Gardener Spotlight: An Interview with Grow For Me Gardening

Grow For Me Gardening is a boon for plant enthusiasts! In July 2024, we had the opportunity to visit Grow For Me Gardening, made up of Eric and Christopher, in person and witness the passion and expertise behind their carefully curated gardens. During our visit, we interviewed Eric and Christopher to learn more about their approach to gardening and the inspiration behind their beloved social media accounts. Their insights demonstrate their commitment to helping gardeners grow with confidence while having fun.

We’re thrilled to feature Grow For Me Gardening in our 2025 garden planting catalog, where we highlight their dedication to gardening and some of their best-loved GSC products. You can find and shop all of their favorites on the Grow For Me Gardening x GSC collection page!

Below are the video recording and full transcript of the interview, which offer an inside look at the people and passions behind Grow For Me Gardening.

Transcript:

Danielle (Gardener’s Supply Company): Hi, I’m Danielle from Gardener’s Supply, and today we are here with Eric and Christopher from Grow for Me Gardening.

Eric (Grow for Me Gardening): Hi, hello. We are located in upstate New York. We are in gardening zones 5B/6A, kind of right on the cusp there. And we are a new construction garden that started in 2018, so it's about six years old, and we focus on the contemporary cottage garden aesthetic.

Christopher: Yep, we have a very modern reconstruction home, but we like a cottage-style garden that's full and lush and really contrasts against those more rigid modern lines.

Eric: And we love hydrangeas and roses.

Why did you start gardening?

Eric: Christopher and I moved into this house in 2018, and neither of us had really been gardeners before that. We had, you know, dabbled in gardening with our parents or grandparents or whatever. But we moved into this new construction home- it was a total blank slate, it was sand, the lot was pure sand, there wasn’t even grass yet, and the landscape builder had installed the landscape package. And we went outside and we were like...

Chrisopher: This can’t be it. This cannot be it. We need to do something.

Eric: So we took a picture of it and brought it down to our local garden center, and that kind of got us on our journey of making the front landscaping beautiful. And then, as we started that, we decided to add privacy along the edges of the property, and it just became a complete obsession from there.

What was the inspiration behind creating Grow For Me Gardening?

Eric: I kind of started the Instagram as a way to journal the garden, back at the very, very end of maybe 2019 over that winter as we were watching YouTube channels and learning about gardening, and I thought, oh, heading into 2020, I’m going to start documenting it. And so it started as just a way to journal the progress of the garden.

Christopher: And then, as time went on, we made a lot of gardening friends through Instagram, and we were more inspired to keep going. And then just last July, a year ago, we started YouTube.

How would you describe your content for people learning about you for the first time?

Christopher: Well, I’d say that our content is a little bit inspiration, a little bit education, and a little bit of fun. We try to keep it light. We are showing you our real garden. There’s going to be a lot of beautiful stuff, there’s some mistakes along the way. We’re definitely learning all the time. So we’re excited to share our experience to help people along the way in their own gardens.

What is your favorite garden project you have done so far?

Eric: My favorite gardening project we just completed last fall, we installed on our east side what I like to call the hydrangea room. And we were inspired by a garden we had toured where they just had layer upon layer of smooth leaf or arborescent hydrangeas, mixed together of all the different kinds, and I thought I really wanted to do that in our garden. And we just happened to have a nice, narrow side yard, and it was the perfect spot to implement that design. What about you, Christopher?

Christopher: Oh, goodness. I would say that I’m enjoying the process of building our green walls, as we’re calling it. We’re actually in a neighborhood where our fences can’t go in front of our house closer to the road. So, to continue the privacy and add somewhere green, we’ve been adding in some columnar evergreens and just some other plantings to kind of extend out the fence line, if you will. And it’s been a lot of fun to watch it develop.

What is your favorite gardening tip?

Eric: And as far as tips for gardening, I think my number one tip is use those employees at your local garden center because they are true gardeners who love to garden, and they are so happy to share their information and knowledge with you, and be a part of that gardening community and learn from the people that are closest to you because they’re going to know what grows best in your area, what doesn’t do well in your area, what thrives, what kind of insects are most common in your area, and they’re going to have stuff in season all season long. So things that are blooming in spring are going to be at the garden center in spring. You’re going to want to go back in early summer so you can see what’s blooming in early summer. And that way, your garden is going to be interesting throughout the entire season.

What common mistakes have you made, and what advice do you have for avoiding them?

Eric: I’m laughing because the most common mistake I made when starting out was overwatering. I thought everything just needed way more water than it did, and I specifically remember we had a butterfly bush that we had just planted in the garden, and it looked a little wilty. And I was so certain that it just needed more water. And I was out there watering that butterfly bush morning and night, and it just kept looking worse and worse, and I couldn’t figure out why. And it turns out butterfly bushes don’t like a lot of water.

Christopher: I was sad about that one. I think something else that we learned quickly is really look at the plant tag and see what kind of light requirements the plant that you love in the garden center needs. A butterfly bush is going to want full sun, but we have encountered times where we picked up plants because they looked great, and we put them absolutely in the wrong place, and they didn’t thrive. Hopefully, we saved them in time for the most part to put them in the right spot, but that was something that I noticed right off the bat—pay attention to those plant tags. They’re going to give you information about where they’re going to thrive.

Eric: Well, we’ve definitely killed our fair share of plants.

Christopher: Oh, yeah!

Eric: 100%. So you are going to lose plants through the learning process.

How do you stay motivated to continue gardening when challenges arise?

Christopher: Well, I would say we actually consume quite a lot of gardening content—not just YouTube, but we also love Gardener’s World, the British TV show. And you’re always going to learn about a new plant you’ve never heard of. There’s always new varieties coming out. And I think sometimes we’ve challenged ourselves to try and grow things that maybe we didn’t do so well with when we didn’t know about gardening.

I think big leaf hydrangeas, the blue and pink ones, are something that we’re pushing ourselves with right now. That’s been a challenge. We definitely lost quite a few of them, not knowing how to properly sit them and, you know, things like protecting them in the winter. So that was definitely a challenge to, again, sitting plants is really important.

Eric: And you’ve got to decide how much of a challenge you’re willing to accept because maybe you want a lower maintenance garden. If a plant is constantly challenging you and taking up a lot of your time and it’s not bringing you that happiness and that joy every time you go in your garden, it is totally okay to rip it out and give it to a friend or put it in the compost. So managing your expectations alleviates some of the challenges of gardening.

Christopher: We used to call them princess plants, the ones that really needed a lot of tending. And if you don’t have the time or energy to do that tending, it’s not the right plant.

What are your favorite plants or flowers to grow?

Eric: Mine are hydrangeas 100%, and I'd highly recommend everybody try a Panicle Hydrangea because it will bloom for you every year. You just get that Panicle Hydrangea, like a ‘Limelight’, a Limelight Prime, Pinky Winky , Pinky Winky Prime®. If they want smaller, they have Fire Light Tidbit®, they're going to bloom on new wood, just put them in full sun, water them until they're established, and then in the spring you just cut them back and they will bloom them again. So even if deer eat them or a frost, you know, burns or kills the top half of the plant, they're so going to flush back nice and fresh and you're guaranteed to get booms on them if they get enough sun and enough water. So that is a really super good beginner plant, followed by the Smooth Leaf Hydrangea or Hydrangea arborescens is the same concept. They might want a little afternoon sun protection, but again, like incredible or Invincibelle® Spirit II or Incrediball® Blush. Same thing they're bloom on new wood. So you really can't go wrong with new leaf or new wood blooming hydrangeas.

Christopher: And I know that a lot of people are afraid and are angry at roses, but I think everyone should try roses again. There are new varieties coming out that are so much hardier. There's so much more disease resistant. So, you don't have to worry so much about some of those old-fashioned rose issues. Now, in our garden, we do get the Japanese Beatles. We're going to be spraying weekly with something like Captain Jack's Dead Bug Brew. Spray it early in the morning before your pollinators come out, and that's going to help you out quite a bit, and there's other ways that you can avoid those pests, you know, taking care of your lawn in the wintertime to get rid of the grubs. But I do think some of the newer roses will surprise you because they don't get as terrible black spot and just looking awful throughout the year and the reblooming is so much better now. So if you've had roses in the past or you're afraid of roses, go out and try something that came out recently.

Eric: I agree the research and development being done in the horticultural world right now is amazing. The plants are getting more resilient, they're getting healthier, they're getting hardier. So if you had that experience with something in the past, look for a newer variety and give it another chance.

What is your favorite part about engaging with the online garden community?

Eric: The friends that we've made over the years, hands down. We've made really, really nice friends and we've met really, really smart people who are really passionate about gardening that we can learn from. So it's that learning and that friendship is the best part of being part of the garden community.

What advice would you give people who want to start their own gardening social media account?

Eric: My advice will be you to you, make your garden your own garden, plant what you like that does well in your zone, and just have fun with it. As soon as it starts to become a job or become tedious, you're going to want to step back and reevaluate. But for me, it's never chase something, never try to be something you're not. Just do your garden the way you want to do it and have fun doing it.

Christopher: Yeah, that's exactly what I would say. And there's going to be a million accounts telling you about algorithms and all kinds of stuff. Don't pay attention to that. Do your garden, enjoy your garden, love what you do, and that's going to come through.

Final Thoughts:

Danielle: Hi again! Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your gardening knowledge and wisdom with us. And for those who don’t know, where can they find y’all?

Eric: Well, you can find us on Instagram @growformegardening...

Christopher: And YouTube @growformegardening!

Eric and Christopher: Bye-bye!