. Tell
me. Tell us more about that.

Christina (05:43):
Sure. So I, I think a lot of people forget that the
outside of their home is anextension of their everyday
life, and there's so much missedopportunity for people in that
it can be inspiring, it can befunctional, it can be beautiful.
It can be a source of income. Itcan feed your family. It can be

(06:09):
a national park in your ownbackyard. So I My goal is to
inspire people to be morecurious, to start with being
more curious about theirbackyard. Can you walk outside
and identify what's out there?
Do you know how everything isconnected and the roles that
they play, and then helping themunderstand how you might better
use this space? One of myfavorite clients, we took a

(06:32):
bamboo forest, invasive bamboo,and turned it into an outdoor
living room. And I think that'sjust like, like it wasn't even
on their radar that this couldbe a space where they could sit
and have time with their family.
It was just a bamboo forest,right? So little things like
that, just making people feellike they're connected to their

(06:53):
outdoor space.

Trevor (06:54):
Can I? Can I go back for just a second, because I'm now
curious, turning your backyardinto a national park.

Christina (07:01):
Yeah, so say, what?
Right? So Doug Tallamy, Dr Doug,Tallamy, he's an ethno botanist.
No he's a bug guy. He's a doctorof bugs. What is that?
Ornithologist? No, that would bebirds. No,

Trevor (07:22):
not arachnophobic, no, because he's 100% not

Ellen (07:26):
no I cannot. That would be bad entomology. Entomologist,

Christina (07:32):
thank you, entomologist.

Trevor (07:33):
I consider myself a bit of an amature entomologist.

Ellen (07:35):
That was a brain block for all of us.

Christina (07:37):
Yeah. Dr Doug Tallamy is an entomologist at the
University of Delaware. He'swritten a bunch of books, and he
is sort of the leader of thismovement of treating your
backyard like a homegrownNational Park. And he explains
in his various lectures and hisbooks the importance of treating

(07:58):
your backyard like a nationalpark, because privately, the
land owned in this country isgreater than the preserved land,
and if we continue at the ratewe're on, we've already lost two
thirds of wildlife since 1970and and the UN says in the next
20 years, we'll lose another 1million species if we continue

(08:20):
on at this rate. So he's tryingto get and is successfully
getting people to pay moreattention to what you can do at
home. So it's not just going tothe parks. It's managing the
invasives on your property. It'splanting more natives. It's
reducing your lawn space. It'sstopping the spraying of
herbicides and pesticides. Andwhen you stop breaking down the

(08:43):
ecosystem and support the foodweb, your your backyard comes
alive, and you no longer have totreat for the pests, because
things start to take care ofthemselves, which is really
cool.

Trevor (08:53):
That's super cool. I mean, I think tell talk a little
bit more, because you did starton, on, on native plants, you
know. And we hear a lot here inWeston and Connecticut about,
you know, invasives. So tell usa little bit more about why.
Obviously, it sort of makessense, you know, just like why

(09:13):
native plants are good to have.
But go a little bit further onthat, because I think, you know,
some of our listeners aredefinitely newer to gardening.

Christina (09:24):
So native plants are plants that originated here in
our natural landscape, and theyhave co evolved with the insects
and the birds and all of ournature to rely on each other.
It's an interconnected web, andyou take one piece out, and that
web starts to fall apart. Themain reason that they are so
important is they facilitate thelargest transfer of energy from

(09:46):
the sun into protein. So youhave the sun beaming down these
beautiful native plants thattend. Then you have the
caterpillars come in and eat theleaves, and now they're turning
that energy, the sun energy intothe protein, which. Is eaten by
the birds and eaten by thegophers that annoy us in our
garden. We

Trevor (10:05):
do have one, by the way.
We have cool we had a cool man.
Not cool. I'm

Ellen (10:10):
really happy that he's happy, but I'd also like him to
move. Yeah, correct.

Christina (10:15):
Find him a new home.
Gently, gently, happily, we'lljust lure him away with
tomatoes. Yes,

Trevor (10:19):
he's gotten plenty.

Christina (10:23):
but so it's without that, without the transfer of
energy from the sun into theprotein to support the food web,
you have no birds, you have youhave no caterpillars, you have
no birds, then it just sort ofall breaks apart, and we rely
entirely on caterpillars andpollinators for 90% of the

(10:43):
plants on this earth. So with

Ellen (10:47):
just think about that for a minute, right? 90% 90%
incredible,

Trevor (10:52):
really incredible.

Christina (10:53):
Without them, we're not here. I'd like to stay
around. Stick around, and it'sgoing back

Ellen (11:00):
to what you're saying earlier about the species that
have disappeared, andparticularly with the birds. I
mean, you know, we if you don'tplant natives, if you're not
thinking about this in terms ofwhat's pollinator friendly, then
it just, you know, the situationgets grimmer and grimmer, right?
I mean, not to be scary, folks,but that's a that's why it's so

(11:20):
important.

Christina (11:22):
right. And one of the big things is the nursery trade
over the last few 100 years,meaning, well, and bringing cool
and exotic things from all overthe world has introduced and
unleashed non native invasivesinto our environment. So we have
lots of things in our gardenthat are fine, right? They're
not native. Plants, like a hostais not native, but it's not

(11:44):
overtaking your woods anddisplacing things that feed our
pollinators and thecaterpillars. But then we have
things like Japanese knotweed,which is one of my personal
enemies, that it can justcompletely overtake an area so
quickly you don't even realizeit's happened. You walk out one
day and it's not there, and thenext day you walk out and you

(12:04):
have a whole hedge of it so andthey're displacing everything.
And it does. It has not evolvedwith our insect population, so
there's no It serves no purposeto our pollinators.

Ellen (12:17):
You have been such a source of education for me
around, sort of, how do Iidentify these things that are
not that are invasive, and thatare not native, and that are
thus not good for, you know? Andthere are things now I can't
unsee. I think this is soimportant because, you know,
like, let's talk about garlicmustard wheat. I mean, that is
around in Connecticut in thespring, and New England, you

(12:39):
start to see this come up, andit's got this little white flour
on top. And yes, you can cookwith it, and you can make
mustard, you can make, you know,lots of things. And people do
use it for multiple purposes,but, man, yeah, that, if you're
not pulling it, it iseverywhere. And then what is it?
It does something to the soil,right?

Christina (12:58):
Its allopathic, which means it sends out a chemical
into the ground that keeps otherthings from growing. So it's not
only it's really great atreproducing itself with millions
of seeds, but it's nasty to itsneighbors,

Ellen (13:13):
right? And so I mean rude, it's just rude. And of
course, I'm thinking of thetrees that look so pretty in the
fall, the ones that are burningthe burning bush, which is like,
that is a constant struggle.
Yeah, they grow everywhere. Theygrow everywhere.

Trevor (13:27):
Or even, I mean, something like, like a porcelain
berry vine. It's lovely, and theberries are very sweet and
pretty, but, boy, that'll takeover everything on you. And, you
know, I mean, I just pulled awhole bunch out of a rose bush.
And I didn't even know it wasthere, to your point. I didn't
even realize, like, Oh no, thisrose is just looking a little Oh

(13:48):
no, wait, those aren't actuallyrose. That's Multi Floor, that's
like, everything. That's like amash up. Yeah, it's just like a
remix of salad. This is not,this is not good at all.

Ellen (13:58):
We become a little bit of soil nerds, right? I mean,
this is, like, part of the jam.
We talked about this and, and Ithink our Nerd flower, yeah,
flower nerds, yeah, soil nerds,we're good with all labels here,
same Yeah, except, right? Weaccept all labels in this genre.
But I think, you know, when youtalk about invasives, the other
part of that is also invasiveinsects. Yes, you know, the
jumping worms. I didn't knowwhat a jumping one was until our

(14:21):
first season, and we're startingto, like, you know, get our
hands in the soil. I'm like,that's an earthworm.

Christina (14:28):
That's a snake,

Ellen (14:29):
that's an earthworm on adrenaline. Like, what is
happening right now? Right? And,of course, the lanternfly crisis
that we're having right now,yes.

Christina (14:37):
So they come hand in hand, right? The lanternfly's
host is one of our invasivespecies, the Tree of Heaven. So
you have the Tree of Heaven,then you have the lantern fly.
They're coexisting together veryhappily. And yeah, the
lanternfly is here.

Trevor (14:54):
Why do they call it the Tree of Heaven? I think
because... why is it called thelanternfly? These are nice
names. Mean, why are we callingthese things like an

Ellen (15:02):
Lantent fly is my jam in colors. It's black, white and
red. It's gorgeous. Yes, it'sbeautiful until

Christina (15:08):
you they're beautiful until you see so many of them
swarm and like, flying into youand hitting your face.

Ellen (15:13):
They're like, they're like, getting hit with a ping
pong ball. Yeah, last

Trevor (15:16):
season, I was in New York around this time, and they
were, and they were literallyhanging off of everything

Ellen (15:24):
and our own neighborhood, you know, conver
Beach, West, the death monger,

Trevor (15:32):
you know, let's call it the death monger.

Christina (15:34):
I bought a hand held vacuum, and I stocked there were
some baby nymphs that hatched ona rose bush in my yard. Oh, no.
And I they're they jump so youcan't go to the mask. Yeah? So I
went out, I bought a handheldvacuum, and I went out and
sucked the little suckers rightoff. Which

Trevor (15:51):
Ghostbusters, right?
Yeah. Well, light is green, thetrap is clean.

Ellen (15:55):
I know you've said many times that you're not a real
flower friend or gardener unlessyou're willing to get in the
garden and squish bugs with yourown hand. And squish bugs with
your own hand. I've

Christina (16:05):
also been watching Game of Thrones recently, so I
went from like knocking Japanesebeetles off my flowers into
soapy water, to just squishingthem,

Ellen (16:14):
because that is also the work of an organic grower,
right? No

Christina (16:19):
chemicals because you're there's no one pesticide
that kills one bug, right,right? And if you start to
question, if people who tell youotherwise, they're not telling
you the truth, and you start toquestion, and then you realize
they can't answer, and you'relike, Okay, well, there's the
answer, yeah. Like the organictick spray, it's cedar oil that
suffocates the tick. Well, whydoes it suffocate a tick and not

(16:44):
other body? Right? Right? Soit's important, if you are going
to manage organically andwithout pesticides, you have to
be willing to get your handsdirty or help

Trevor (16:54):
or orange in the case, yes, those things think and turn
your fingers bright orange, andit would be much better if that
orange came from either macaroniand cheese or, like, cheese
puffs. Yeah, no. I mean, it wasawful. It's awful

Ellen (17:17):
we're talking about flowers. My flower friend, you
and I share a shared love oftulips and dahlias, zinnias. I
think we can name it all right,but when in your growing, and I
want you to talk a little bitabout what you've done with your
yard and your growing and whatyou've turned it into, and also

(17:37):
what your favorite flowers areand what brings you joy in what
you're growing in your yard?

Christina (17:42):
Yeah, absolutely so.
Nomadica really started. Mymother was a master gardener,
and she passed away unexpectedlyin a car accident, and in I had
a business prior to that that Iwas importing goods made by
women from around the world,amazing. And I was working
really hard, selling thingsonline. I was giving money back,
supporting these women allaround the world. I felt really

(18:03):
good about it. My mother passedaway, and our I've lost my
garden buddy, so I went insearch of garden buddies, and I
did the Master Gardener Program.
I did the advanced mastergardener program. I did the
floret flower class. I didclasses at the New York
Botanical Gardens. Stayed up atnight and did things on my
computer while my kids aresleeping. I turned I built a

(18:26):
vegetable vegetable garden,which is now a Gordon because
we've gone so far past onevegetable garden. I built a
cutting garden, I built a minimeadow, I built a kitchen
garden, I built more perennialbeds, and I started to have such
an influx of flowers. A friendwas like, why don't you put a
little flower stand out and seehow it does? And so I got all

(18:48):
excited, and I was ready to buya big, fancy flower stand. She
was like, no, no. Calm down. Putout a card table with a table
cloth on it and see how it does.
And then go from there. I waslike, well, that's no fun,

Trevor (18:59):
agreed, by the way, because that's how I would do
it. build a gigantic store onsomething I've never tried
before,

Christina (19:09):
I still look at those original pictures. Such an ugly
tablecloth. Why did I listen?
Listen to her? Obviously, itwould have worked. And I started
selling flowers. And meanwhile,I'm getting notes in my mailbox
saying, like, do you do gardendesign? Like, no, no, I'm very
busy with my my business Istarted, and then one day it
clicked, and I was like, What amI doing? I found so much joy in
gardening and helping people seetheir backyards differently,

(19:34):
being around other people wholove flowers. Why am I
struggling with this business?
And so I shut it down. I I keptthe name nomadic as the same
name, and I just pivotedcompletely.

Ellen (19:48):
Which I love! I love it because you're chasing, yes,
you're finding your joy, youknow, you're in you're really
listening to yourself and reallythinking about, where am I
finding this fulfillment? Right?
So first of all, it's, you know,it's always, it's a lot to start
a business in any way, shape orform, huge, huge. And then to
say this business model isn'tworking for me. I'm really going
to do it this way. That's a bigpivot. It's very brave, very

(20:11):
bold. I love that,

Christina (20:14):
which is funny, because that's the name bold
nomad. Is the name of my LLC,and I make sense. Well, I
started it not knowing what Iwanted to do. I was like, I'm
going to do something. Let'sjust name it. Bold nomads. I'll
be bold. And that has carriedthrough. So now I'm growing
flowers for my flower stand. Ioffer subscription services in

(20:35):
the spring and the fall withtulips, tulips and dahlias and
all the good stuff.

Ellen (20:39):
There's nothing better than seeing the tulips in
January that you're growing likein your basement, in your
greenhouse, like when they'restarting to come up before our
tulips have popped up. I'm like,I can't wait to get to the
texting you or I'm stopping bythe flower stand to get like,
you know, a bouquet. It's justsuch joy in the winter time when
things are dull and gray, whichwe also like to, by the way, but

Christina (21:01):
I don't know. There's something about local tulips in
with snow covered ground. And tobe able to go out into my little
eight by six greenhouse and besurrounded by 1000 tulips, it
changes winter experience in theNortheast. Oh, I love it. Yeah,
it's wonderful. And,

Trevor (21:18):
you know, we have very different scale yards between
us, but I think one of thethings that you've done so well
is to really maximize yourspace. So for people that are
out there looking to do someyard to table gardening, be it
flowers, be it vegetables, be itwhatever that brings them that

(21:41):
same joy. What are some tipsthat you have in terms of
maximizing your space? Yeah,

Christina (21:47):
you can do a lot in a small space, whether it's a
patio with pots and putting acouple tomato plants and some
flowers out there to just goingfor it like find a little space
of grass that isn't serving apurpose. Like, for example, I
had a sloped section of my yard.
What are you doing on a slopedsection of grass? Turn that into

(22:10):
something else. You can doanything from dig it up and dig
out the grass to just layingdown cardboard or laying down
layers of mulch. Maybe you planta little mini meadow, and you
bring in the monarchs and allthe bumblebees, make it
something beautiful. Maybe youdo a little veggie garden, or
maybe you do both. Maybe youinter plant them, and you have

(22:32):
it all work together, and youhave a food garden.

Trevor (22:37):
Interplanting, this is something that I think you
helped us to understand moreabout companion plants, if
you're doing real yard to tablegardening, all of the ideas that
you have, for the most part, ifyou're just starting it, they're
coming from commercial farms.
They're coming from nurseries,where you see rows and rows and
rows and rows and rows of thesame thing, but we have almost

(22:58):
none of that at Stonebrook. Wehave almost no just like, here's
the one bed that has just thisor that. There's a couple
things, but, but it's not like,it's not like, All right, here's
our section that is allzucchinis, and here's our
section that is all this otherthing. It's, it is very, is very
interconnected. So talk a littlebit more about companion plants,

(23:21):
what to put together, give andwhy and why? Yeah,

Christina (23:28):
There's a lot of nuance to it, and a lot of it
comes from trial and error andobserving things in the garden.
But there are some basic things,like, tomatoes don't like to be
next to peppers, and if you doput them near peppers, you have
to put like, a buffer zone,because they're both heavy
feeders. And if they're bothtrying to feed heavily, one will

(23:50):
be like, Okay, it's your turn.
You can have the soil, and theywon't do well. And the tomatoes
will take over beans or nitrogenfixers, if you're going to grow
anything, grow some bush beans,because they will take care of
themselves, so easy. But I guessplants ultimately are kind of
like people. We like they likefriends, right? So maybe
something that like, even withperennials, milkweed, if you

(24:15):
grow it by itself, all thelittle caterpillars are exposed,
but if you plant it, intermingleand they fall over. If you plant
it intermingled with a nativegrass, like switch grass, they
sort of hold each other uptrees, like a cluster of trees,
like your white pines out here,they're happy all together,
holding each other through theroots, and they lean on each

(24:36):
other when they blow in thewind. It's the same thing with
vegetable gardening, the plantsthat need the pollinators, like
the cucumbers, they if theydon't have adequate pollination,
like every day a bum will bevisiting that flower. You're
gonna get that weird, funkycucumber, yeah, with a point,
and it looks kind of likedisjointed so it likes to be
planted with borage or. Sternsthat bring in the wonderful

(25:00):
pollinators. And then there'salso things like, if you plant
basil and onions next to yourtomatoes, it's supposed to make
the tomatoes taste better. Now,have I ever had a bad tomato
from my garden? Probably not,but I don't know. I like the
nuance of those little thingslike that.

Trevor (25:20):
The groundhog isn't complaining the ground about the
tomato.

Ellen (25:24):
He is very happy. He's happy that the happy, yeah, he's
happy that the onions are thereand the basils, because the
tomatoes taste fantastic.

Christina (25:31):
You can also maybe we should plant some things he
doesn't like. You can use plantsto deter critters. So anything
in the allium family, and maybewe'll put some Allium we'll make
a fort of them all around.

Ellen (25:44):
We are planning more Allium next year, because I just
love the way that's also, again,that's a wonderful place. You
know, those banners of colorthat start to come in when
everything is, you know, isstill a little brown, is still
very brown. I should say, whatare your most popular flowers
that people come to the flowerstand for? I mean,

Christina (26:00):
I'm a tulip obsessed, crazy person,

Ellen (26:03):
and that infection has reached me. Yeah, by the way,
yeah,

Christina (26:06):
you know the Hortus bulbum in Amsterdam, it has all
the historic collection oftulips, and that's like, if I
can just sneak away.

Trevor (26:18):
You just said to Ellen, let's go.

Christina (26:19):
I did. I did that was code because you're here

Trevor (26:23):
A flower place, somewhere overseas, in Europe.

Ellen (26:26):
I'm texting you

Trevor (26:27):
I'll see you guys in a month.

Christina (26:33):
I wasn't discreet enough.

Ellen (26:35):
It worked for me.

Christina (26:37):
So people, I mean, people know me for my tulips.
I'm not growing the standardthings. I'm going the craziest
things I can find. But people,they love a Dahlia, and the
summer, I have found that a lotof people grow the summer
flowers, like the zinnias andthe sunflowers, and those are
more common, so those are alittle harder to sell, which I

(26:58):
think is interesting, but thoseearly winter tulips and people
are blue and gray. Yeah, theythey love everything.

Ellen (27:05):
There Joy. It's joy. It makes people happy. It gets them
to the places, you know. Andwe're talking about local, and I
know you're part of theConnecticut flower collective,
and we talk a lot about whylocal is important, but
particularly with cut flowers,when people can say, I'll just
go to a grocery store and I'llget a bouquet. Tell us a little
bit about that.

Christina (27:24):
Absolutely. So the Connecticut flower collective,
first of all, is a wholesaler oflocally grown flowers from here
in Connecticut. It's a fabulousorganization. It brings lots of
Flower Growers together andmakes it makes the most premium
product available to florist.
They also have open shoppingdays for the public, so you

(27:45):
don't have to be a business toshop at their collective. So if
you can follow them onInstagram, then you can see when
that they make, when they maketheir flowers available to the
public. I am part of thecollective in the sense that I
do not sell my flowers to them.
I use almost every stem I grow,but I do when I need to gap fill

(28:08):
what I'm not able to grow.
Always source from thecollective, because I do not.
You know, of course, I havepurchased imported flowers,
right? Most people, even thoughthey try really hard to be the
best. You can't be 100% all thetime. And I still make the best
decisions I can when I do buyimported flowers. But the
imported flowers are coming fromLatin America, and, of course,

(28:32):
overseas and Holland and theyhave been overnighted, likely
twice, once to Miami, and thenagain up to New York, and
they're sprayed with, who knowswhat. They're not regulated.
They're not regulated at all. Sothey can be interesting, you
want, right? Okay? And thensometimes, when they come

(28:54):
through customs, they getfumigated. So they're inspected,
and if some, if one of theinspectors sees something, they
fumigate the whole lot from thatgrower. Oh, wow.

Ellen (29:04):
That is so interesting, because I was just reading this
about organic food, same thing.
So if you're buying non localorganic food, it may have been
organic at the time that it wasgrown by the grower, but if it
comes over and it's it's goingto get fumigated. Because that's
part of the job, right? Ofcustoms to make sure that things
are don't have, or we're notbringing lantern flies in,
lantern flies, right? So, local,yeah, but So, and it's, you

(29:27):
know, and it's same thing with,yeah, so that's very interesting
that you say that because I wasjust reading this about because
I'm like, Oh my gosh, I neverthought about that. You know,
you think you're buying organic,and it's labeled organic, but
there's some there could be partof a process that changes that,

Christina (29:40):
Thats something you can't un-hear.

Ellen (29:41):
Yes, right? You're welcome. Yeah, we do this for
each other.

Christina (29:47):
Now I'm gonna ruin the grocery store trips for my
husband too. But, I mean, itmakes you think twice, right?
You go. But I don't want totouch those flowers and I don't
want to smell those. Flowers.
And I'll tell you what thenumber of flowers I've handled
that have nothing on them. Onceyou know what that really feels
like. And you handle a flowerthat has been imported, you can

(30:08):
feel it on your hands, and thatis a creepy and disgusting
feeling.

Ellen (30:16):
And they Well, it is gross

Christina (30:18):
wow. I mean, it's like, what is that? It's like
10, like, if you walked into anabandoned building and ran your
hand across a desk, like, thatlayer of of, like film, that's
what it leaves on your hands.

Ellen (30:32):
Well, to avoid that disgusting experience, in
addition, I mean, the localflowers, they last longer,
right? Oh, absolutely, in avase. I mean, you know, you're
changing your water, and you'rebut you can keep, I mean, how
long would you say, like abouquet of organic tulips last
compared to, I mean, locally, aslong,

Christina (30:47):
Twice as long, if not longer. Sometimes they've not,
even if they're overnighted,right? They're still angry from
think about you after anovernighted, an overnight
flight. Oh, my God, happyeither, and they had no water.
You were served water, right?

Ellen (31:01):
I think it's true in talking about starting being
bold and saying, I want to growflowers. For that novice
gardener, flower explorer,what's a good variety to try?
What would you be your advicefor someone who wanted to just
to grow something that was aflower,

Christina (31:22):
I would first consider protection from deer,

Ellen (31:25):
That is a very important point right in the northeast and
right?
other places.

Christina (31:30):
Yes, if you have protection from deer, I think
the least expensive way to getgoing is to try something like
sunflowers or zinnias. You canbuy a packet of seeds for $5 and
and grow some beautiful, fairlyeasy things. That said, if you
want to further your connectionwith your space, I think cone

(31:54):
flowers are such a beautifuladdition. Echinacea purpuria is
the pink cone flower, and itbrings in the butterflies, it
brings in the bumblebees, andthen it brings in the charms of
goldfinch. The goldfinches comein, and they sit on the seed
heads, and they wave back andforth, and they pluck the seeds

(32:16):
out. And as they're doing that,they're spreading the seeds all
around the plant. And then youhave more plants next year.
They're one of my favoritenatives, and that you start to
see, like the interconnectednessof nature in your backyard.

Ellen (32:29):
I have a whole section that I want to put bee balm and
cone flowers in along the roadmaking notes.

Christina (32:36):
And that's a wonderful combination, because
the bee balm is in the mintfamily, and deer typically don't
like it.

Ellen (32:45):
There's really, I mean, that's a really important point,
right? Because we say deerresistant most of the time,
right? Because, oh, man, younever know, no.

Trevor (32:53):
And a lot of times it's, you know, it's like, well, you
could plant lavender becausethey don't like lavender,

Christina (32:58):
but lavender doesn't grow well here.

Trevor (33:01):
And you would need a a field of lavender to actually
make them not be interested.

Ellen (33:09):
Trevor, could you talk about our deer protection
methods that you put in thegarden this year?

Trevor (33:13):
Oh, yeah, no, I was just gonna say we, we added in some
orbit, automatic MotionDetecting sprayers, which also
may get moved slightly for thisBucha. Oh, wait, Groundhog,

Ellen (33:31):
wood, Chuck, yes, right, yeah,

Trevor (33:36):
he's, I think he's figured out the place where
these don't see him, don't seehim truly. I really do. I really
think that's the truth. They'resmart because I moved the one
and it it, he's not in thereanymore, and the other one's
being blocked by the cold frame.
And so I think he's found, likethe blind spot in the cameras
where he's not getting zingedwith water. But it's a great I
mean, it's, it's

Ellen (33:57):
because we're esthetically snobby and we
wanted, we didn't want whatChristina would recommend for
every putty who wants to plant agarden, which is lots of
fencing, fencing around it

Trevor (34:08):
, which is also a great way to go. I've had friends who
were up in upstate New York inaccord. He put in a seven foot
deer fence, and the deerliterally jumped over the fence.
Yeah. All of this is about lockyour car so that somebody
doesn't just casually go in andgrab stuff, if they will, if the
deer want to get it's the sameprinciple, if deer want to go in
and they want to eat, they'regoing to here at Stone Brook, we

(34:29):
have some sort of advanced stonework that sort of helps our
garden to protect it with somewalls and things like that that
are already sort of were builtin and baked when we Got here.
But I think a lot of it isfinding those natural
deterrents. You know, electricfencing is basically useless,

(34:49):
because they can just, you know,go right through it and
unsightly, and it's unsightly.

Christina (34:54):
You took that down.

Trevor (34:55):
Yeah, that was the first, that was the first thing
you inherited, that we didinherit.

Christina (34:59):
We did. We did hear it. That was not your decision.

Ellen (35:02):
It took a while for us to learn, you know, what we
needed and what we did.

Trevor (35:05):
But yeah, we got rid of that,

Christina (35:06):
and you're really good about spraying. Well, we
are. We win the award for thatmy clients, yeah.

Trevor (35:12):
So the other thing that we do definitely is deer fence
and liquid liquid fence. Yeah,liquid fence. I buy it in the in
the concentrate in wheneverAmazon's having a sale, I'll buy
another five gallon jug of thisstuff, and it smells awful.

Christina (35:28):
Have you read the ingredients?

Trevor (35:29):
Oh, yeah, pretty it's pretty disgusting, rotten eggs
and pee and all sorts of fish,gross garbage. Not long ago, we
did have in the backyard. We hadseven bucks at once, which also
beautiful. It was beautiful,gorgeous. They also do cause
some damage themselves, rubbingup against things. I think we
lost a peach tree because ofthem. Those, those fine young

(35:52):
gentlemen, the spraying has tohappen, not just on a regular
schedule, but on a weather basedschedule. So you have to make
sure that you're, you'respraying. If it rains, you spray
again, correct? And that sucks.
Sometimes, if it's raining alot, because then you're
spraying, which happens threetimes a week, yes, four times a
week. We haven't really had thesame kind of deer problems since
we've been spraying, since weput the orbits in, and the

(36:13):
orbits are a new a new addition,these automatic sprayers. But I
think I personally have hadseveral baths from the dusk to
dawn, automatic Spillers,because you just, you're like,
Oh, I'm gonna go and get a oh, Ineed to get some.

Ellen (36:29):
We're cooking. I mean, that happens a lot of dinner
time for the garden. And the onethinks it's darker than it is,
correct?

Trevor (36:34):
Because it's just then you like, start screaming,
because you get like,

Ellen (36:42):
you know, and when you're working with your
landscape design clients, whatare they looking to do most?

Christina (36:47):
you know, I've seen a lot of different things over the
years. I've had clients whoalready know what they want.
They want to build a meadow,they want to have a vegetable
garden or a cutting garden, buta majority of the time, I would
say people just know that it'sunused space, that it feels they

(37:09):
walk out and it just feels likeopen nothingness. And how do you
change the open nothingness toof mowed lawn into something
that's buzzing for both you andfor the pollinators. So I
mentioned earlier that the oneclient who just had the bamboo

(37:29):
forest, I wasn't even there totalk about the bamboo forest. I
was there to talk aboutsomething else, and it's just I
see myself as someone who comesin and learns about who you are,
who's in your family? How do youuse the space now and then, I
like to say, Well, would youlike to use it this way, or
would you like to use it thatway? And what are your favorite

(37:51):
colors? And are you afraid ofbees? And all the little, all
the little things, right? Ifyou're afraid of the bees, I'm
gonna put the meadow way backover there, but we're still
gonna have a little mini meadow,right? So it's just really about
learning what people how theyuse the space now and then,
opening their eyes to how theyreally could use it, and the
important role that they canplay in bringing function back

(38:14):
to the land, as opposed to justa mode mono crop of grass,

Ellen (38:19):
and that's really such a passion for you, this whole idea
of transforming the space andand the mini meadows, and why
that's important. And obviouslywhat I love is you started the
mini meadow grant program likein 2023 right? Where this was
about getting people to useparts of their unused lawns in a
way that was helpful to theenvironment, creating these like

(38:40):
mini national forests, right?
And park space and their ownlawns, you went, what inspired
you to start right? It's onething to do it for clients, but
it's another to put it out inthe world for others to do and
provide them with the tools andresources to do it.

Christina (38:51):
You know, it happened sort of serendipitously, in the
sense that I had a client and afriend call me and she said, Oh,
you want to do this pollinatorpathway garden on our street?
All the neighbors have gottentogether. Do you know where I
can buy plants? She's mentioneda couple local nurseries. And I

(39:12):
was like, why don't I just getyou the plants? And so it sort
of happened in that way, whereshe was her neighborhood, the
Lindbergh pollinators, theycreated a 20 by 20 foot strip of
grass and turned it into alittle mini meadow. And it's
actually really sweet. It'sright behind the fence of an

(39:32):
older couple. And when we wereinstalling the mini meadow, they
came out and just sat and likewatched the whole neighborhood
come together and build the minimeadow. So that was really
wonderful. And then, you know,that happened, and I thought,
Gosh, that was such a wonderfulway to bring everyone together.
And this movement is afoot, andI want to be a part of it in

(39:54):
more than just doing it forpeople here in Weston. How do I
you. How do I make it possiblefor people who think that it's
not possible, right? I give themthe tools, the money and the
inspiration to just go do it.
And I've written grants in thepast, and I have found them
like, it's very motivating tojust have somebody believe in

(40:16):
you and say, Here's the money.
Go do it. Yeah, bye. Like, go doit, right? And I thought, if I
could do that with, you know,$500 and do that for somebody
else, it's wonderful for them,it's inspiring for other people.
And I don't know, it just feelsgood to do it, yeah, for sure. I
love that. It was win, win,

Ellen (40:37):
I love that. And that's, that's a key part of you, and
your business is that, whole,you know, thread, which I love,
of giving back and doing and andit creates just ripples of good
energy and positive impact onthe planet. I mean, that's how
you can't get much better thanthat.

Trevor (40:50):
I think the cool thing is, it's not, it's also not just
local.

Christina (40:53):
It's a national, great national, yeah. So last
year, the winner, so I opened itup, not really having any idea
how many people would apply. Andof course, there's, like, the
people I'm like, Oh, I know her,like, really,

Trevor (41:06):
Ellen, looking for money. Again.

Ellen (41:09):
I did not apply. I shared the link.

Christina (41:12):
It was open to everybody, and I, you know, this
year I'm going to have to have aset criteria, because once
everyone applied, I had schools,I had parks, I had private
landowners. And I thought, Well,gosh, I didn't really specify.
How do I pick between a schooland a private landowner? So I
gathered some like minded peopleto help me. I weeded through, I
don't remember the number, butit was over 200 or 300 that's

(41:36):
amazing, which is pretty decentfor its first year. That's
incredible. That's amazing.
First formal year, and we endedup picking a woman, a family,
with land that is on the truemonarch migration route as they
leave Mexico. It's like thefirst stop, oh, wow, in Texas.
Oh, that's incredible. Shewanted to do milkweed garden for
the monarchs. Yeah. That feltlike, oh, it's literally, I

(42:00):
look, I got out the maps, and Iwas like, double checking to
make sure this is where theyfly, of course, right? The due
diligence on your end, yeah, andit's right there,

Ellen (42:10):
you mentioned pollinator pathway. So for those who
wouldn't don't know what thatis, can you talk about what a
pollinator pathway is?

Christina (42:15):
Yes. So it takes the understanding that we need to
have spaces that are safe forour pollinators and have them
connected. It's wonderful if youhear on your 11 acres or
pollinator friendly, but if theycan't fly anywhere, it's an
island, right? You know yourown. You're your own little
Madagascar.

Trevor (42:34):
We should change it to Madagascar, Stonebrook should
just be Madagascar.

Christina (42:39):
Stonebrook of Madagascar,

Ellen (42:40):
but it's a connection, right?

Christina (42:41):
It's a connection. So it's a it was actually it's a
501, c3, started by a woman inWilton, and it's a commitment
that you as a homeowner make toreduce your lawn space. Plant
native plants stop sprayingherbicides and pesticides. And
what's the fourth one? Mow lessfrequently, right? So things can

(43:05):
flower for the beads bees. Soit's really just a commitment.
It's a grassroots movement. Andyou sign up. You sign up.

Ellen (43:13):
It's a honor system. You say, I'm gonna, this is these
principles I believe in. I'mgonna sign up. And then you get
added to a map of of people thatare pollen to the pollinator
friendly pathway, right?

Christina (43:24):
It has spread everywhere. I mean, it's been
very successful. And there are,like, little chapters in
different towns, and you can goand get information, and it's a
resource, and there are peoplewho can help you. So it's a
wonderful organization. It's a

Ellen (43:37):
way that people you know find a community of others, yes,
that you know share your samedesires and beliefs around
gardening and planting andnatives and all that kind of
stuff. It's a good way toconnect,

Christina (43:49):
and it's a wonderful way to learn. Yeah, right, if
you don't, if you're feelinglike you don't know what to do,
you can go find a pollinatorpathway group in your town and
volunteer with them and golearn, and someone else will
start. And I think

Trevor (44:01):
that's we say this a lot. Yeah, it's, it's so
interesting when you reallystart figuring out your
neighbors, the other yards inyour community, and what people
are doing. And it really is agreat connector, more so than
what you do for a living, or,you know, sometimes even having

(44:22):
kids, it's like, it's all it'ssomething that we all have such
a great passion for, and it'ssomething that is so inclusive.
I think for everybody that is anovice, there's never a point
where it's like, well, you don'tknow what you're doing, so I'm
not gonna, not gonna let you in.

Ellen (44:39):
This is the first year we had squash borers and with
the weather and with theweather, beautiful hydrangeas
this year. Yeah, yeah. Gorgeous.
Not much snow,

Trevor (44:47):
not much snow, lots of rain. Beautiful hydrangeas at
the same time, because we had avery mild winter, the Chipmunks
are bananas and mice. Mice arebananas. So I thought earlier in
the season. Uh, getting a goodhandle on this space. I gotta
tell you, we are really startingto dial this in. Oh, man. And

(45:08):
then here comes the wood Chuck.
You know, it's always somethingnew. It's always why you need a
community so you don't totallylike you were the only one.

Ellen (45:16):
Yes, and you hire somebody that's also that can
help you went in the areas thatyou don't know so well. I don't
know so well. I don't want tomiss an opportunity to talk
about your floral work, becauseit's so I just find your
approach to creating floralarrangements and installations
is just so joyful and creativeand beautiful. And you know, I
love it. You know, in creatingfloral arrangements, I know you
have some principles that youfollow, but what is it that you

(45:39):
that you love about it, and whatguides you when you're creating
things, whether it's aninstallation, and what are some
of the of your favoriteinstallations that you've done?

Christina (45:48):
Well, that event that you had here was so beautiful,
with all the fall colors anddelicious local food too,

Ellen (45:56):
yeah, our Westport farmers market, friends, that's
right, yeah,

Christina (46:01):
that was wonderful. I when I approach, I don't know,
it's hard to explain. It'salmost like, I think, for other
people, what meditating is like,I sort of disappear in my
thoughts, and I like to just goand cut and find anything that I
think is beautiful, and italmost always if I bring I go

(46:24):
out into the garden and walkaround, and you start to learn
what the right phases are forcutting and what's what's
happening now with thehydrangeas or the dahlias or the
or the Echinacea or thephilectrums, and you Just pick
what is speaking to you and comein. And it almost always works.

(46:46):
I think there's probably been ahandful of times where I'd rip
it apart and start over. But theway I approach it is, I want it
to be reflective of the spacesthat I create as a designer. I
want it to feel like you're inthe garden. So it's a very loose
garden style arrangement that Ithat I create for clients. When

(47:08):
I make bouquets, it's the sameway installations I love, of
course, who doesn't love asecret garden feel so everything
also is sort of inspired by likethat childish wonderment of
disappearing into a secretgarden. I did my favorite
installation, of course, is thegarden of friend. I did for my
mother. On Mother's Day, I wentto a flower workshop in Mexico

(47:34):
with a lot of the leading floraldesigners in the US, and was so
inspired by the culture, thecultural tradition of the
ofrenda. And I thought, Oh, whata wonderful idea to make a
garden ofrenda. So I took, Ihave this wrought iron fence
that is created by a localartist. It's all from found
pieces of iron that he weldedtogether. And it looks very

(47:58):
abstract, but if you actuallystep back, it's the profile of a
dragon, and it culminates whereit ends, right at the mouth of
the flower stand, and then goesthrough an arbor into the
garden. So that became, there'sa shelf there that became the
garden of friend to my mother,with just flowers everywhere

Ellen (48:17):
and the beautiful you had. That's when you put out the
stone heads with the flowers. Imean, the greens coming out of
it? No, it was just so impactfuland beautiful. And what an honor
to your mom. That was just,yeah, no. Thank you for sharing
it with all of us. And I thinkthat's the part of the artistry
and the beauty of what flowerscan do and the messages flowers

(48:41):
mean something. Each flower hasa meaning. There's there's been
much written about that, right?
But I and I think it's thevisceral meaning, the visceral
feeling that we have in seeingthem, how it makes us feel, and
those experiences that youcreate, when you when you make
things, is so special.

Christina (48:59):
Thank you. And also, I think as you get closer to how
like the rhythms, I call it aroller coaster, the roller
coaster of the seasons. Yes,when you're in tune with the
roller coaster of the of theseasons, whether it's food or
flowers or just the environment,when the hummingbirds come and
leave, and when you see a flowerinstallation or an arrangement,

(49:21):
whether you realize it or not,it feels right. If it's local
and seasonal, that's such agreat point, right? It feels
correct. That's right. Feels

Ellen (49:31):
comfortable. It fits your home. It fits the season.
Yes, one of the thing is goingback to being a bold nomad. I
mean, you know, it's aboutyou're encouraging people to get
outside and cut that branch thathas the beautiful leaves on it,
and to make something from that,I know that's definitely been a
lesson you've given me like justto go outside of your backyard
and see what you have, becausethere's so much growing out

(49:53):
there. And then we all areintimidated. I don't want to
hurt the plan,

Christina (49:56):
general rule of thumb, never take more than a
third right?

Ellen (50:00):
Very important,

Christina (50:02):
don't cut it to the ground.

Ellen (50:04):
Well, I know where you're going to go with this
one.

Trevor (50:07):
I'm going to change the subject.

Ellen (50:08):
I think I know where you're going.

Christina (50:09):
Too many flowers for you. Trevor,

Trevor (50:11):
I love a flower. I It's a subject. Ellen just did a
beautiful amaranth, Zinnia Buchathat was just nice, crazy and
awesome at the same time. It waswacky.

Ellen (50:22):
I loved it wacky.

Trevor (50:23):
It was so much fun.
Yeah, but there is space in ourpodcast. Here we go, because
it's yard to table for otherconversations about chickens.

Christina (50:35):
Oh, chicken.

Trevor (50:38):
That's right,

Ellen (50:39):
the ongoing chicken conundrum,

Trevor (50:42):
we don't have chickens.
Our neighbor does.

Ellen (50:44):
Christina has chickens.

Trevor (50:45):
A lot of the people that we know you need chickens,
chickens.
So now, because you are ourfirst guest that has chickens,
yeah, I want to talk aboutchicken. Of course you do,
because I really want somechickens and some gorgeous
rainbow eggs, and so does ourchild. So you get to go to
Amsterdam and I get chickens.
Well, okay, all right, chickens.

Christina (51:09):
And you didn't want chickens? No, when I first met
my husband, he was like, let'sget chickens. I said, over my
dead body, smart idea. We've somany comments over my dead body,
and for years, I was like,Absolutely not. You travel all
the time. Who's going to takecare of them? They're
disgusting. And then thepandemic hit, and I thought, I'm
getting chickens. So I orderedthe chickens, and I told called

(51:31):
him, and I said, just so youknow, I got the chickens. He was
like, what? Challenge accepted?
Challenge accepted. I raise you.
All right. He was like, I didn'treally want chickens. I was
like, well, it's too late,because I bought all my Yeah. So
we started with four, and thatquickly went to eight, which
quickly went to 12, and eachtime we upgraded the coop

(51:51):
situation. So that's what

Trevor (51:53):
I want to talk about. I want to talk about, yeah, you
know, you hear a lot ofdifferent things. If you're on
the on the interweb,

Ellen (51:58):
she's so excited, yeah, you hear a lot
You can't see it on the podcast,but he's holding his hand up to
me, like,

Trevor (52:04):
let me just get all up in this business.

Ellen (52:07):
Yeah, claim your time.
You're gonna love it.

Trevor (52:09):
Because it's, you know, like, like, a lot of things,
it's like, there's very wideranges of of, you know, opinions
online. They're dirty, they'rehard to keep, they're
challenging, they're easy. Sogive us a little bit of how you
started the coop that you builtbecause you have gorgeous eggs
and they're absolutelydelicious,

Ellen (52:29):
And by the way, everything that she designs is,
like, esthetically pleasing, soyou're not talking like, you
know, this is an ugly coupe,agreed?

Christina (52:37):
Yeah. So that's the thing is, because I did it in
stages without really planning,like you're in a good position,
because you can talk to someonelike me, two in the morning
order more chickens. I if I so,I have right now, predators are
the biggest issue, right? So Iwas not messing I'm not messing

(52:58):
around. I'm not dealing withpredators taking my chicken. So
I'm going to do this. I'm goingto keep them safe. So this so
this is, I have basically a hugerectangle that is wrapped with
hardware cloth, and it has aroof. There's no way anything is
getting in or getting out. Andthat is the biggest thing, if
giving them a safe space to be

Trevor (53:17):
and you have the snipers around the edge.

Christina (53:20):
No, I can see it from my bedroom window, yeah, my bed
and look at the chicken coop.

Ellen (53:25):
It is important to have the coop close to the house,
right, yeah, that's what I'veheard.

Christina (53:29):
Yeah, no, I want to be able to see it. I can see it
from where I have my coffee. Ican see it from my bed, okay,
and they're far enough away thatI planted mint the whole way
around to help with the smell,because that was a big concern
of mine. Oh, right, yeah. So Ican smell them when it rains,
but the mint helps a lot, andyou can feed them the mint,
which,

Trevor (53:48):
yeah, of course. I mean, I think this is the thing a lot
of people don't realize, yeah,chickens is how much they will
eat of your food waste.

Christina (53:55):
Yes, I my compost situation has completely just
sort of halted in the sense thatthe food, I don't all of our
food scraps, as long as it'shealthy food, which most of it
is, we all have kids here.

Trevor (54:09):
Jolly Ranchers are not.

Christina (54:12):
Waffle has a lot of syrup. I'm not giving it to the
chicken. That's right, that'sright, yeah. So they get all of
the like, even just my ifthere's nothing better than,
like, picking a cucumber,cutting off the ends to make
pickles, putting it in a bowlfor the chickens, taking that
out, giving it, to dump it intheir bowl for the chickens,
collecting some eggs coming in,and, like, just the back and

(54:34):
forth of like, giving andreceiving, and giving and
receiving. And it's, it's prettycool. So I think you would have
really liked it.

Trevor (54:43):
can't wait, yeah, so really

Ellen (54:44):
selling it, that's all I gotta say.

Trevor (54:46):
You get to go to Amsterdam. I'm gonna keep going
back to that, by the way, it's agood answer. And how often do
you feed them? How? I meanoutside of, yeah, just talked
about, what's the schedule?

Christina (54:57):
Schedules like to check on them. I check. On them
every day, right? Sure, Ididn't. There are some days and
I'm like, Oh, I think I forgot.
But ideally, you check on themevery day and, you know, they
eat. They have, I have two bigfood containers, so you refill
it every couple of days, cleanwater. That's kind of like a
hamster, yeah, like a hamster.

(55:19):
But the cleaning of the coop,

Ellen (55:21):
the cleaning of the coop,

Christina (55:22):
cleaning of the coop is not fun, yeah?

Ellen (55:24):
Full disclosure,

Christina (55:25):
somebody helps me with that.

Ellen (55:27):
That sounds better.

Christina (55:35):
Yeah, I'm gonna be honest, but I'll I have gotten
down on my hands and knees andthe chicken coop. Many a time
to, like, grab an egg fromunderneath. You gotta do what
you gotta do, and then I standup. I'm like, oh,

Ellen (55:47):
I need a shower ASAP.

Trevor (55:50):
Here's the thing. I think this is a very funny
conversation overall. And as ourlisteners get to know us better
and better, you know, Ellen hasbeen, as you were, very anti,
anti chicken. But just the otherday we we were at a lovely event
that Easton put on, oh yeah,neighboring town, just all the

(56:11):
farms in Easton were sort ofdoing an open Farm Day, which
was lovely, and saw a bunch offriends, a bunch of people that
we knew and and got some great,some great produce from other
places. And there was a pettingzoo, and there was sheep, very
adorable pigs. Oh, pigs. Now Ihave a weakness for pigs. Let me

(56:31):
tell you. Ellen was like, Riley,should we get pigs? Oh, my God,
thinking, hold on, I'm back hereat chicken land. I'm trying to
think about, like, maybe wecould start small with, like, a
couple, and she's already atstakes, which

Ellen (56:45):
I it was another good another good sell. You know,
she's like, I litter box trainedmy pig, right? I was like, Well,
okay. Oh, my friend, well, thishas just been a joy to talk to
you. You know about all of thethings that you're doing, and we

(57:08):
love learning from you, and

Trevor (57:10):
we appreciate you so much, and all the help that you
give us, knowledge that you haveimparted upon us is is always
amazing. Yeah,

Ellen (57:18):
so we we look forward to more time in the yard, and thank
you again for joining us on yardto table today, and for all you
do,

Trevor (57:27):
you're the best.

Christina (57:28):
Thank you guys. It's always a good day when I get to
come to Stonebrook, such abeautiful place.

Trevor (57:35):
Thank you. Love me some Christina. I mean, how can you
not? How can you not? How canyou not?

Ellen (57:41):
I think it's the gamut of what she knows combined with
her creativity, right, and theexecution that I just always
learn something every time Italk to her. And so I've already
thought of about 1000 questionsI wish I had asked so that maybe
there's a part two in ourfuture.

Trevor (57:58):
I'm sure there is one that's specifically about
chickens or pigs or pigs. That'sright, no livestock.

Ellen (58:07):
But for you, our listeners, don't worry.
Everything that we talked abouttoday, we will reference in the
show notes links to nomadic aswebsite and to references all
the cool stuff we talked about,all the cool stuff we talked
about. Thanks for being with usand having a seat at our table.

Trevor (58:23):
Yard to table is a production of Macrocosm
Entertainment. Don't forget torate us and subscribe anywhere
you listen to podcasts and fortips and more information,
follow us on Instagram@stonebrookhouse

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The Flower Friend Who Designs Joyful Yards - Christina Koether!

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Flower Friend Who Designs Joyful Yards - Christina Koether!