Hops and Hedges Podcast on Spotify with your Host - Heather Jerrard from My Landscape Artist
This is the very first episode of this podcast. Original air date: Jan 17, 2024
Listen on Spotify and FOLLOW here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7iUjuNsAkX3srrlHRVVb57?si=5sYLzsk6QJKVAcL_x8FPCQ
Description
In the inaugural episode of Hops and Hedges, Heather Jerrard shares her journey into landscape design, her love for gardening, and her newfound passion for beer. She discusses her career path, the challenges faced during the pandemic, and the importance of mental health. Heather also introduces her favorite beer, Voodoo Ranger, and emphasizes the significance of aesthetics in gardening while hinting at future discussions on mental health and book recommendations.
Takeaways
This podcast is a trial episode for Heather.
Heather is a landscape designer in London, Ontario.
She started her business during the pandemic.
Her favorite beer is Voodoo Ranger.
She prefers naturalistic garden styles.
Mental health discussions will be a part of the podcast.
Heather will recommend books in each episode.
Fear can be fed by procrastination.
She encourages listeners to push their comfort zones.
The podcast aims to create a supportive community.
Transcript
BE ADVISED this transcript was created using the podcast publishing software and certain spelling or grammatical errors may be present.
Heather Jerrard (00:02.616)
Well, hi friends and welcome to, guess, the first official episode of Hops and Hedges. Welcome. my gosh. I am so excited to be here. I'm so excited that you've taken the time to tune in. This first episode is more of a trial episode because I don't know what I'm doing. But part of what I think makes us grow is when we're uncomfortable and we do things to push our comfort zone.
And this podcast has been on my mind for a number of years now is something that I've always wanted to try to do, but I've never really had the guts to just go for it. And so this is me just going for it. And I hope maybe that inspires even just one of you to try that thing that scares you and see what happens. So my name is Heather.
and I am a landscape designer in London, Ontario. My company's name is My Landscape Artist. I'm the only employee. And this year I'm actually recording in my design studio. So this is where I come up with designs and design packages for my clients. So I primarily work with homeowners and landscape contractors who maybe don't have a designer on staff or...
homeowners who are do-it-yourselfers, but they just need some help getting started. So a little bit more about me. So I had the discovery at 26 years old, which is over 10 years now, that I was not going to be able to get a good job or an adult job if I didn't have a piece of paper. I'm gonna tell more about that story in another episode.
but long story short, I had to go back to school and thankfully I had a very, and still have a very supportive husband who said, you know what, go for it. So I looked on Fanshawe College's website because they're walking distance to my house and they were accepting students the following months for two programs. One was business finance, barf, gross, no way. And the, the other program was
Heather Jerrard (02:19.444)
landscape design. And that was actually the first time I had ever heard the term. I grew up in the country where you just look after your property. I had no idea that you could garden, draw pictures of gardens, help people with their gardens and get paid for it. It blew my mind.
And so I've been madly in love with gardening and landscaping as my career choice ever since, never looked back. So right out of Fanshawe College, I was employed by a small company out in Lambeth, Ontario, where I was their junior designer, project manager estimator. I did that for two years and then I was hired on by a larger landscaping company in London.
As their assistant manager, I did that for another two years. And then as you probably remember, there was this little blip that happened to all of us called COVID where the world shut down and I found myself out of a job. My job was no longer needed. My position was no longer needed. And there was a lot of uncertainty. And that really crushed me waking up one day and realizing
you know, wow, I'm not a landscape manager anymore. So who am I? And I kind of had this bit of an identity crisis because for years, for like just over four years, I had associated my self-worth with the position that I had as a landscape manager. And during COVID, doesn't matter how much experience I had or how good my grades were, nobody was hiring.
And so through some therapy and some deep digging, I discovered that this is really what I want to do. And if nobody has an opportunity for me, then I better create one for myself. So I started my business, my landscape artist in June of 2020 in the middle of the pandemic. And I've been so blessed. I did not do it alone. I've got some incredible support people in my life. My husband.
Heather Jerrard (04:36.162)
Darren, who I'm sure you'll probably meet on one of these episodes, my best friend Angela, my mom, my parents. I'm also a member of Landscape Ontario and a member of their peer-to-peer network for upper managers, supervisors, and owners. And they really carried me through. So I'm forever grateful for that group. That's a little bit about me and my landscaping, but let's talk about way you guys really tuned in, right? Let's be honest. It's the beer, okay?
And I'm a IPA slash weird beer lover, which still makes my husband laugh today because when we met over 12 years ago now, I think it's closer to 15, I hated beer. I thought it smelled and tasted like urine and I was not having it. So I was a wine and a liquor girl and then I had one really bad red wine hangover. And ever since then,
I've really enjoyed beer and I've actually gotten into the weird hoppy ones. So I thought it was pertinent that my first episode I share my number one favorite beer. And my husband loves me so much that yesterday he went out and he bought me some so that I could record this episode today. See, nobody's holding me back. Everybody's doing whatever they can to make sure that I do this crazy thing. So I wanted to share with you my favorite Voodoo Ranger from Belgium.
I was going say Belgian nurseries. That's a plant place. Wow. I'm such a plant nerd. It's a new Belgium, but it's actually made by Steam Whistle out of Etobicoke or Steam Machine. I'm pretty sure it's a Steam Whistle. Man, I'm going to have to look that up now. I'm feeling embarrassed. But I discovered this on an RV trip. So my bestie and I, we were traveling Ontario and we come across this little diner, this mom and pop place.
can't even tell you what it's called. I don't even know where we were. was in the middle of nowhere. And I thought, great, they're gonna have Career's Light and Bud. But I asked them, know, can I see your beer list or do you have any? What do you have on tap? And they gave me this huge list of IPAs. I was in heaven. And so this is, I discovered this one there. And one of the things that I really like about it is
Heather Jerrard (07:03.5)
After a long day of landscaping in the heat, you actually don't need to pour this one out. I know it's not proper beer etiquette. You gotta pour it into a glass. You gotta pour it properly, blah, blah, blah. But Voodoo Ranger never ever has any gunk in it. And I love the hoppy stuff. Like I really do. All the weird beers, there's some really cool stuff that's brewed with real fruit pulp. So you get lots of sediment in the bottom. Kind of grosses me out.
But Voodoo Ranger, it is so clear, beautiful color, and it's kind of got a bit of a tropical vanilla vibe to it, which I really like. So this is my number one favorite beer, sharing with you on my very first episode. Part of me recording this too is I can figure out maybe some video editing. Stay tuned, we'll see how that goes. A couple other things I wanted to share, a bit about me and maybe what you can expect on this podcast is,
You might've guessed by now that I'm not, you probably won't see me on this podcast in a dress. Let's just say that. I've always kind of considered myself one of the guys. And if you're looking for somebody who's going to talk about high-end modern contemporary landscapes, that's not really my vibe. My favorite style of garden would be the naturalistic
native plantings, environmentally conscious, stormwater, like proper stormwater practices, stormwater retention. So I like the more of the woodland or the secret garden vibe. And I'm interested to know if you have a favorite garden style. So apparently through Spotify, somewhere here, I don't know yet where I'm pointing or where the button will be, but there should be like a Q &A or a poll here.
And I'm curious for you guys listening and tuning in if you have a favorite garden design style or aesthetic. We won't just be talking about garden aesthetics because we all know that aesthetics are not the one and only important aspect of our gardens and our landscapes. But yeah, tune into that. Something else I will be asking people that come on the show is if they have either pieces of advice,
Heather Jerrard (09:28.082)
We're going be talking about mental health struggles, things that we are overcoming and facing and how our different coping strategies. I'm also going to be asking for my guests to recommend a book and I have so many. So all of these books, so these ones here and these ones here are books that I've read that I love and I'll never get rid of. And all of the books down there, those are all my gardening books. I need a bigger room. So we're actually building one in the basement.
Stay tuned for that. But the one book I am gonna recommend on this episode is The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone. And this one, I'm about just halfway through it, but chapter 16 is about fear. And it really hit home for me. And he talks about how we tend to feed our fear with time. So when we're faced with something that scares the crap out of us or makes us anxious,
What we do is we tend to procrastinate and put it off. And that time, we're actually feeding into the fear. So if we've got to make a difficult phone call, we're going to be thinking about it or preparing for it. man, I got this really tough phone call. I hope I say the right thing or I got to prepare or I should do some research first or.
And what happens is in that time, your fear actually builds and then you become even more anxious just to do the thing. really, really powerful chapter, really good book. Again, that's The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone. And each episode, I'm probably going to be recommending a book because there's so many. So I think that's it for me now. I'm sure as the podcast progresses, I will find a really cool, catchy phrase to say.
to end the podcast. Maybe you've got some ideas. Maybe this is where I'll put another Q &A there where you can submit your catchy phrases that you think I should say to close the podcast. So for now, cheers, happy gardening, even though we're not doing much of that in January, and I will see you around.
A Message from Our Sponsor...
Season 1 & 2 is proudly sponsored by EXT.tech!
They help you grow and revolutionize your landscaping business.
They are improving the way you manage projects and streamlines your landscaping, snow removal and construction operations. For additional savings when purchasing the software - use code HOPS10 at checkout or just tell them Heather sent ya!
Check out their website here: https://www.ext.tech/
Want to be a Guest on the Show?
If you would like to come on the show as a guest to talk about your experience, your business, landscaping, plants, gardening, entrepreneurship, mental health and/or beer OR if you would like to nominate someone - let me know!
NOTE you do not need to like or drink beer or any other alcoholic beverage in order to be featured on the show. We talk about a range of beverages including water, tea, coffee, energy drinks, and more...but I will likely be drinking a beer during our interview.
Here is the link to the pre-interview questionnaire: QUESTIONNAIRE
Once I recieve your answers back, I'll be in touch to schedule your interview.
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