Gather & Grow with Plant Kween

0:00Speaker 1:Hi everyone, it's Sophia Welcome to Work in Progress.

0:15Speaker 2:Hello.

0:15Speaker 3:Hello, I'm Will Pearson, president of iHeart podcast Incredibly excited to be here for a live podcast with our very own Sophia Bush for an episode of Work in Progress.

0:26Speaker 2:Incredibly excited.

0:27Speaker 3:This is brought to you by us here at iHeart Podcasts and our friends from Miracle Grow. Let's give it up to Miracle Grow for making tonight possible. And I'm really excited for tonight's guest. I have a brand new best friend in the whole wide world. Like I'm not kidding, and you will also tonight after this. Christopher Griffin, also known as the Plant Queen, has a huge following that he is brought to understand plant care and how to do that with confidence and joy, something that we all need to learn. It's also the author of a book that is one of my favorite book covers. You should check this out.

1:01Speaker 2:I love the name of it.

1:02Speaker 3:It's called You Grow Girl, Plant Queen's lush Guide to Growing your Garden. So, without further ado, let me welcome Sophia and Christopher.

1:11Speaker 2:Come on up.

1:17Speaker 1:Hi everyone, you all look so cute. You looks so cute, guys. I'm so happy to be here. Anyone who knows me, like some of my dearest in the front, know that I sort of still can't believe, which I know is crazy. I started this podcast in twenty nineteen, like, girl, get over it, you have one. But I still kind of can't believe that this is my job because basically I just bamboozled everyone into letting me work doing the thing I like to do the most, which is meet fabulous people and ask them interesting questions. So I owe a very big thank you to my team at iHeart for continuing to let me nerd out in literally every department, including plants. It's kind of the privilege of my life.

2:09Speaker 1:And I'm really really thrilled that we are launching a new partnership with Miracle Grow. I sort of feel like at this point, like branded content partnerships, everyone's just like kill me now, And then sometimes they happen in ways that you're like, well that was great. Also, this is chic. I'm like, where did these plants come from? I'm kidding. I met the team upstairs. They're unbelievable. But really we're very lucky to kind of be in this moment where I think the overwhelm of content in a way has made people really want to make sure they actually vibe and then nights like tonight get to happen. So thank you all for letting me pretend this is work. What like it's hard. One of the things that you have inspired.

2:56Speaker 1:I promise I'm gonna ask you questions soon. I'm long winded people. Plus I have to tell you guys. Christopher and I met in my backyard in twenty twenty two and within five minutes, the whole video team that it come was like, could you too shut up? Like we were just on one truly one of my favorite souls. But one of the things that you do that particularly well, that I particularly love is that you remind people that you don't need like a massive outdoor space. You can start with a few square feet, oh square foot if you will. And I don't know if you all are like me, but sometimes I get lost in the rabbit hole of Pinterest and the el decor world and fabulous goals.

3:43Speaker 1:But I think like, unless I have Martha Stewart's Bedford estate, I can't possibly have a garden. And that is not at current my reality. Though I love her and your work and our wonderful sponsors tonight. Really, I think do such a good job at reminding people, well, you can start small, you can experiment, you can learn your green thumb. If you have a plant diet, it's not your fault. Maybe they just said that to me, but really you can. You can cultivate a love of a hobby the way you can cultivate a garden. So thank you to Miracle Grow for reminding me I don't have to be Martha and all of you can go to miracle grow dot com to check out all of their very easy to use products. We'll talk about those later, but start a growth journey please. It really is great. Now now I'm going to just ask you all the things you've heard.

4:35Speaker 1:Christopher is an incredible educator, author, add to Karte, Take out your Phones, ad to Kart. Plant Queen is one of my favorite accounts to follow on Instagram, and one of the things that sort of gets me is that you bring unbridled joys exactly who you are are to the world, which knocked my socks off half a decade ago, but especially in a moment I think where individualism, queer joy, black boy joy is not exactly being lauded in the way it should. You are like, honey, you can't stop me.

5:22Speaker 1:And so I'm really curious because you talk a lot about who you are, who you've always been. You give joy as resistance and fuel and this sort of relentless happiness in a way that I think feeds everyone who follows you. And I wonder if you got to interact with the little black boy you used to be, like Christopher at eight years old today, Like, if he were in the garden, would you see yourself in him? Do you think he would be astounded by your life that's now his?

6:00Speaker 2:Yes, I'll probably like hey girl, he played Hey Girl. I actually had some home videos digitized because I was I'm in the process of writing a children's book and so I friends, yes I haven't made that announcement, but yes, I'm in the process of working on it. And my editor really challenged me to go into my childhood, and so I worked with my dad. My dad was always documenting everything camcorder, just place it and kind of just watch the family. And I'm really grateful that he did that.

6:39Speaker 2:And I was a flamboyant little queen. I was like, damn, like it was beautiful to watch me just exist unapologetically as my flamboyant self. Obviously I didn't have the term to you know, define myself, but my family allowed me space to explore and be playful and to just show up in the ways that I wanted to. And so I think we would be like best friends. Like I really I looked at you know, those videos, and I was like, oh, my goodness, Like I'm still the same person, like still in front of the camera, still being playful, still being joyful, still being flamboyant. So yeah, I think we would be really good friends. And I think my younger self we'd be like, yeah, this makes sense, Like it makes a lot of sense.

7:33Speaker 1:I love that in any of the videos were you were you out in nature a lot.

7:40Speaker 2:We did a lot of family trips, and so somewhere of us in the park we lived. I grew up in Philadelphia, and so some of the videos were like on this large porch of the apartment building that we lived in, and there were gardens in front of the apartment fielding. I actually went back and took photos with my dad at the apartment a few years ago, and it was really beautiful. But yeah, I was always outside just like frolicking around, Go frolic. We need the frolic more.

8:14Speaker 1:Everybody needs to get outside literally, go touch grass please please.

8:19Speaker 2:And I mean we're in New York City and I do a lot of partnerships with a lot of the green spaces here. So how many folks have heard of the New York Restoration Project? Fuck you all right, there's not enough hands raised? Look them up and YRP. They stew it over fifty community gardens here called the Five Boroughs, and they're doing such amazing work to make sure that the city remains green. I've done work with Prospect Park, Central Park, Botanic Garden, New York Botannic Garden. There are a lot of green gyms here, and so I think it's important that folks understand that we all have a role to play. Go volunteer, go visit theth parks, lay in the grass. It's really important we do.

9:00Speaker 1:Yeah. I'm curious, you know, because you mentioned growing up in Philly, which is an iconic city much like New York. Where did your connection to nature really start? Was it in the apartment garden or was there somewhere in Philly that you would go and you went, oh, this is for me.

9:19Speaker 2:My grandmother Andrew Griffin, she was the original plant queen. She's the original og plant queen. She grew up in Clayton, Georgia, and my great grandmother's farm, and the land sheltered them, it fed them. They had a deep appreciation for the land. And so when she decided to bring my mother and my uncle up to Philadelphia at the single mom there was a program back in the day where you could buy like a rundown house for one dollar. I wish that program exifted today, Please bring it back. And so she brought the house. He bought the house, and she curated a garden for her th well, and it was a small, little garden, nothing big. And when I was brought into the world, I was always like a flamboyant person, right, So even from a young age, I think my grandmother clock like a little sugar in his teeth. He had a lot of sugar. Baby, there was a lot of sugar. Honeys. Hello, Hello.

10:20Speaker 2:And so I think my grandmother understood that the world would not yet appreciate my uniqueness, my flair. And you know, she being a single black mother, she had to create spaces for her own joy. And she did that through gardening, and she's like, you know what, I think Christopher's probably going to have to make sure, like I want Christopher to understand that he is the agent and author of his own joy. And so she kind of showcased to me that gardening was the way that she found joy and created joy for herself. And so that's how I was introduced to plant in nature as a pathway to joy, as a pathway to healing and is I mean, it's grown into such a beautiful journey. So that's when it started very young age, not for only the sake of understanding that we all have a role to play and tending to the land, but that also it can be a healing and joyful relationship.

11:26Speaker 1:That's beautiful. Did you choose plant Queen to honor Andrea or did it come from somewhere else as a nickname?

11:36Speaker 2:Yeah, so everybody know abba obviously come on now, like come on, Dancing Queen is like one of my favorite songs. And so I don't think I ever said this out loud. The original name for the account was going to be pretty plant please. I don't know where that came from out like a literation. I'm an educator. I'm a sucker for those things. And I was like, okay, pretty plant, please. And then as I was saying that, I was the thing, dance and Queen came on. I was like dancing Queen a plant, queen flank Queen, but with a kW And so that's how I was born.

12:10Speaker 1:Yeah, Abba, I love it. I love it. So can you tell me about the first plant you bought? Before there? I mean, if you remember before there was there ever a moment where there were no plants in the house.

12:28Speaker 2:In my apartment, like in your.

12:30Speaker 1:First my individual home.

12:33Speaker 2:As you bought big girl apartment, I did not have plants. I didn't. I didn't, oh child. I think it was like maybe like three years of living in New York. I had moved here for grad school. You know, I was my head was elsewhere. I was like, I got to build a social life and all that. Yeah, and once I got you know too. And after I had graduated grad school, I moved to a new apartment and it was south facing windows and the walls were just so bare, and I was like, I gotta have some type of life in here. And I was like, I've graduated grad school. I'm no longer a student like I got to find my next journey, and so I was like, Okay, I think it's time to invest in plants. And I think buying a plant was a very serious endeavor for me because I knew what it did. It was just a special relationship, right. I knew that I wanted to make sure I was honoring my grandmother's memory by making sure I had time to actually care for the plant.

13:38Speaker 2:When I was in grad school, I wouldn't be able to care for the plant, and so I bought a Pothos Marble Queen Pothos. I still have that plant today. I bought that eleven years ago. She's still with me. She's still with me. I propagated. My friend Meredith has a cutting of the plant. We've been friends for over a decade now, so yeah, I've propagated her and now all my friends have like little cuttings that original plant to kind of just spark yes journey.

14:02Speaker 1:That's so beautiful. I also shan't admit how many plants I've bought and that have not survived in the last eleven years. We don't need to talk about it. It happen.

14:15Speaker 2:It happened to.

14:18Speaker 1:Say that but our original Girly is still with us.

14:21Speaker 2:She's still here.

14:22Speaker 1:I will say I did because la is a good climate for propagating a succulent, as we discussed in the backyard in twenty twenty two, and you gave me a few great tips. And if I do say so myself, I propagated a few plants. Come on now, and I can't explain to you how cool I felt like taking home a chic little plant to my mom and taking a cute little plant to one of my girlfriends for a housewarming party. And they felt particularly great to me because I live in a house that was lived in previously by this fabular, fabular, fabulous. I'm fine. Older woman named Annette. I knew her until she passed at ninety two.

15:04Speaker 1:She was so cool, and she used to tell me that her and her husband would like get in a convertible and go out to Palm Springs and watch Frank Sinatra play jazz. And she was like, we got drunk once and I cut some of his aloe plants in his backyard and that's where these came from. And I was like, you're so cool. So actually what I did was I gave people propagated cuttings from Frank Sinatra stolen plants. Thank you to Annette. She was my plant queen. And it's like, weirdly, it's not an easy thing to keep it alive, care for it, grow it, multiply it. But it's like the simplest and most meaningful thing I think to share with other people. Maybe because it's alive, Maybe because if you're giving a friend or a family member a piece of something you grew like, you really had to love it enough to get it to be in the place where you could share it with someone else.

16:05Speaker 1:Do you think that's true? Is it an energetic thing?

16:08Speaker 2:I think yes, it's definitely an energetic thing. I think there is, you know, I think the reason that I chose to be an educator, I spent over a decade working as a college counselor, and I worked in higher education, then I worked in tech. Oh child, I'm all in very like you know, guidance counselor y roles, right, and so you know, I feel like I've always had a lot of love to give, right, And I think the beautiful thing about when you're caring for a plant, right, is that there's just this interaction where you're giving something love and care and the response you would hope is growth, right.

16:54Speaker 2:And so it's just a very simple interaction that I think allows folks to practice what we all need to be better at caring for ourselves and caring for each other. Right. And so I now have over two hundred plants in my Brooklyn apartment and they're all doing really lovingly. And people will be like, girl, like, how the hell you water? I don't know. We can curse, but how in the world do you water? Turn on your plants, and it's I don't know. It's a little party. I brew some tea, I put on some music. Sometimes I'll call a friend.

17:33Speaker 2:And I've found that my plants are a great I call them my green Girls. I'm a big Golden Girls fan. Here, I'm a Green Girls. They are great accountability partners. Right. There's something that I need to tend to every week or every two weeks, and they remind me that I need to care for myself. They remind me that I need to show up for the people that I love. And so I think it's when you're in close proximity to nature. There's so many lush lessons that we can learn so many Lutch lessons and the whole self care community care journey is just one aspect of it.

18:09Speaker 1:Right, Well, it sounds like it's very meditative.

18:12Speaker 2:Oh very much so.

18:14Speaker 1:So do you think about your plants wellness as an extension of your own?

18:21Speaker 2:Oh? Yes, completely completely. I had a moment and this was when my mother was alive. She was watching me in my poor roommates at the time. Child o lord, I just took up space. I was like, look y'all, y'all have to deal with this. I'm just bringing plants and just go with it. Go with it. It was so kind and so, you know, it was a Sunday and I was beginning to build a routine, you know, spacetimeing my mom. And she was like, oh, you're building your garden. And she wasn't talking about the garden, the physical.

19:00Speaker 2:Whyn't you talking about my inner garden? Right? And she could tell that, my You could just tell I was moving differently through the world. And so after I had that phone call and I was like, I'm always a very reflective person. I was like, oh, well, you know, I need water too, I need sunshine too, I need room to grow too, I need nutrients too. I need to prune some yellowing lead. We all have some leads we need to prune, y'all all right, And so you know, I think it again. It allowed me to practice all the various different ways that I care for myself. So these days, honey, I have a self care and menu.

19:43Speaker 2:I have a bunch of options of ways I can care for myself. What's on it?

19:47Speaker 1:Oh, darling, I'm like, can you give us.

19:50Speaker 2:I'll I mean, you know, I for me personally, I enjoy roller skating, So I do a lot of roller skating and a lot of stuff I do by myself. Like I I think, you know, being with people and letting them fill your cup. I would say for me, that's an easier thing to do to rely on someone else to fill your cup. A little harder when you're doing it by yourself. Right, So I roll escape by myself. I'll go to a random roller rink and I'll do it by myself. I do dinners by myself, movies, I've traveled.

20:24Speaker 2:I just went to Sri Lanka by myself for sixteen days.

20:28Speaker 1:It's on his Instagram. Go look at it.

20:30Speaker 2:Oh my god, Oh it was so much fun and so I allow myself random little adventures and I just kind of I'm good company with myself. I'm just I can have a ball. Just give me a little adventure. I'll go on my you know, on my own. It's really fun. But those are some of the things that I do. And then obviously, you know, I have my friends, we have our little dates and all that jazz. But yeah, if you haven't taken yourself out on a date, like do it like the same thing you would do for a romantic partner, like go all out do that ship for yourself. It is. It's so fun. It's so fun.

21:09Speaker 1:Get ready, put on the outfit.

21:11Speaker 2:Put it on the outfit, get dressed, put on your prefume, order the car like it's just and just treat yourself. Bring a book if you want to. I've challenged myself not to bring anything. And I people watch. I love people watching. I'm nosy as well, so it lends itself.

21:31Speaker 1:You know, you're you're just interested, which is also why you're interesting. I would thank you people watching is it's just it's.

21:40Speaker 2:So funny little stories for people that you're watching, Oh darling, good time.

21:45Speaker 1:A couple of my friends and I used to do that. We would go out to dinner and be like okay, and we would we would like get figure out how to sit like last supper style, you know, everybody's face out and be like, okay, eleven o'clock red shirt, what do you think he does? Does this date? Like him? Or hate him? And we would just make up stories.

22:02Speaker 2:For things to do in New York. I mean, come on, there's so many interesting people here.

22:09Speaker 1:And now for our sponsors. When you are out, whether with friends or on your own, do you get distracted by plants? Like do they lose you because you're.

22:24Speaker 2:Like, well, look at this whatever?

22:25Speaker 1:In Latin this is like oh, because I'm like that, like, don't walk a cute dog by me, I will leave the group I'm with and be like, well, no, I have to go pat this animal. And I know it's a little tough, but I feel like you could be like and all right and make a left and then suddenly at the end of the next block, nobody knows where you are.

22:45Speaker 2:I have been known to tell people who work at Marrieth places that they need to move the plant or if inmfestic what it needs need water? Oh, it's not going to survive. Here, you need to repot it. I mean, it's just like once you're in it and like you see these things, it's hard to like not unsee these things. I mean, I always identify the plants in any space that I'm in just for funzies, it happened. But yes, I've tried to dial back on giving folks directions on the plants in their spaces. If I'm in a home and I'm close to the friend, I will take it upon myself to just like, Okay, I think we have an intervention.

23:30Speaker 1:I love that.

23:31Speaker 2:I hate plant in dark bathroom. Oh my god, that's one of the worst things you can do. If there's no grow light. Even if there's a grow light, you need to move that plant.

23:42Speaker 1:What do you think are the and I know in the book are many tips, but are there a few things that you think everyone at every level needs to know about plants in their space or is that complicated? Like I'm thinking about the checklist for eat, sample of your self care, take yourself on a date, Like is there a universal checklist for plants or no? Because each diva needs her own care.

24:10Speaker 2:So universal checklist. I think it's important to start where you are. I think that's, you know, the best route there. I've tried to demystify the idea of the green thumb, and I'll try to give you the short version of this, just like the nature there. To me, I have to get this out. The term green thumb had two potential origin, all right, and when I was writing my book, I had so much fun writing about this. One is that there was this king of the old times where he really enjoyed these peas when he had a subject pick the peas. When you pick the peas that left a green stain on your fingers, whoever picked the most peas would be in favor of the king. So they have green fingers or green thumbs. Means you were in favor of the king because you most likely pick the most peas.

25:00Speaker 2:That later became like green thumb, green finger became you were in good fortune. Nothing to do with taking care of plants, mind you. The second was that horticulturalist botanists, you know, maybe dealing with pots that have green algae on them, it may stain their fingers. Again, nothing to do with this instinctual knowledge that you have to have. That the green thumb kind of lends itself to so I tell folks, it's more like a green muscle. You build it over time. Like all this stuff is learned.

25:33Speaker 2:I have a degree in psychology and a master's in high education, and I wrote a plant book like It's self tall, like allow yourself to be curious. Curiosity is one of the best things that you can allow yourself to go on when it comes to bringing nature into your home.

25:52Speaker 1:Well, I mean, obviously you inspire everyone who follows you, who reads the book. How do you think about what you've learned, you know, the the journey to self, self care, self love, the kind of transformation plants can offer. I know you think about it for community. I know you think about it for your beautiful nieces, like from this place as the person who has this in the world and all the things you're working on. How do you how do you think about the next waves of your inspiration?

26:26Speaker 1:What's next on the journey?

26:27Speaker 2:Ooh, I really hope to be, you know, as an educator. I'm a facilitator, Like I want to facilitate growth. I want to expose folks to things that they didn't know they needed, right, and so I am I think the future. I'm hoping to work with a larger audience, Right, whether that's the television show touring the various different green spaces in the world and really showcasing all the behind the scenes work that happens. Right, there's just so much behind the scenes work that happens at these gardens, that happens at these parks, and the folks who are doing this work are often not applauded. Right. And you know something that I'm really excited for for New York City that I've been reading in the news. It's more funding for New York City parks. One thing that folks may not know is that less than one percent of the New York City budget goes towards the maintenance of parks. Less than one percent. And you think about I mean, I'm sure the New York City budget is massive, but like less than one percent. Shame, right, And so my hope is to continue to expose folks to the wonders of nature and understand help them understand that we all have

27:54Speaker 2:a role. We only have this one planet, and we all have a role to play. We all have a role to play. And so if I can get you to care about the plant on your table, maybe you care about the tree on your block. They just planted a tree in front of my apartment with giddy for joy. I was like, oh my god, how excited is happening? Right, you care about that tree? Maybe the part then maybe the forest right again, Meet people where they are and help them understand that we are all active agents in shaping the world that we're a part of.

28:27Speaker 1:Yes, especially when you think about what these things do for us. You know, the reality that plants clean our air, like what you know, feed us, They feed us, they enrich our lives. They're so beautiful. I mean the things I've learned from you, even in your work with Tree Equity, you know when you mentioned they just planted a tree on your block, Like you know, this is joy, this is fun. This is also education. We're like, you know, low caate making sure people aren't getting the mess livelihood. Yes, but like the reality is, folks, depending on where you live in a city like this or in so many cities around America, an affluent neighborhood is going to have a very different landscape than a disenfranchised neighborhood. Yes, and you know around the country you will see that black and brown neighborhoods in particular have less trees, which makes neighborhoods hotter, which means which also means people are more exposed to low air quality, like all of these things. Lighting, yes, flooding, natural disasters. I mean, we can't even talk about like what happened during the last major rainstorm in Brooklyn. Oh my,

29:46Speaker 1:got like it. It's it's not just about oh yeah, trees are nice, but the economy, gas prices. It's like no, it's actually all connected so deeply. And and I think for us figuring out ways to participate in community care that are joyful. You know, I do a lot of it that frankly isn't joyful. But I'm pissed off all the time. So you're welcome, But like the joyful stuff. I want to go to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden with you and like, plant some trees. That's the best happiest activism I will get to do this year. I'm in.

30:24Speaker 1:And I think that's an important thing to remind people of. Like, yes, part of the reason we're here is because we want you to start somewhere. Get a plant for your apartment, if you have a little foot of earth outside, like plant some herbs, it's spring, summer's coming. Can I ask you some technical questions now that I'm gonna get off my soapbox and just you know, I want I need to know. I need to know, like what are the must have products? And I say this again, like genuinely.

30:50Speaker 1:This came about not because they asked, but because I sent my team a video of me why I'd missed a call and I was planting things in the yard for the bees. Everything's fine, I needed to get outside and touch grass and I had my potting soil in the thing, and they were like, oh, that's weird. They just reached out to iHeart and I was like, say more, my mom gave me this, so like I'm down. I have the potting soil that Miracle Girl makes. There's one for outdoor, one for indoor. You're welcome. I have this little pair of like cool Japanese trimming shears with little green chic. Yeah. They have like cute little green handles.

31:28Speaker 1:Clearly that I can't live without. Like once I got them in my hand, my friend Jed gave them to me and I was like, I do feel like Martha. And now I have them on the West Coast and the East Coast, Like I got one of the little sprits misters for some of the plants. I don't know if that's real or if I got got by an Instagram ad, Like what do the people need to garden for real?

31:54Speaker 2:Okay? So in terms of tools that I I mean, you could go down an end list lists. But some of the things that I think folks would it would be helpful for folks to have one is a humidifier. Humidifiers are really really important. They're also great for our bodies as well. Right, the typical air quality or air dryness, and the average home is quite dry, right, And a lot of the plant that we bring into our homes or what tropical plants, right, And the best thing that you can do for a plant is try to mimic the natural habitat that the plant comes from. Right. We want to trick the plants to think they're in the rainfar.

32:36Speaker 2:We can't really do that because humidity leveled in the rainforest is quite high, and we don't. We can't do that meldew, mold and all that jazz. Humidfiers are great, the misters, that's not humidity. But tell me however, but you can use them to sprint the leaf and then wipe the leaf because dusting your plant it's really really important. You want to make sure that there's no dust collecting because the leaves are its meal ticket and that's how it collects sunlight. We wanted to photo sensesize and all that.

33:08Speaker 1:Yet wait, so if a plant gets dusty, it doesn't get as much sunlight.

33:12Speaker 2:It doesn't. Yeah, so you want to make sure you're wipping, wiping the leaves occasionally overwatering. That's how I kill some of my plants overwatering. Right, do not water your plant every day. Don't do it. Like when I've heard somebody say that, I was like, ooh girl, yeah, so a soil probe is a soil probe, that's yeah, that's the name of the you know I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there is.

33:43Speaker 1:Plants.

33:44Speaker 2:It's like basically a little stick that has ridges in it. You stick it in the soil, you pull it out, and then you can feel the moisture from the little ridges at different levels of the pot. Oh you could use your finger as well, right, but I have an expensive manicure and I want to make sure that I can maintain it so that my little soil probe. Soil Probe's really helpful. I also talk a lot about this in my books. So this is a wonderful tool that you can use as well. Right there we go. Cheers are really fun scissors. You want to make sure you're cleaning them before you go from plant to plant. Nutrients is really important, and so one of the tools that I use are. One of the products I use is Miracle Grows Plant Food all Purpose plant Food wonderful. I use that and nitrogen potassium and n KO phosphorus. There we go, Thank you. I was like, I'm blank, and I was like, I know I can relate on your girl.

34:49Speaker 2:We won't catch up after this. Those are the three main nutrients, key nutrients that plants need. And while you could, you know, make your own little concoction some coffee ground, the banana pills and all that stuff, you're probably not going to get the recipe right. So the all purpose plant food has all those nutrients and micronutrients in it, and so you want to make sure that you're giving your plant the nutrient that it needs. Water, the nutrients in sunlight is really really important.

35:22Speaker 1:How do you know, because I know some plants need some sun, some need constant. How do you know when you're trying to figure out your plant how often to leave it in the window and maybe when she needs a little break.

35:37Speaker 2:Honestly, you trial and error. Honestly, there's no like, yeah, there's no secret recipe. I mean when you are bringing your plants indoors, like in a place like New York City, I know someplace some folks lead their plants outside in the summertime. When you are bringing them back, you do want to try to like bring it in for a little bit and then leap and take it back outside leclimatize. Yeah, so you know, let it spend more time indoors and put it back and like just time that that's really helpful.

36:09Speaker 2:But when you are trying to figure out the place that you want to put your plant in, do an assessment of your space, know the direction of your windows, understand the kind of light, watch the sunlight. It's also very therapeutic, like figuring out where you're going to put your plants. When I've moved into the place that I'm in right now, I sat in an empty place. I ordered some pizza, and I watched the sun move through the apartment, an empty apartment. It was like one of the most beautiful moments I had in that space, and I was like, Okay, cool, I know that this spot gets this sun in this season for this amount of time, the sun doesn't touch this spot. And so it's also you're you're just very present, right, Don't just be like, oh, I'm just going to go buy a plant because it looks pretty and I want to put it there and hopefully it does well and great, Oh dial you had another one, like really allow yourself the journey of like, Okay, I'm bringing a living, breathing creature into my home. Let me be a little respectful and do a little research on the plant, the natural habitat, the native environment it

37:12Speaker 2:comes from, right, and then kind of just adjust it to your space and don't be a helicopter plant parent, just like, let the plant do his thing. Plants are coming from nurseries, right, that are ideal conditions. It's not going to grow the same way in your apartment, right, And we have to also understand that the leaves that were grown in the nursery are probably going to die. We all have to let go of certain parts of ourselves when we go into new environments, right, we have to adapt, we have to grow in new ways. Plants through the same thing. There's a lot of actually go on metaphors, metaphors for days. Chi'a'll find me in the back.

37:52Speaker 2:I'll keep talking about it.

37:53Speaker 1:I love it. I love it. I like that we can take care of our space. Yeah, take care of the planet, take care of ourselves by being a plant parent. And like, bonus, no shade, I've you know, been I've had animals most of my life. But like, you don't have to pick up a plant, you know, that's nice.

38:15Speaker 2:That's a bonus.

38:21Speaker 1:Well, friends, you can obviously get a copy of You Grow Girl anywhere books are sold. My darling, I want to let everyone have fun and have the gorgeous meal that's been prepared, and see what's in their gift baskets. You really are. I'm so excited. There may or may not be something from my bees in there. You know, it feels fun terrifying. Shipping enough of said surprise from Los Angeles in glass, I was like, please let the box be okay. But we made it. We made it, y'all.

38:58Speaker 1:I would just love to know because we are having a Kiki. But we're also on my show what in this moment, and it could be something professional personal, a mix of the two. But for Christopher today, what feels like you're work in progress?

39:17Speaker 2:Ooh, My work in progress is being more present in the fruits of my labor. I put in a lot of work throughout the years, and you know, I'm a bit of an overachiever. I've always been straight a student in school, graduated with honors throughout all my school experiences, and I've always thought about the next thing, like, Okay, what's the next thing I can achieve, right, which kind of robbed me of the achievement that I made right. And so right now I'm in a place where I'm trying to help myself understand that this was the point, like I'm here, enjoy it and use, you know, this energy to help you get to the next level, but like, enjoy the fruits of your labor. And so that's why I'm just grateful for moments like these where we can reflect and talk and hopefully inspire y'all to figure out like how do you begin your garden, not your outdoor garden, not your indoor gardener, your inner garden. Right for interesting times, right, now, and I think it's important that we allow ourselves time to be with ourselves and understand that we are we are the garden, and we really have to figure out, like how can we nourish ourselves and grow ourselves so

40:58Speaker 2:that hope our bloom can inspire other people.

41:03Speaker 1:It's beautiful. You inspire me so much.

41:06Speaker 2:You inspire me. Thanks for coming, Thank you for having me.

41:10Speaker 1:Thanks for coming, guys, so lovely, so lovely. Follow our friends and miracle girl who brought us here and check out their website, like we said, for easy to use products to start your growing journey. Take your inspiration. I suggest maybe by a plant tomorrow, before life gets busy and before you forget how good this ws like dive in. There's no time like the present. Friends, thanks for being here. Everyone, I see you over there, will hike.

41:43Speaker 2:Let's cart up one more time for Sophia and Christopher. Thank you so much,