Our Story

Hi there, I’m Rachel, a Southern gal living my homesteading dream in Vermont. As the great-granddaughter of a Hudson Falls dairy farmer, cultivation runs in my veins. Growing up in suburban Northeast Georgia, I helped my mom pickle homegrown cucumbers on sweltering summer days and plant daffodil bulbs in late fall. However, my passion for gardening didn’t sprout until my early 30s. After a summer trip to my future in-laws’ productive backyard garden in rural upstate New York, I was inspired to start my first urban kitchen garden in Seattle, Washington in 2019. That summer, I took a sabbatical from a fast-paced, high-intensity job to slow down and reconnect with myself and my natural surroundings. I planted a quaint vegetable and flower garden on our small rental property with no experience, just a passed-down copy of The Garden Primer (aka “The Gardener’s Bible”) in one hand and a trowel in the other. Quickly realizing I had much to glean, I began volunteering and taking classes at an urban community learning garden focused on native plants and organic vegetable gardening. Not only did I cultivate a wide variety of skills like deadheading, composting, and seed saving, but I also gained a profound love of tending plants with like-minded folks. The garden instantly became my refuge; an escape from the stressors of big city life. Before I knew it, I was googling “homesteading” and “back-to-the-land” and daydreaming of a more self-sufficient way of life close to nature. Nearly six months later, my now husband, Matt, and I traded in our 1,000-square-foot Seattle home for 5 acres and a 1,000-square-foot garden in the Green Mountains of Central Vermont.

Upon arrival in January 2020, I enrolled in the University of Vermont Extension Master Gardener program where I received training from faculty and industry professionals on research-based topics including basic botany, soil fertility, insects and diseases, vegetable planning and production, herbaceous perennials, small fruit and tree fruit, pollinator plants, tree care, and landscape design. That spring, Matt and I painstakingly installed our expansive raised bed garden on our rocky, clay-packed hillside property. Our goal back then was to grow flowers for our backyard wedding and as much fresh food as possible during the COVID-19 lock-down. Since then, I’ve grown over 200 varieties of vegetables, fruit, herbs, and flowers nearly all from seed. I’ve volunteered at community garden projects across the state educating others on home horticulture topics. I’ve enrolled in Landscape Design and Horticulture Therapy certificate programs to broaden my skill set and expand my services. All the while, my resilient garden has persisted through a pandemic, the birth of our son, record-breaking heatwaves, epic wind and snow storms, and multiple “100-year floods”.

Through it all, the garden remains my happy place. In 2024, I started Goldenrod Design to help you cultivate your own happy place in the garden.