🌱 The Spectacular Failure of My First (and Second) Edible Gardens
I used to think that a green thumb was genetic. When I was a little kid, summer meant getting dropped off at my Grandparents’ house
Design
Whether you're creating a brand new garden or modifying an existing garden that hasn't given you incredible harvests, I help you grow an intentional lifestyle.
We'll connect for a 30-minute Edible Garden Strategy Session, then meet in your future garden space for a 60-minute Garden Design Consultation to clarify your garden goals and dream garden lifestyle, and design your new garden.
Install
I seamlessly collaborate with your preferred landscaper or recommend my own trusted installation partners to bring our vision to life. Together, we ensure your new space is equipped with the highest-quality raised beds, a nutrient-dense custom soil mix, and an automatic watering system. This collaborative approach eliminates the stress of building a garden, ensuring your plants thrive from day one so you can spend your time simply harvesting and enjoying your beautiful new garden.
Grow
You didn't think that I'd set up a new garden and then leave you to figure out how to maximize your harvests, did you?
After your new garden is installed, you will be invited to my private coaching program for a full 12 months. My private coaching program teaches you the know-how to garden in your new space and foolproof watering and pest management. We also have workshops each month, even during the winter so you keep growing your green thumb even when your garden is resting!
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Hey There! I'm Nicole, Your Edible Garden Designer and Coach
Growing up, summer meant days at my grandparents’ house, where my Grandma and I would pick fresh produce straight from her yard and eat it for lunch a few hours later.
To me, it was pure magic.
Years later, when I moved from Chicago to the Northwest suburbs and stared at my own empty backyard, I figured recreating that magic would be easy.
Famous last words.
After a few spectacular failures involving heavy shade and a bizarre DIY irrigation system, I learned a humbling but empowering truth: watching someone create magic isn’t the same as knowing how to cast the spell, and a “green thumb” isn’t a genetic trait you’re born with—it is a skill you learn through patience, practice, and a little bit of trial and error.
Everything changed when I redesigned the layout to be a garden I actually wanted to spend time in. Today, my garden is a place where I take my morning tea, write in my gratitude journal, and harvest daily.
Whether your dream is to gather hyper-fresh ingredients for your dinner plate every evening, or you simply want a quiet, beautiful corner to catch your breath, I’m here to share what I’ve learned so you can skip the frustrating years and just enjoy the magic.
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Patio Produce's Three Steps to Success
Right Setup
This is 80-90% of your success in the garden. Let Patio Produce do all the hard (but absolutely critical) work of finding the optimal space in your yard for your garden and designing a new garden that feels as elegant as it is productive.
Right Plant. Right Place. Right Time.
We'll ensure that your garden is not only beautiful and productive, but easy for you to grow in so you'll harvest from your garden each and every day.
Right Strategies to Manage Pests and Diseases
Become the Gardener you always wanted to be through private coaching and custom workshops. With Patio Produce's know-how, you'll be gardening from March through November with confidence and ease each and every year.
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We Love Our Gardeners
My garden is finally complete!!!!! I couldn’t have done it without you! Thank you so much! I love it and have already harvested salad greens!
Nicole came and installed 2 raised beds, plus a native pollinator flower garden. She worked hard for 2 days to give me a lovely garden space with lots of yummy veggies and flowering plants/grasses. I especially love the automatic watering system and the arch for tomatoes to vine across. Oh! And the No-weed tarps under the beds. Thank you, Nicole!!
I adopted your layout and already love it, it makes me feel way more organized. I also feel like my amount of growing space has doubled! I ended up outlining each garden with some plastic edging and then my husband filled in the aisles with rubber mulch so it is safe for my toddler and won't ever need maintenance. Thanks again for the help and inspiration!
For years I have been struggling when it comes to my vegetable garden. As a home gardener, I have struggled with all of the different aspects of creating a productive garden -- everything from garden location, seed starting, varietal selection, plant spacing and arrangement, wildlife/pest control and even chemical runoff. All of these things produced low veggie/herb yields and plenty of frustration.
Enter Nicole with Patio Produce. Nicole became my garden coach - a service I had no idea even existed, but desperately needed. We absolutely loved her ideas and signed off on the plan right then and there.
Three weeks in, we are growing STRONG and I feel much more educated and equipped as she provides ongoing support to my many questions via text, email, and in person visits to our home. We have already been enjoying eating the greens and herbs.
Nicole has been a joy to work with and we are already in a much better place than previous years. Our new garden is our new favorite spot in the yard and I can't wait to share the bounty with my baby, neighbors, friends and family. Thank you, Patio Produce for making gardening more fruitful, healthy, and FUN!
Your Gardening Questions, Answered
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