We recently had the chance to meet and connect with Megan Conrad, a fellow Georgia-based business owner specializing in garden consultations for busy mamas over at Green Nook Gardens. Having launched her business earlier this year, she juggles this inspiring new venture with a full time job in healthcare all while being a mother to her little girl. Read on for some wonderful gems of advice as well as insight into how she got started and how she balances it all.
Q: Can you share a bit about what your family looks like as well as your work as an entrepreneur? How and when did your journey as a mother and business owner start?
A: I live in Buford, GA with my husband, our two year old daughter and our dog. My journey into motherhood was a bumpy one, with a very difficult birth followed by Postpartum Depression and Postpartum Anxiety. I was very lucky to have an incredible support system and access to mental health services to help me get better, but it was still a very long time before I began to feel at all like myself again after my daughter was born. We're now deep into toddlerhood and my girl is an absolute delight - just the sweetest and best part of my life and I can't believe I get to be her mommy.
My journey into business ownership came as a bit of a surprise. I work full-time in healthcare, so entrepreneurship was never really on my radar. But - I love gardening, helping others garden, and I love teaching. I realized one day that I could actually make a business doing exactly that. I sat on the idea for about a year before deciding to dive in and then - all of a sudden - I jumped into the deep end and suddenly became a business owner! Green Nook Gardens opened in March of 2024 so it is still a new company, and I'm just getting my feet under me in this new world!
Q: Do you have any favorite childhood toys, games, activities or even spaces that stand out to you?
A: Gosh, I have several. I grew up in a house with four girls so we were very busy! I remember doing lots of pretend play - skits and playing house and playing school. I also remember lots of dancing, puppet shows, and Barbie dolls. A space that defined my childhood was an iconic spot in my hometown called Gigglebee's- it had arcade games, bumper cars, children's rides, skee ball, and pizza delivered by a robotic coyote riding a tricycle - Wilbur. On paper it sounds quite odd, but we spent many birthdays at Gigglebee's eagerly awaiting Wilbur's appearance and our chance to ride the rides. My favorite ride was a small one-man ferris wheel of sorts, and we all remember my dad waiting at the bottom to give us kisses as we passed by.
Q: What is hardest for you to juggle or balance right now? Have you found any hacks that are helping?
A: The juggle is one I'm still learning. With my full-time job I've developed a really strong work / life balance and became adept at leaving my work in the building and not bringing it home. But with business ownership there is no building to leave and the hours aren't defined, so it has been a lot harder to balance and I'll admit I'm still learning! My biggest hack so far is being very purposeful about time spent with my daughter, where I leave my phone alone and focus on her. Most of my business work happens after bedtime!
Q: Do you have any advice for an aspiring business owner who is stuck and doesn’t know where to start?
A: My biggest advice would be to dive right in! It is so intimidating to start a business, and it is easy to want to wait until you're "ready" to take the leap. As it turns out, you will never feel ready and you won't learn without doing, so you might as well start!
Another thing that has really helped me is to focus on defining my niche. When I opened my business, I just wanted to design and install gardens. Over time I've really shifted my focus to be on making gardening efficient and accessible for busy moms who want to grow for their family, but maybe feel like they are too busy or don't have time to manage a garden. I've developed a system I call the 5 Minute Garden - where your garden is designed to grow what you want for your family, but also designed to need less tending and maintenance and therefore less time out of your day.
Since making this shift it has really brought me clarity on what I do and why I do it. It helped me be really passionate about and good at this one thing, rather than floundering feeling like I need to do it all, and for anyone. So I would advise others to do this kind of niche work with their own company as well!
Q: I feel that being a mother often pushes you to embrace something that may not have initially come easily. For us it’s embracing the play and the mess. What might it be for you?
A: Mess is definitely a big one for me, as well as lack of control. I am a routine-oriented person and I like starting my day knowing what the rest of the day will look like, which is not at all what happens with a toddler! I'm also learning patience. Watching my daughter take five full minutes to pick out a pair of shorts to wear is...not my idea of fun. But I'm learning to sit back and embrace the joy of watching her learn and gain independence.
Q: There is inspiration in so many places especially as a creative type! Who and / or what inspires you?
A: It sounds cheesy coming from a gardener, but I find nature incredibly inspiring. I love to watch the ecosystem at play and see it cycle each year. When you start paying attention to how nature behaves and how the seasons connect with one another like dominoes - it is really amazing.
Here's the short version - The first flowers bloom in the early spring, ready and waiting for the pollinators to emerge from hibernation. The pollinators wake up and use these early flowers as their first burst of food before they get to work. Then once the pollinators are awake, fed, and active in the summer, our fruits and vegetables start to flower. Our pollinators do their thing with our vegetable flowers, which sets the fruit and allows it to mature.
Finally, as the season winds down from summer into fall - cold weather approaches, and bugs prepare for winter, and our plants near the end of their life cycle- our crops develop seeds that are carried by wind and birds back to the soil, where they establish themselves over winter and get ready to emerge again in the spring for the next cycle. On a large scale the predictability is comforting, and on a small scale watching a butterfly or a hummingbird feast in your garden - and knowing you are a part of this incredible cycle - is such a delight.
Q: What are your favorite activities or places to enjoy with your little(s) or big(s) nowadays? (And / Or if your littles are big, do you look back fondly on any particular activities with them from when they were little?)
A: I love watching my daughter's interests grow and change. Taking her outside to play or taking her into the garden is always a sure bet, but I also love watching her favorite activities evolve and mature. Right now she's obsessed with sticker books - one about trucks, in particular - and watching her little mind work to match and identify connections and patterns is a beautiful thing and a privilege to watch happen.
Q: If you are into quizzes and whatnot, do you care to share your Horoscope? Your Enneagram? Myers Briggs? Human Design Type? Anything else?! And if you share any of this, does it ring true?
A: I am a Pisces, an Enneagram 2 (The Helper), and an INFJ. I'll admit I'm not an expert at these, but everything I've read sounds about right - for better or for worse! Ha!
Q: When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A: I don't remember what my goals were when I was super little, but I remember somewhere in elementary school deciding I wanted to be an interpreter. Life didn't bring me down that path, but language always held a special place in my heart and I eventually majored in linguistics in college. I then discovered speech therapy / communication disorders and instantly fell in love - I loved the idea of taking everything I knew about language, language development, and our neurological language functioning and turning it on its head by putting it into the context of disorder or disease. It really is fascinating. I'm now a speech language pathologist by trade, although I've largely stepped away from language-based disorders and specialize primarily in feeding and swallowing disorders in infants, so it seems I took a bit of a leap there at the end! No idea where gardening came from in all of this! That snuck in when I wasn't looking (and I'm so happy it did)!
Learn more about Megan Conrad and Green Nook Gardens by visiting their website at https://greennookgardens.com/ and their Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/greennookgardens/. And take advantage of $50 off a Garden Design Consultation using code SPIL50.