Meet Jen McDonald | Co-owner, Garden Girls LLC

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jen McDonald and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jen, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I grew up in Calistoga, a tiny town in the heart of the Napa Valley. We lived in a small house with a big garden in the backyard. I remember sitting on an overturned bucket, watching my father harvest corn, peas and squash. Growing up with fond memories of gardening definitely shaped who I am today. I’m a perpetual nester~ and doting on plants is in my blood.

Jill grew up in Houston. The daughter of a beekeeper and pecan farmer, Jill grew up among gardens full of pollinators, veggies and herbs. She has made gardening a family affair and part of everyday life for her own three kids. With over 400 square feet of garden space and beehives of her own, Jill offers a little piece of heaven to everyone who visits.

Nicole was raised in West Virginia. She remembers gardening with her parents from a very early age. It was something that connected not only family, but friends and neighbors too. When she moved to Houston and started her own family, she found that gardening connected her back to her roots. Phone conversations with her parents quickly moved to chats about how the tomatoes were growing! Nicole also found the benefits of gardening with her oldest son who has severe food allergies. Growing organic vegetables and knowing exactly where they came from gives her the peace of mind when feeding her family each day.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Garden Girls was born out of a love of gardening at the right time and stage of our lives. We consider this life 2.0. Jill, Nicole and I all had very different careers. Jill was a speech therapist, Nicole a lawyer, and I was in pharmaceutical sales. After having kids, we all returned to gardening as a hobby. Four years ago, we began working together in the garden design business~ taking this hobby and turning it into a career. On January 1, 2022, we launched our own company~ Garden Girls.

We are a Houston based garden design firm which specializes in turnkey luxury gardens. Our focus is on raised bed kitchen gardens, cut flowers, natives and pollinators. We strive to make the garden installation stress free for our clients so that they can begin to focus on the act of gardening rather than the labor involved in setting it up.

We only use the best materials. From custom cedar or steel garden beds to premium local sandy loam soil, setting the garden up for success is paramount! Once the garden is installed, we focus on client education. One of the biggest challenges we face is that many people want to garden but aren’t sure how or where to start. They may have strong opinions on where they’d like the garden to be situated, but if that isn’t the best location for sunlight, we will have very frank conversations about this. Our goal is to create successful gardeners! That means that we will often suggest a better location, where sunlight is optimal.

We are most proud of our business ethics and goal to create a turnkey experience. Gardening in Houston has its challenges. We will never compromise on service. If that means that we have to push an installation out by a month because of extreme weather, we’re happy to do it. We want our clients to experience the joy of gardening!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Houston is such a vibrant city! We’d definitely stop in for lunch at Flower Child, shop at Frock Shop, Golden Thread and Little Coterie Shop, then we’d head to Memorial Park for a 3-mile loop. Dinner and cocktails at Coltivare.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Our clients! Thank you for trusting us and allowing us to guide you along your gardening journey!

Website: www.gardengirlstx.com

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Facebook: Garden Girls TX

Image Credits
Ashley Maresh