By Jennifer Kornegay
Nicole Burke, owner of Texas-based Gardenary, is often asked a question from an old nursery rhyme: “How DOES your garden grow?”
There are those who can begin with a tiny seed and bring beautiful blooms and delicious produce to life in their home gardens. Perhaps they’re blessed with rich, fertile soil and perfect weather. Maybe they were born with not one, but two, green thumbs. But on the flipside, for those who can’t keep a single houseplant alive, the success of those in the first group is mysterious, almost magical, and can be maddening.
But, according to Nicole Burke, founder of Houston, Texas-based Gardenary, reaping a bountiful harvest at your home is not magic. She claims it’s a dream anyone can achieve with the right information and instruction. Nicole’s confidence in her ability to transform failed and frustrated growers into happy and fulfilled gardeners underpins her company and inspired its name.
“Gardenary stands for ‘gardening is ordinary,’” she says. “And what makes it stand out is the focus on people. Most gardening businesses sell services or products. We provide education.”
Since its inception in 2017, Gardenary has helped countless people get their hands dirty and reap rewards in the form of food, offering online resources and courses with hands-on assistance from trained gardening consultants throughout the country. But when Nicole was a child, joyfully digging around in her yard was the last place she imagined she’d be as an adult.
“My dad had me doing yard work every weekend, and I hated it,” she says. “I swore I’d have a gravel yard when I grew up.”
She escaped outside chores when she went to college, where she studied accounting. After graduation, work took her to Southern China. Back in the States, she ended up in Nashville, Tennessee, got married, and had four kids in four and a half years. At that time, she started a garden with little success.
“It was a mess.” Yet, the experience had positives that put down roots in her heart.
“That garden didn’t work, but those moments working on it, outside in the air with my kids, were so meaningful,” she says. I rediscovered myself in new ways.”
This awakening, combined with Burke’s exposure to local, seasonal fruits and veggies for the first time while in China, brought...