i just pulled up to
the original assistant of epic gardening
chris
but she's now our head of customer
experience and i'm checking out her
garden because i kind of want to show
you guys everyone on the team's garden
and i'm seeing some incredible stuff
here chris has one of the coolest most
beautiful gardens i've ever seen in a
suburban home so why don't we go up and
meet her right now
hello hello
hey how are you what's up chris hi come
on out it's my first time at your garden
oh welcome good to see you good to see
you too all right guys chris actually
you initially were the first assistant
at epic gardening back in pandemic times
which is when you found out really
gardening in general it's how you came
absolutely so what we want to do is just
show you
the front yard and then chris can take
us through the whole thing all right i'd
love to let's do it all right great so
chris we're here in really just like
right up in the front yep front yard so
what have you done to kind of transform
us what did this look like before um
we had such an ugly house before it was
blue with red shutters
this was just dead grass okay and
we initially just um got a chip drop and
just covered it just to kill the grass
because it's that crab grass that really
yucky crab grass
we had the the chip dropped down for
about
six months and then after we did the
backyard which i'll show you guys in a
little bit
we decided to put food in the front too
because we have five people here sure
and so growing food for five people
takes you know a little more space a
little more space so what do you do up
here i'm noticing this this is kind of
cool it's like a little wicker it's a
great joke so this is a grapevine um
edging yeah kind of just holds the chip
drop stuff there we get really good at
drainage actually so this is um this
yard's great for these raised beds
because it just drains all the way down
i don't even water these this is just
from the drainage yeah and this is all
just stuff you planted in from
starts or uh the nisterium were from
seeds
daisies were start
um
fox gloves cosmos i didn't even plant
the cosmos though that thing looks
amazing yeah that looks really good
which was crazy uh the zinnias i plant
it from seed i got all those from the
san diego seed company sure stuff and um
so mostly just the daisies are starts um
the salvia is from seed the lavender was
a start okay yeah and then the roses we
bought as small ones okay and then
they're they're growing but we really
needed to get a lot more pollinators we
didn't have any pollinators out here
yeah so the first season that i gardened
i didn't have a really successful
gardening um like too much too many
pests
yeah and just and like my
squash weren't pollinating my tomatoes
weren't i was having to hand pollinate
everything so having all the flowers has
really helped draw in those pollinators
and this is not on irrigation at all
you're just sort of i have drip in the
bed okay cool okay let's talk about the
beds because this is where all the food
is right did the tall ones for
our eggplant tomatoes cucumbers i have
these uh cool little supports which i
love for the eggplants because they get
so um heavy yep and then so this bed is
full of just kind of that kind of
vegetable type of stuff yeah and then in
the winter i'll do this with um
spinach shard cabbage that type of stuff
that's what we had in here all winter
and then the eggplant is actually the
second season i cut it back and over
wintered it just over winter popped up
like this which is just crazy to me
that's something you can do in san diego
guys if you're in a warm climate you can
actually overwinter
this is a combination of um flowers and
then i'm doing several different peppers
in here
and again i had a really hard time with
the peppers pollinating so i'm thinking
that these flowers are really going to
help that process sure i see there's a
monarch flying right by that's perfect
all right the other half of the front
yard chris we've got a little arch here
which i love this is made out of what
cattle panel so we had a cattle panel in
the back we cut it in half and this is
the rest of it uh we only needed it you
know like this like two square feet of
it or two feet yeah so it worked out
great it was uh easy it's all you need
nice to repurpose that yeah sunflowers
are growing here those are from seed
okay those are huge they're huge yeah
these are massive we've got another
birdie's bed that looks like it's got
some salvia you got some strawberries in
here
borax we actually toured natalie's
garden pretty recently and both of you
seem to interplant a lot of flowers and
edibles in the same bag yeah i really
like that i like again the pollinators
coming in and i just like the aesthetic
of it i love the mix and match
this is a really great purple pepper
that i cut back to
just a basically a twig and it's popped
up this much since yeah last year when
you're using this just to support it a
little bit just kind of weave it through
and i think i have a couple other
peppers deep in there
they're gonna pop up through there
that's the birdies six and one there
right there yeah this is the birdies six
in one and then this is the eight one
but i configured this a little smaller
for the space
massive artichoke yeah massive artichoke
lots of strawberries okay you've got a
pretty prolific artichoke here chris
want you to talk about this for us so i
got this artichoke when you and i went
to mission hills nursery a couple years
like a year and a half ago yeah and i've
cut this back three times it's so huge
we get my family's sick of our jokes to
be honest with you i'm gonna let some of
them flower
and then i'm excited to try the tubers i
heard that the tubers are delicious
roasted okay so i'm gonna do that next
so we'll still pick some we're giving
some to the neighbors but i'm really
excited to
let them flower because the flowers are
so beautiful on those honestly it's
almost as pretty as they are tasty to
eat yeah i totally agree they're a
gorgeous flower such a beautiful color
purple and that's the front yard that's
the front this really is like just a
tiny piece of the whole garden so right
now we're going to flip over to the
backyard and show you
the suburban backyard garden that you're
using to grow how much of your own food
we grow about eighty percent of our
produce oh eighty percent for five
people so incredible let's go take a
look
all right chris where are we at now
we're in the back so this is where i do
my seed starting uh so i just have a few
right now i've got these celebrity
tomatoes
which
um are looking phenomenal i'm gonna
transplant those
this week yeah these are the epic four
cells yeah i love these um so sturdy oh
these peppers which i'm really excited
to try i've never even heard of these
they're a geluk oh you're in for a treat
because these are ghost peppers oh these
are extremely hot that'll be good so
like i could never even come close to
eating these personally i would roast my
face it'd be good in salsa yeah maybe
an epic salsa epic salsa bell pepper and
then uh my favorite thing um is these
little sweet peas i love the
oh tom thumb yeah that's a great variety
it is so you do all your seed starting
on this little bench here oh um i'll do
it out in the garden and then i'll just
bring it in here to keep it protected
and then when i harden it off i'll just
put it out there for a little bit and
then i've got um i just started these
yesterday i've got some shishitos which
there's nothing to see there but yeah
it'll take a couple days on those guys
and some lettuce sure so a little seed
starting zone and then if we turn around
you actually start to see
the prepared backyard garden which looks
absolutely incredible so why don't we
head out there okay cool
[Music]
so here's the backyard this is awesome
yeah oh i just got hit by a spider web
all good so you got a little sign here
chris that says christina's garden fresh
produce herbs fruits veggies established
20 20. yep so are you you're a pandemic
i am a pandemic gardener this was
nothing this was just grass like you
know we had trampolines back here when
the kids were small and swings and it
was just trashed
and i mean looking at it chris it
doesn't look like it used to be that way
it looks like you've been gardening for
years you know i appreciate it so it
looks it looks amazing it's uh yeah i'm
actually really happy with the space
well i think one of the things i love
best about working at epic is that i've
made so many first-time gardening
mistakes like it's so fresh
that i have um i know what to do you
know i know how not to make mistakes now
the thing that's cool about having
people on the team that actually grow
is chris is our head of customer
experience so if you've ever like talked
to us about a product or a question
it's probably been chris that has
answered you chris or wendy so it's cool
that our money is where our mouth is
we're actually gardening we're actually
growing food pretty much everyone on the
team so why don't we talk about what you
actually have going on here chris okay
great tomatoes on these big old bamboo
trellises yeah so this is my tomato and
lettuce bed so i planted the lettuce in
the middle to give it a little more
shade
and i have the borage uh to
keep the pollinators coming the
geraniums
some basil in here and then all these
are these indeterminates do you know
these are all indeterminate so they'll
they'll get up to you they'll get up to
that you think this will will this keep
you no i will probably tp them yeah
eventually pull them in and tie them
together um eventually and then i really
want to do that kind of thing that
jacques did with the string trellis yeah
i really want to do that this is a great
bed for tomatoes i had great success in
the slash they're looking super healthy
this time of year too
okay i see i see what i like here i see
the potatoes and i have some garbanzo
bean which i didn't realize the potatoes
were going to be this prolific and i
actually have some celery yeah there's
some celery here too um yeah yeah and so
it's yeah this it blows my mind how well
it's doing
and then you've got the the warm bag
here i do which is this is actually
really nice you might even pop it open
and take a look let's see so this is our
favorite uh worm castings production
system
let's see oh you got a lot of worms in
here
look at these guys little banana let's
bring those up
yeah this is the cattle panel the
original arch that you built the you got
the cattle panel for this right and then
we cut it off and then i'm growing snap
peas and beans so they haven't come up
but i did this last year as well until
the snap peas and the beans by the end
of summer this will be completely
covered with vines and beans and
it's kind of like a where's waldo when
you're trying to find them you know
you're just finding them but uh we
should get i think i have
four different beans in here and then i
have my snap peas on this side okay
i see some eggplants here this is from
last year same thing i cut them back
they popped up like this and then i have
some additional peppers i've got some
srirachas some
bell peppers some jalapenos we make a
lot of salsa okay and freeze a lot of
the peppers in the summer and then i
just use them all year yeah that's all
you need and then this is just a
pollinator garden yeah i was gonna say
this is just sort of like all
pollinators yeah very pretty very very
pretty oh i love that i know they're
just so gorgeous i've got some
sunflowers in there i've got my fave i
do and some some points with the dragon
fruit here i know and the dragon fruit's
actually doing well too yeah this is the
yellow one huh
and then i just have a little container
of kale and a little bit of lettuce
that's a curry plant right there which i
use all the time
proper curry right yeah yeah yeah yeah
oh amazing
so over here yeah
let's see what you got three more beds
over here
uh this peppers
chives which i use constantly i'm
letting my uh
cilantro go to seed so i can have
coriander coriander
oregano which i give the chickens
actually it's really good for them
really keeps them healthy it has a lot
of anti
just cleared out some of our herbs so i
might yeah it's so good for them yeah uh
the beets
which i'm about to pull all these and
roast them yeah beet greens i love that
i actually got that from you the beet
greens just take that right it's like
weirdly good no it's delicious yeah so
we'll do a stir fry with the kale and
the beet greens all the time and then
this
passion fruit which i cut back i feel
like i cut this back
two times two two or three times a year
it's so huge you're halfway up the hill
did you get a lot of fruit off it this
year yeah yeah a lot of fruit off like a
couple dozen or like 50 plus no like 50
plus yeah like i was giving it away to
neighbors and
you know i mean you can only make so
much passion fruit jam
actually more chocolate things that's
true okay so there's like this spot
looks amazing and then you still have
more space up here and at least i'm
seeing you've done a little bit right
right so this space we're actually
working on getting some type of footing
up here so what we've done is we've
planted seven different fruit trees here
a couple apples some citrus
peach and a plum and then up in that far
right corner we planted corn because
corn takes so much space and i didn't
want to
devote a whole bed to it up there
because wind pollination it will get a
little windier up there and it's got the
beans up there with it and so that's
actually doing i'm really excited to see
how that goes so we have that space too
and then we're going to turn this entire
space into an orchard once we get some
footing up here yeah you need you need
some kind of like winding trail
okay there is one last piece to chris's
garden that you had before anyone else
on the team i think jacques didn't have
chickens i didn't have chickens you had
the chickens i believe first i'm very
excited so let's go ahead and see chris
all right come on i'll introduce you to
the girls let's do it
so this is the girls
we're not a handy family so we did the
easy hoop coop because that was all we
could do we're just not handy is that
the name of like a product or is that no
this is just like i got this on uh
youtube there was a were there plans for
it yeah and it was super easy to build
and so we did all of it ourselves except
for the door
um we couldn't do the door we had to
have somebody to do the door and then
the door to this
and so this is a double yeah so the
coupe itself and then their outdoor run
is here and it's protected yeah and then
they have an inside coop where they're
laying eggs okay uh and then if any
predators were to by chance get through
this they could go in there okay yeah
how much do you think this whole thing
ran you to do the easy hoop coupe
like i'd say like four or five hundred
bucks no not even that it was probably
this is before the price of wood shot up
so high yeah so i i mean with the fence
probably 400 bucks not bad at all yeah
it's a and it's such an easy fix and
honestly it's tall enough for me it
wouldn't be tall enough for you but i
can stand up in there
okay yeah you know i would hit my head
but it wouldn't be that and it's easy to
clean
you know let's let's meet the girls then
i noticed you're doing the whole
fermented food oh yeah they love the
fermented food so i give them fermented
food about three times a week
and then i'll do this and this will last
them about two days and then i'll give
it a break let it ferment again and do
it again uh they really really like it
yeah and then i'll give the girls some
worms you can watch them they just love
their little grubs let's do it
oh they know already
they know it's
coming who are we looking at here so
this little silky hi honey
this is peaches peaches
this is raven oh i like that name chief
hey raven and fish and then posey must
be laying an egg but yeah oh these are
cute yeah they're cute and they all lay
a different color egg which is fun i
really love the easter egg layers i do
think that fish is my favorite just
because she's so pretty her coloring's
so pretty and she's got those cool like
mutton chops
i love raven raven's a bee she um she's
the my one that she escaped
what a cutie yeah she's really sweet
they're all really sweet oh no she's not
cute anymore why don't we just take a
little quick peek in here chris let's
see what's going on
so you you've got the little
the chick swing got the chick swings are
they on this ever do you think yeah yeah
not often though yeah i think it really
freaks them out more than anything else
yeah yeah so they come into the coop and
then they come into here for yeah so at
night they'll mostly roost on here and
then they'll lay their eggs in there
um and i just had this like i said if we
ended up getting like raccoons or this
is pretty well enforced we double
enforced it yeah you've got you've got
cattle panel and wire and a tarp yeah so
i think it's pretty i would say yeah i
feel like it's pretty safe um the only
thing that we're kind of dealing with
now is we are getting rats in the coop
oh dang so um we're working on that i
just got a wrap proof feeder which i
haven't set up yet yeah yeah because i
have to train them but yeah amazing
pretty it's a pretty good space so
you're you're getting eggs and eighty
percent of your produce all from home
yeah yeah yeah i get um we get about
five eggs a day
and about five days a week so amazing 25
25 eggs a week two dozen a week which is
pretty good
yeah yeah for a family of five that's
certainly enough some uh bloody mary
deviled eggs from the eggs let's go
enjoy those right now yeah we're out
here back in the little shady foyer in
the backyard and chris is actually an
incredible cook as well so this is what
is this it's a homegrown bread so i'm
this is sourdough i made this this
morning i love making sourdough it takes
like three days but it's totally worth
it and then i made the butter this
morning with chives from the garden so
chai butter is outstanding and then the
eggs were all donated by the girls they
really appreciate it and the celery
leaves are awesome and these are bloody
mary bloody mary deviled eggs yeah all
right
so well here cheers hey thanks for
coming thank you for checking out my
garden thank you guys for watching and
if you ever have customer service
questions i'm here chris is here for you
so stay tuned good luck in the garden
and keep on growing cheers
yummy that olive
that olive hits hard that's good