♪ Welcome to Windows to the Wild.

I'm Willem Lange.

Today we'll take you outdoors to a place where a lot of people spend a lot of time.

The garden.

We'll introduce you to a couple who transformed their backyard into a 30 acre public garden.

But first, we'll meet Jessica Zander, a gardening coach in the Boston area who's social media following is approaching 1 million viewers.

Once you meet her, you'll find out why.

♪ This is great.

I used to think this was a weed until I learned it was a pollinator.

So we leave all of that now.

It's like everywhere.

My name is Jessica Zander and I started You Can Do It Gardening, which is a garden coaching business, in the spring of 2022 while I was still working at YWCA Boston YW Boston.

Before her gardening business grew, Jessica spent more than 30 years working in the nonprofit world.

During that time, she could be found here, here, and here.

Gardens were a place where Jessica felt at home.

And it's where the seeds of a new career were planted.

Were you also thinking of a rose here?

And I was helping people informally and, you know, and that was fun and fulfilling.

And then I was at a friend's house in the fall of 2021 and, you know I was looking back at her garden, thinking, you know, or her backyard, really.

It wasn't a garden.

What are you doing back here?

You know, which you only ask if you have a sense that something could be done.

This all used to be grass.

All of this.

Like, there was very little on the property when we got here.

Her instincts were spot on.

Jessica had the knowledge and confidence to coach 30 plus years in the garden and a family history helped.

Her grandfather worked as a gardener in England, and it was her parents passion.

I think it's just in my family and my parents were British, so that's also a little different in terms of orientation.

And I think a lot of Americans don't necessarily grow up in an environment where gardening is a thing.

And especially folks in communities where landscapers are prevalent, that they just have no idea because they didn't watch it happening.

I don't know what it's called.

Somebody told me they thought it was horse nettle.

Jessica blended her knowledge of how to grow things with a passion to teach.

Now, you may or may not know this.

I'm not judging, but do you.

Are you aware that this is invasive?

The burning bush.

The result is a business.

You Can Do It Gardening.

I launched it in the spring of 2022.

And, you know, I really enjoyed it.

I had a good year.

It was just a start.

And then 2023 in the winter is when things just totally took off.

And then so like March, February, March.

And then, you know, by June I had left my job.

See, look, wild violets everywhere.

And and the woodruff.

Yeah, sweet woodruff.

Careful of the stumps.

These are our old fruit trees that didn't work out.

So, my goal is just to help people feel empowered and informed.

Jessica built a website and now has an impressive social media following.

Very shady.

No irrigation, crappy soil.

Everything's going against you right now.

So the social media thing is funny because I wasn't on any of these platforms.

I'm really a private person, actually.

And I didn't know how how any of them worked.

You know, I was really resistant.

But then I kind of realized, okay, for clients, prospective clients, I should probably have a social media account as a business, you've got a ton of pruning to do here.

You know, it's like, all around the property, everywhere you look, it's like, oh, man, that needs attention.

Oh, geez.

That does, that does.

It's like a pinball.

Like, oh God, what do I do?

So, you know, it's you wait on the flowering stuff because they're about to bloom.

So I started an Instagram account.

Then I did a course that was really helpful to get kind of get out there, and then things just exploded.

I did TikTok then and Facebook, and things just exploded.

Okay, get rid of this.

Get rid of this alberta spruce.

Kill the wisteria if you possibly can.

More than 900,000 curious gardeners from around the world watch her videos and ask questions.

I think I'm just so elated, you know?

I mean, so few people get to, you know, sort of transition from a passion into a profession.

And I really came at this field sideways.

You know, I didn't have this horticulture background.

So, but it doesn't matter because I'm not out here being an expert in horticulture or an expert in ecology or, you know, I'm not a biologist.

But I think what, what I like to do is just empower people.

Yeah.

You got a forsythia thicket here.

It's seven at least.

Maybe two originally.

This is very simple.

First of all, when they get low like this, they root, and then they spread.

So then, you know, if people can just watch and get little hints and tips, then they can go off and do it in their own yard.

Would you be open to moving this?

Sure.

Because these are very close.

Okay.

And this gets huge.

Okay.

And this can get big.

Okay.

When she's not tending her own gardens, Jessica loves to visit other people's.

Yeah.

There's your free plan.

How much sun does this get?

This area.

Afternoon.

Okay, we start over there and over here.

Okay, great.

So it's not full sun?

No.

Okay.

So that's good for the azalea.

I love it because they're fellow gardeners.

Like we're kindred spirits.

You know?

They're into it.

I'm into it.

They're like friends.

We're all, like, the same.

You know what I mean?

But if you want this.

This is how big an area do you think this is?

To me, it looks bigger than this.

Roughly the same.

Okay.

I don't think it's bigger.

Okay.

And then I'm learning all the time.

Like any gardener.

I'm learning all the time.

I learn from comments.

I learn from clients.

I learn from the research I do.

So I think, I mean, just I feel so incredibly fortunate to be able to do this every day.

You know, I get to talk about gardening all day.

It's really awesome.

You've got a bunch of little invasives back here.

So here's what you do.

You're new here.

You ID everything on the property.

So you know what it is.

One of the common things people have questions about is gardening insecurities.

People get scared.

They're scared they're going to kill the plant.

It's extremely unlikely that you're going to kill a plant from pruning.

But you've got to cut in little windows so that the light can come in.

So what I try to show is, look, you can do this radical pruning.

You can do much more than you think.

And the plant is fine.

If you cut in a little window here.

I'm just doing this quickly.

Like this.

See how there's just a teeny bit of a window?

I'm just very pragmatic, just from my own experience.

And also very experimental.

So I'm not afraid to do things that may or may not work out.

Like I'll transplant in the 90s, you know, when it's really, really hot.

So then you have to water a lot, you know, and that's okay.

It's just more work.

But you can still do it.

And so I think finding a balance for each person about how much they want to take on is also really key because if you if you take on too much, it becomes a burden and then you can't keep up with it.

And then, you know, it's like, I hate gardening.

All right, here's your flowering shrub.

Insert name here.

It doesn't matter.

Best time to prune for you to get as many flowers as possible the following year is right after it blooms.

We're all on a journey.

You know, we all start as beginners at some point.

And then we progress and we learn.

And as we evolve our esthetics may evolve, you know?

This right here is wood sorrel.

So this, this you can put in your salad if you need that.

I'll get another one.

It looks like clover, but it isn't.

See how it's different.

As Jessica's own backyard evolves, so does her connection with nature.

So I think my esthetic has also evolved out of my understanding or my continued like learning about how my yard is connected to the broader ecosystem.

And before I had, I really wasn't making that connection.

And there wasn't a lot that was valuable on the property.

So now as I bring more in and I see my first monarch caterpillar, for example, and I'm giddy with excitement like a new mom, you know, like my little caterpillar.

You feel the connection deeply, and then you want more of that, like, oh, let me bring in more native plant.

I want to know that what I'm creating in this environment is ecologically useful and productive.

This over there, you're going to move the hydrangea forward a little bit because it's smushed already a little bit with the winter berry.

The other winter berry here, the male.

As a coach, online and in-person, Jessica's enthusiastic approach to gardening is contagious.

We all won't have yards that look this nice.

She doesn't expect that.

What she hopes for is that in your own way, at your own pace, you discover the joy that she finds out here.

I just think the big picture thing is like, don't be afraid, don't be intimidated.

There is conflicting information out there on the internet.

There's rules that people think are necessary to share, like only do a third of this or only do you know at this time of year.

I don't think that's helpful.

I'm not saying I'm not wanting to contradict research papers.

I'm just saying we're not living in a research paper environment.

All of us.

We're not.

We're living real lives.

We have constraints on our time.

Or maybe we want to just wing it a little more.

And I think so.

My message is like, just go for it.

Try it.

Hey, you may fail sometimes something may die.

I mean, occasionally things die or I'll buy something and the bunnies eat it.

Okay, that's some feedback.

That's feedback like, all right, I've got to learn from that and incorporate that in and then do something different.

So I think people just need to feel more freedom and joy.

You just told me that you don't have a green thumb, but I don't really think there is such a thing.

I think there's experience.

And when you get experience, you get a little more confident.

But you should not talk yourself out of your abilities.

You know what I mean?

We should just go in and try it and see what happens.

And then your thumb will get greener and greener.

I love it.

♪ Back in New Hampshire, Bedrock Gardens began as a private place where the owners came to relax.

Now as the 30 acre public garden where horticulture and art combine to inspire.

♪ [soft breeze] WILLEM: Today, I'm at Bedrock Gardens in Lee, New Hampshire, and I'm talking to John... JOHN: John Forti.

WILLEM: I keep wanting to say Gotti.

JOHN: That would be a different syndicate!

WILLEM: You’re telling me!

The executive director here at Bedrock Gardens.

This is a commercial venture?

JOHN: No, it's a private nonprofit that's been established to open up a new public garden here in New Hampshire.

WILLEM: And it's been here a few years?

JOHN: Well, the folks that created it, Jill Nooney and Bob Munger, made this their backyard project for the last nearly 40 years.

And in the last seven years, we worked to turn it into a public garden with the parking and the restrooms and the shops, but also all of the amenities, so that when you go around this 30-plus-acre site, you have wonderful places to sit and vistas and all that.

WILLEM: That's nice.

Good.

How long you been here?

JOHN: This is my eighth season.

WILLEM: Wow.

You like it all right, then?

JOHN: I've been having a great time.

It's been my career; my whole life has been working in public gardens.

And, all around New England, especially, but this whole connection to land and the ways we live in habitat have always been meaningful to me.

But this is a great connection between art and landscape and wild places.

WILLEM: Well, let's go take a look at the place, okay?

JOHN: Love to show you around.

WILLEM: You think you can find your way.

JOHN: I hope so by now.

WILLEM: Me too.

Okay.

♪ [streamwater falling] ♪ [animals calling] This is called The Acrobats.

JOHN: Yeah.

This is our entryway arch.

It's one of the sculptures here created by Jill Nooney, one of the creators of the garden.

And it's really indicative of the type of metal work she does a lot of repurposed, old farm, and preindustrial and mill work that gets recreated.

And then, this is our forest bath path that leads you into the site so that while you're up here in our parking lot and are visiting our shops, you can step away from all of the world and find a little bit of serenity away from the world coming into the woods into the garden.

WILLEM: We may not come out?

JOHN: A lot of people wish they didn't have to.

[laughter] ♪ [soft breeze] So, what's up ahead is one of the first gardens we put in when we opened as a public garden so that we could separate out the old landscapes and the new.

It's an old Victorian-style stumpery where you collect stumps, and the idea was that it looked like nature took over again blew all of these things over.

And then, we put in over almost 500 ferns, both native and Asian, so that we could bridge this space between the natural woodlands and the Asian teahouse that's up ahead.

♪ [insects calling] ♪ [streamwater falling] A big part of this garden, it's here as a place of serenity, and I can't help but think a big part of this was Jill and Bob's background.

Jill was a clinical psychologist.

Bob was a family physician.

And this was designed as a garden journey to take you through room after room, and each room has its own mood, its own emotion and color palette, plant palette.

Our volunteer coordinator likes to say your blood pressure goes down about 20 points by the time you come out the other side of this garden.

♪ WILLEM: Glad to meet you.

You heard John talk about the landowners Jill Nooney and Bob Munger.

♪ [chatter] We found Jill at work on one of her sculptures.

Her artwork kind of springs up from the landscape all over the property.

♪ [birds calling] This is... this is your place You and Bob.

JILL: It is.

WILLEM: And you've done all right with it.

JILL: Well, you know, it's our backyard.

WILLEM: I love your sculptures.

Thank you!

I'm working on one right now.

Oh, it's in the studio, though.

WILLEM: Oh!

With all the all the spikes.

JILL: Yeah.

These are going to be the legs of the cop top.

It goes with a big story.

I won't bore you with it.

WILLEM: Thank you.

JILL: Yeah!

[laughter] WILLEM: Well, you're still at it.

I mean, this is still a project of yours.

JILL: Oh, very much so.

I just went to a conference in Portland, Oregon, this weekend and brought back plants.

♪ [soft breeze] WILLEM: 40 acres, right?

JILL: It's 30 acres and 20 acres of garden.

And naturally, you know, this was one of the first gardens I made because it's right by the house.

Everyone starts at their house.

And then, through circumstances, like The Zipper ... I gave my husband a zipper what I called a golf cart so that let us go miles away with the gas and the chainsaw instead of walking back and forth.

So, it opened up I say it's like barbed wire in the Midwest it opened up a whole new world.

♪ WILLEM: When did what you're doing become something more more of a garden?

JILL: I would say ten years ago, we realized that our kids weren’t interested and that the public really loved the garden.

And you can't take it with you.

What would we do with it?

So, I said to Bob, if this becomes a public garden, I think it'll take ten years.

And if we're successful, great.

If we're not, it would be an interesting ten years.

And that's what it took ten years... for the nonprofit to grow legs and be robust enough to take it over.

♪ In 2023, we gave the bulk of the property away to the public.

So, it's their garden.

And we operate entirely on the gate, donations, membership.

KATHLEEN: It's beautiful.

It makes me think how much work that they've put into this over the years and the different mediums that they have.

It's just lovely.

♪ DAVID: It's a lot to take in at first.

There's a lot going on.

It makes me glad that I rent.

There's a lot of work, but it's beautiful.

So, it's great that they open this up so people can come see this.

♪ [soft breeze] JOHN: So, this is Bob.

BOB: It was designed really as a sanctuary for Jill who was a psychotherapist and wanted to get away from the public and people's problems.

So, it was her private sanctuary, but it became really apparent that we could not bring it into the future.

The kids didn’t want it; would we turn it into condos?

WILLEM: Oh God, no.

BOB: Yeah.

♪ Now, you got people coming here just to see it.

BOB: We do.

WILLEM: And to regenerate.

BOB: There was a couple here that came 74 times last year.

Just couldn't get enough.

[stream burbling] JOHN: You know, the visitors Bob was telling you were here 72 times last year... they're here early today.

[chuckling] ♪ MAN: 80 times.

Yeah.

CINDY: We just live less than five minutes away.

So, if we're home and it's not pouring rain, we come and get a good walk in.

So, we don't come and stay for hours usually.

We’ll come and stay for, you know, 30 or 45 minutes, have a nice walk.

And the biggest thing I appreciate is there's places to sit everywhere where you can just sit, enjoy the pond, enjoy the Wiggle Waggle, and it's just a great spot.

♪ When somebody comes here to visit, what do you want him or her to take away from it?

JILL: Well, I can't prescribe that, but I can say that I built the garden, created the garden, for my own heart, and I think it’s a healing garden.

And, I hope people take away the sense of solace.

You know, beauty is always good for the soul and an antidote to pain.

♪ JOHN: That’s our pokeweed, but a variegated variety.

She's always collecting what's unusual.

You'll seldom see anything ordinary here.

[Willem chuckling] ♪ The sculpture out in the middle of the GrassAcre is called SyncoPeaks, and it's to evoke the White Mountain range.

She made that out of old oil tanks.

♪ You can see our beehives over there.

WILLEM: Oh, yeah.

Sure enough.

JOHN: We even make our own honey so that people can taste the gardens.

♪ WILLEM: There's one thing you could still do.

JILL: What's that?

WILLEM: People run around little garden cars like these delivering hot tea and biscuits.

[Willem chuckling] JILL: You're a spoiled brat!

WILLEM: Well, I am, but I don't want to walk way over there, get the tea, and then carry it back, you know?

JILL: Well, okay.

You make an appointment and I'll follow you around and treat you like a VIP that you deserve to be.

WILLEM: No no no no no, none of that.

It’d just be nice to have a cup of tea or espresso perhaps now and then.

JILL: Okay... ♪ [birds calling] JOHN: A lot of people come away with this sense of, there's so much more that I could be planting than a U in my backyard, and this garden really, I think, gives a lot of people a take away that you can mix art, you can mix plants, you can mix great plants for pollinators and wildlife along with your vegetables and herbs, and just plant the things you love the same way we plant all the things that we love here.

And they tell a story of our life.

It's like a curated garden of you or me.

♪ That's one of my favorite Jill sculptures: a life-size mosquito.

WILLEM: The eyes!

Perfect.

JOHN: I love to say too that this is a great garden for reluctant husbands.

All these guys are like, I don't want to go to see a garden!

They come here and all of a sudden they're saying, Oh, that's the reflector from the first car I ever drove.

Or, That's a part from my grandfather's tractor.

And they're always discovering those parts the bits and parts.

WILLEM: 1953 Nash!

JOHN: Yeah, that kind of thing exactly!

♪ There's also a garden historian, Matt Griswold, who says, Gardening is the slowest of the performing arts.

And when you look out over a landscape like this, or the ones that I've created at home or anywhere else I've ever designed the landscapes for, it's a slow evolution, but it's one of the most beautiful things you can watch happen that you think, I planted that and it's bigger than a house or a barn now.

Or, Look at the habitat that now we have to enjoy.

♪ I've always felt more at home in nature than anywhere.

You know, I think I'm a lucky man that way because for so many of us, when you're a kid, you might not know what you're going to do.

But I always knew my comfort place was in nature.

And I remember I was working in a museum in my 20s as their horticulturist and I just start, I'm not sure that this is a career I can have.

My father's just said, you know, You got to do what you love in life because you spend a lot of your time working, and you might as well find a career doing that very thing.

And I fell into one after the next, all great gardens that I had loved before I went to work in them and then got recruited from one to the next.

And this is my I was going to say my final resting place that sounds way too dire!

But this is a really wonderful place to, you know, finish out my career.

I've got many years left in me, but this is a pretty magical space.

♪ Well, we've come once again to that part of the show that I've always liked least.

The time we have to say goodbye, but we do.

So I'll say goodbye.

I'm Willem Lange.

Thank you for watching Windows to the Wild.

♪ Support for the production of Windows to the Wild is provided by the Alice J. Reen Charitable Trust, the John D McGonagle Foundation, the Bailey Charitable Foundation, Road Scholar and viewers like you.

Thank you.

Make a gift to the wild and support the Willem Lange Endowment Fund, established by a friend of New Hampshire PBS.

To learn how you can keep environmental, nature and outdoor programing possible for years to come, call our development team at (603) 868-4467.

♪