Garden Like

What does it take to run a sustainable flower farm in the middle of a city? Flower farmer Dee Hall started Mermaid City Flowers in her front yard in Norfolk, Virginia, and she and Kelsey talk about urban flower farming, the Slow Flowers movement, and growing sustainably where you are.

For Dee, sustainability includes her neighbors, the creatures in the garden, and the people doing the growing, not just plants and soil. As she puts it, "flowers are the medium, not the message."

Dee went looking for locally grown flowers for her wedding and couldn't find any nearby, so she started growing them. She also founded the Black Flower Farmers International Network of Growers of Color and the Tidewater Flower Collective.

HOW TO GARDEN LIKE AN URBAN FLOWER FARMER

- Look for local flowers. Like Slow Food, the Slow Flowers movement asks where your flowers come from. As Dee explains, about 80% of the flowers bought in the US come from overseas. Buying local cuts shipping emissions, keeps money in your community, and avoids an import industry with a long record of worker-safety and pesticide problems. Local growers can also offer flowers that don't ship well, like dahlias.

- Build up, don't dig. Dee kills grass by sheet mulching (cardboard topped with compost or soil) and plants into the new layer, so she can start sooner and avoid digging near buried utility lines.

- Start seeds in trays. Dee almost never sows seeds directly in the ground, especially with city squirrels around. She starts them in trays, plugs, or giant plastic cupcake containers, winter sows in milk jugs, and explains when seedlings are ready to transplant.

- Try living mulch. Dee grows strawberries to keep the soil covered and the weeds down. She also collects rainwater, skips pesticides, and releases lacewings and ladybugs.

- Arrange with what you have. Dee skips floral foam, which breaks down into microplastics, and uses chicken wire, thrifted containers, and cereal bowls instead. She also works in basil and other herbs, raspberry foliage, and other garden finds.

- Grow where you are. You don't need acres. Dee grows in front yards and neighbors' yards, and says a windowsill, fire escape, or stoop can work too. A basil stem from an arrangement will root in water and become a new plant. A front-yard garden also gets neighbors talking: many of her first customers were neighbors.

- Practice creativity. Dee encourages beginners to experiment, let go of perfection, and find their own style. Her garden-style designs lean into fullness, movement, and whimsy.

- Share with the pests. Dee interplants tulips with daffodils, which squirrels leave alone, and otherwise takes a "some for me, some for them" approach. To her, creatures in your garden are a sign the garden is alive.

LINKS

Follow Dee on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mermaidcityflowers/

Dee's website: https://www.mermaidcityflowers.com/

Slow Flowers movement: https://www.slowflowers.com/

Find local flower growers: https://localflowers.org/find-flowers/

SOURCES

Society of American Florists (2025): https://safnow.org/2025/11/12/saf-ifpa-urge-tariff-exemption-for-all-cut-flowers/

US/LEAP and International Labor Rights Fund (2007): https://core.ac.uk/download/5130806.pdf

#sustainableflowerfarm #flowerarranging #diyflowers

What does it mean to garden like a witch? Grab your hat, because we’re getting weird and witchy.

On this week’s episode of Garden Like, host Kelsey nerds out with Alycia Tumlin, aka the Garden Witch– avid gardener, urban homesteader, women’s circle guide, and village auntie. Alycia gardens in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area, where she grows pretty much year-round, in a small suburban backyard. She guides us through what it means to be a garden witch, from saying hello to your plants every morning to timing your planting by the Wheel of the Year, pruning with intention, and making peace with the critters. Along the way, we learn that gardening like a witch means tending your inner garden as much as your outer one.

In this episode:

• What “witch” means: Alycia describes a witch as a self-sufficient woman on the fringes who walks the line between the seen and unseen worlds, like midwives, doulas, healers, and herbalists. She calls out the full cycle of life and death in the garden.
• Garden witch vs. green witch: In Alycia’s words, it’s a Venn diagram. She describes a green witch as more focused on the plants themselves and transforming them into medicines and salves, and a garden witch as focused on tending and caretaking. Moreover, you don’t need a garden to be “garden hearted.”
• The Wheel of the Year: Alycia explains the Wheel as a modern interpretation drawing on seasonal celebrations from around the world, mostly in Europe. It splits the year into eight points, roughly six weeks apart, at the solstices, equinoxes, and cross-quarter days.
• Pruning with intention: Alycia walks us through a pruning ritual for the season: name something in your life you want to cut back, thank the plant, and make the snip. It works with a houseplant too.
• Community: It is hard to garden in a vacuum. For better or for worse, plants like to grow themselves and us into the vicinity of our neighbors. After the HOA started spraying near the green belt where she forages, Alycia and her husband got involved. He’s now HOA president, she’s on the landscaping committee, and the community has stopped spraying entirely. Goats now clear the green belts and fire breaks.
• Your next step: Go outside, get quiet, and listen. Then start a garden grimoire: write down what you notice, so next year you remember which beds lose their sun by mid-October.

Find Alycia:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alyciagardens/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alyciagardens
Women’s circles: https://www.selfsowngarden.com/
Garden Witch shop (tees, totes, hats, and journals for your own garden grimoire): https://gardenwitch.me/

Resources:
“W.I.T.C.H.” by Devon Cole (Woman In Total Control of Herself)

Follow Garden Like:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gardenlikepod
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gardenlikepod
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@gardenlikepod

Have an idea for a “Garden Like” episode? Email [email protected].

This episode was hosted by Kelsey Segaloff, produced by Deanna Healey, and edited by Guido Bertolini.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to grow something bigger than yourself? Literally?!

On this week’s episode of Garden Like, Kelsey nerds out with competitive giant pumpkin grower Amy Turnbull. Amy has been involved with the Pacific Northwest Giant Pumpkin Growers for years and grows giant pumpkins organically on a tiny urban plot: less than 500 square feet (~46 square meters), compared to the typical 1,000 to 2,000 (~90-185 square meters). She guides us through the rewarding journey of growing a giant pumpkin, from soil biology and seed genetics to what to do if a pumpkin cracks!

In this episode:

• Soil: Amy recommends starting here, with a plan for your pumpkin’s soil before you plant. She sprays organic biofungicides regularly for disease, feeds the soil with biofertilizers, earthworms, and kelp meal, plants cover crops in the off-season, and takes regular soil tests.
• Seedlings: Amy starts her seeds indoors in small pots around the first or second week of April. When the soil warms up, she moves them outside into their own hoop house (how to build).
• Pollination & genetics: Pumpkins have separate male and female flowers, and a female flower has to be pollinated to grow a pumpkin. Amy hand-pollinates to increase her chances of success. And with genetics, there’s always a chance your pumpkin could look different from the pumpkin it came from.
• Community: 7 strangers from Amy’s neighborhood helped her and her family move their beloved “Sourdough Loaf” to the truck for the weigh-off. Amy says one of the hardest parts of growing a giant pumpkin can be feeling alone, and she recommends several groups and grower communities for support (links below).

Find Amy:

• Instagram
• TikTok

Resources:

• Pacific Northwest Giant Pumpkin Growers
• The Great Pumpkin Commonwealth (GPC)
• How-to-Grow World Class Giant Pumpkins, Book III, by Don Langevin
• Backyard Giant Pumpkin Growers Facebook group
• Garden of Giants Facebook group
• BigPumpkins.com grower diaries
• New England Giant Pumpkin Growers Association
• Master Gardener programs

Follow Garden Like:

• Instagram
• TikTok
• YouTube

Have an idea for a “Garden Like” episode? Email [email protected].

This episode was hosted by Kelsey Segaloff, produced by Deanna Healey, and edited by Guido Bertolini.

What if you could tell a story with plants? 

In the first episode of Garden Like, we’re heading to EPCOT’s World Showcase to look at the gardens hiding in plain sight. 

From the carefully controlled landscapes of the United Kingdom pavilion to the way plants make you feel like you’re traveling north through Canada, these gardens feel so different for a reason. 

We’ll look at how Disney uses horticulture, landscape design, color, texture, and even plant maintenance to tell each pavilion's story using the 5 P's. 

More importantly, we’ll talk about what we can borrow from those techniques for our own gardens. Welcome to Garden Like.

—

Sources

• Dee Hansford, Gardens of the Walt Disney World Resort (1988)
• R. A. Pedersen, The Epcot Explorer's Encyclopedia (2011)
• Margaret J. King, "The New American Muse," Journal of Popular Culture (1981): https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0022-3840.1981.00056.x
• Diane Scheu, "The Role of Horticulture in Theme Parks," University of Delaware thesis (1996): http://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/3722
• Katy Moss Warner on the FNGLA Plant People Podcast (Oct. 2022): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fngla-plant-people-podcast/id1633905377
• Walt Disney's 1966 EPCOT film, via FOX 35 Orlando: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXoMsfAyhac
• Jim Korkis, "John Hench and Walt Disney World Color," yourfirstvisit.net: https://yourfirstvisit.net/2019/08/02/a-friday-visit-with-jim-korkis-john-hench-and-walt-disney-world-color/
• AllEars, "Pounding the Pavement at Walt Disney World": https://allears.net/2012/01/09/pounding-the-pavement-at-walt-disney-world/
• WDW News Today, "Damaged EPCOT Palm Trees Removed": https://wdwnt.com/2026/05/damaged-epcot-palm-trees-removed-from-park-entrance/
• Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, "Creation of the Cottage Garden": https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/shakespedia/anne-hathaways-cottage/creation-cottage-garden/
• Interviews with current and former horticulture cast members

Garden Like is not your traditional garden podcast. Rather than finding inspiration from backyard gardens, Garden Like explores how worlds (both real and imagined) can apply to indoor and outdoor gardens. In season 1, we'll hear from a giant pumpkin farmer, a goth-garden expert, a horticulturist on gardens from 1899, and more.

Subscribe now to ensure you don't miss our first episode, arriving October 1st.

Garden Like, hosted by Kelsey Segaloff of Sprouts and Stories, finds gardening inspiration in unexpected places through conversations with horticulturists, historians, designers, growers, and other experts, plus solo deep dives.

Join us for Season 1 as we learn to Garden Like worlds both real and imagined.

Produced by Deanna Healey.