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Ep.78: How Claudia Built a Blooming Backyard and a Beloved YouTube Gardening Channel
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Have you ever wondered how a simple backyard garden can grow into a thriving YouTube channel that inspires gardeners everywhere?
In this episode, Jennifer sits down with Claudia of In The Garden with Claudia, a Zone 8b gardener in Oregon who transformed a small suburban space into a blooming cut flower haven. What began as a creative outlet during the pandemic soon became a beloved YouTube channel where gardeners turn for honest tips, beautiful garden tours, and a dose of encouragement.
Claudia shares how she started gardening only a few years ago, the steps she took to rebuild her clay soil, why dahlias became her signature flower, and how she balances content creation with a full-time job. She also opens up about perfectionism, embracing failure, following big dreams, and staying true to your creative path.
If you have ever felt intimidated by gardening or wondered whether to share your own story online, this conversation will inspire you to begin right where you are.
Connect with Claudia:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@InTheGardenWithClaudia
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inthegardenwithclaudia
Join the waitlist for the first ever Profitable Dahlia Summit:
The first ever Profitable Dahlia Summit is happening March 3 to 4, 2026 as a virtual two day event. It will feature an incredible lineup of growers, educators, and experts who will walk you through what it takes to grow, market, and sell dahlias with confidence. Join the waitlist to get early access to tickets, bonus trainings from speakers, and the best pricing. If you want to learn from some of the most inspiring voices in the dahlia world, add your name today: https://thefloweringfarmhouse.myflodesk.com/np92jqeu5a
Connect with Jennifer, Host of The Backyard Bouquet Podcast:
Website: https://thefloweringfarmhouse.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefloweringfarmhouse/
Follow the Podcast: https://www.instagram.com/thebackyardbouquetpodcast/
Sign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/thefloweringfarmhousenewsletter
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New episodes every week to help keep your garden blooming!
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Transcript
Intro
Introduction to Claudia Leschenko
00:00:57
Jennifer Gulizia
Welcome back to the Backyard Bouquet Podcast. I'm your host, Jennifer Gulizia and today we get to step into the garden with someone many of you may already know and love. If you've ever searched YouTube for garden inspiration, DIY projects, or cut flower tips, chances are you've come across In the Garden with Claudia. Claudia Lyashenko is a passionate zone 8 bee gardener here in Oregon who shares her own garden, creative projects, and beautiful garden tours from around
Creating a Gardening Community
00:01:29
Jennifer Gulizia
the country. Her videos feel like an invitation to slow down, notice the details, and enjoy the simple beauty that a garden brings.
00:01:38
Jennifer Gulizia
What I perhaps appreciate the most about Claudia is how she shows up with a genuine love for creating and sharing beauty. Her channel has become a place where everyday gardens feel encouraged, inspired, and confident to try something new in their own space.
Gardening in Oregon's Weather
00:01:53
Jennifer Gulizia
Today we get to learn more about Claudia's journey, what feels her creativity, and the lessons she has learned along the way. Claudia, thanks so much for joining me on the podcast today. I'm so happy to have you here.
00:02:04
Claudia
Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here with you today. i was really looking forward to the invite for one of these episodes. Yeah.
00:02:12
Jennifer Gulizia
Well, I'm so glad. It's so fun to talk with you
00:02:13
Claudia
Yeah.
00:02:16
Jennifer Gulizia
And it's end of November when we're recording this and it's so gloomy and dreary in Oregon. I always get excited and look forward to recording these sessions because it's so fun to connect with fellow gardeners, especially who can commiserate with the rain in Oregon right now.
00:02:28
Claudia
yeah
00:02:31
Claudia
Yeah, exactly. it's like It's like a little bit of light on these like dark, dark, dark, slow days.
00:02:37
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes, before we hit record, we were talking about the lighting that we're having to put on for those of you watching on YouTube, just because it's so dark outside and it's still daylight.
Claudia's Journey from Dentistry to Gardening
00:02:47
Jennifer Gulizia
So, yes, well, let's dig in here.
00:02:47
Claudia
know, it's crazy.
00:02:51
Jennifer Gulizia
And so for our listeners who may not be familiar with you, can you share a little bit with us about how In the Garden with Claudia first began?
00:02:55
Claudia
Yeah.
00:02:59
Claudia
Yeah, for sure. So and i always joke, like, how far do we want to go back? So it really started during the pandemic that I i felt, to be honest, I felt a little bit lost during that time just because I was making a big career change. I was in the process of applying to dental school and I was going to go to Oregon Health Science University. That was my My path was to become a dentist. It's something I was dreaming about since I was 13 years old. And then at that time, I was also working and running a research lab OHSU.
00:03:34
Claudia
And the pandemic hit and our lab got shut down and i got really into gardening. We were in the middle of buying our current house. And all I knew was i wanted to redo everything in our garden. I thought, okay, it would be kind of fun to record the process, but I had no intention of like doing like a full thing on YouTube. And it was really my husband, Sergey, that got into my head because I remember one day I was recording myself just putting together a container and like talking through the process. And he's like, I think you're really good at this and I think you should do something with it. And so you know cut to starting YouTube.
00:04:14
Claudia
and you know Instagram and all of that social media, i just was like, you know what? I'm going to completely redo our garden. i have so many stories about my failures growing flowers in the beginning and it's it's really funny to
Gardening Experiences and Evolution
00:04:27
Claudia
look back at.
00:04:28
Claudia
And this was only like four years ago and here we are today. And so you know it was just like a way to be creative and to share my learning and journey and journey with people And I thought, well, if if one person can get inspired by this and then they can go out and do it, then i think I've done something great.
00:04:45
Claudia
So and that's kind of how it started. It started out as like a passion that got out of control. and So now we can't stop.
00:04:52
Jennifer Gulizia
It happens quickly.
00:04:53
Claudia
Yeah.
00:04:53
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that. So, okay, let me get this straight. You've only been gardening for four years.
00:04:59
Claudia
I would say, yeah, like five five years. Before that, I was growing. i was really into lilies, especially like the Casablanca lilies. And I only had like a little space to grow flowers and things that I love. And everything was in a container. So we had figs and lilies and then like a little patch of sunflowers.
00:05:18
Claudia
And so and I think that was in... I mean, i don't even remember, but like serious gardening, I would say started like five years ago.
Designing a Dream Garden
00:05:27
Claudia
Like when I actually started to like, okay, this is how you dig a hole to plant a tree. This is how you do things. And then i you know, I'm a research by nature. i graduated with a biology major. And so I love anything nature related, anything science. And so I really did a deep dive into research and as I was learning about gardening. So it really took up a lot of my time and I really got into like the nitty gritty of it.
00:05:54
Claudia
so yeah.
00:05:56
Jennifer Gulizia
That is so fun. Okay, so paint a picture of your backyard for us.
00:06:01
Claudia
Yeah. So, so our whole property is just like a tinge over a quarter of an acre.
00:06:07
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:06:07
Claudia
And so we have to be kind of creative in how we garden. So the backyard is probably like my main playing space. And I wanted to grow flowers like a farmer, but in the garden setting. i know i like i knew I wanted have low-growing beds because I wanted to be able to like see my she into my backyard. This was before we started remodeling our house, but I knew ahead of time that I was going to put in a 16-foot slider in my kitchen window going out. So I wanted to be able to see my full garden. And see things kind of low and not like have anything super raised. So our main cut flower garden takes up a bulk of our backyard. And then the surrounding border is where we really got excited about trees. And so we started planting densely. And if any of you have ever seen my garden, you're going to say you have too many trees. And it's probably true. But You know, you just maintain them and they'll they'll be fine. So we have a like pretty a pretty big border of trees and mixed shrubs and perennials and annuals. And so it almost feels like you're walking and you're kind of like in a little almost like it feels like a big garden room. And then when you come through our side garden, which is a project that I'm very excited to tackle starting this winter, probably. It opens up into this kind of lawn area, and then you have the cut flower garden, which, again, is like the main attraction for me in the backyard. So we have low-growing beds. we have We have seven beds. They're four feet wide, 16 feet long. They're a little bit wider because of the the wood that we used. And so it has a little bit of formal feel to because it's –
00:07:47
Claudia
There's edging around at the cut flower garden and there's gravel. So there is a sense of formality, but it's not really a formal garden. But I grow for production, so I had to be methodical about how I set up that place.
00:08:03
Jennifer Gulizia
It sounds amazing. What kind of flowers are you growing?
00:08:06
Claudia
So, mostly dahlias. I love, love dahlias. Like I can't, yeah, I can't turn it off. And so I get so excited that I get to call you my friend and like all of the dahlia farmers.
00:08:19
Claudia
I'm like, oh my gosh, I feel like I made it. I'm in the circle these amazing farmers.
00:08:22
Jennifer Gulizia
but
00:08:23
Claudia
And I'm like, how did I get here? i don't know, but I don't want to leave. So I think dahlias are my main squeeze. So they're my main girls in the garden. and then i love zinnias.
00:08:34
Claudia
I'm really, really into zinnias right now. And then we dedicate one bed to a mixed bed. So that's where we get to grow like zinnias. cosmos, caviosa, phlox.
00:08:46
Claudia
We did forget-me-nots. We did, what else did we do? Gosh, we did such a variety of like different flowers and I plant everything so tightly. So like I really, I'm a max, like what is it?
00:08:58
Claudia
Maxillist? No. When you just, when you maximize the space, I forget the word. Anyways, so I just try to squeeze in as many flowers as I can in the space that I have. So that one bed is always like fun because I'll do like Celosia and just every year try something new to see what I really love and like what brings joy to me.
00:09:19
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, I love that. OK, so dahlias are your main crop in your garden.
00:09:23
Claudia
Yeah.
00:09:23
Jennifer Gulizia
And I said in the intro, you're growing zone 8B. You're just outside of Portland, is that correct?
00:09:29
Claudia
Yeah, yeah, we're in Beaverton. And I always say Portland because nobody knows what Beaverton is. It's a Beaverton.
00:09:36
Jennifer Gulizia
You're the opposite side of Portland as me. There's about a probably an hour and a half distance from the two of us.
00:09:39
Claudia
Yeah.
00:09:41
Claudia
That's right. That's right. Yep, exactly.
00:09:43
Jennifer Gulizia
One of these days, we'll visit each other's gardens.
00:09:45
Claudia
Exactly. I cannot wait to come to the new farm. I'm dying to see it.
00:09:49
Jennifer Gulizia
Maybe wait a few months when it's not small in mud.
00:09:51
Claudia
yeah
00:09:54
Claudia
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
00:09:56
Jennifer Gulizia
So your growing season is probably just a little bit longer than mine.
Microclimates and Soil Improvement
00:10:00
Jennifer Gulizia
You can start planting your dahlias what time of year?
00:10:00
Claudia
Yeah.
00:10:18
Claudia
But the way I want to combat that this next year is to plant them even more shallow and then just mound up the soil as they start to come up.
00:10:42
Claudia
so I'm going to try to plant them a little bit ahead of time. So maybe like by mid-April, I want to be able to have our dahlias in the ground.
00:10:48
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:10:50
Claudia
Yeah. Yeah. We'll see how that goes. As long as we don't get any like wacky temperature drops, but like, I feel like we're also like in a microclimate in my backyard always feels warmer than it is.
00:11:03
Claudia
like even in my neighbor's garden, it's really odd. So like those microclimates really play a big role in the way I decide, like, when am I going to be putting out my flower starts or anything like that? And we also grow a lot of flowers in our landscape. That is one of the biggest things I love to do is incorporate cut flowers in the actual landscape.
00:11:22
Jennifer Gulizia
Is that in your backyard space or do you have a front area that you do that?
00:11:25
Claudia
Yes.
00:11:26
Jennifer Gulizia
Where is that?
00:11:26
Claudia
Yeah, yeah. So yeah, i completely skipped over the front yard, but we do have a really beautiful front yard that is more landscaped. Again, a lot of trees. We are playing around with moving a lot of things this next year, which we're excited about, but I always leave room for cut flowers especially things like zinnias and cosmos those play really well in the landscape and i just feel like you can never have too many flowers and if you don't have like an area for production i promise you tucking in dahlias and zinnias it's going to add beauty into the landscape but it's also going to be a way for you to have cut flowers especially with those cut and come again right so they're constantly blooming for you So instead of just using bedding annuals like your typical petunias, then I would say try a cut flower instead because that's always really fun. I love a bedding annual too because of that color show. But I do sneak in flowers everywhere.
00:12:26
Jennifer Gulizia
There's always room for those, especially Cosmos. It seems like they can just work themselves through everything.
00:12:31
Claudia
Yeah, exactly. They'll go'll find a way. They'll find a way to bloom and they'll tower everything else you have in there.
00:12:38
Jennifer Gulizia
so going back to buying this house, did you see this house and say, this is going to be the perfect spot for me to grow a garden?
00:12:38
Claudia
Yeah. Yeah.
00:12:44
Jennifer Gulizia
Or did you buy the house and then say, I should put a garden here?
00:12:48
Claudia
Yeah. Well, funny story. We actually bought this house from my mother-in-law.
00:12:52
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, okay.
00:12:52
Claudia
So yeah. So that was kind of a blessing because we were able to, we we knew we wanted to gut this house completely. And just to paint a picture, it's a one level ranch style house.
00:13:01
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh,
00:13:03
Claudia
It has five bedrooms and four baths.
00:13:06
Jennifer Gulizia
wow
00:13:07
Claudia
Yeah, it's a great size. It's a great starter. I would say it's probably bigger than a starter home that we probably needed. But because we're able to kind of set the price and feel comfortable with what we wanted to pay, that gave us a budget to redo the entire garden. and then we started this.
00:13:25
Claudia
remodel in our house that we're coming up on three years right now. And it's been, it's been a roller coaster. know, thankfully we don't have kids. Cause I think that would have been like an added element for, you know, family planning right now. So we're like at the tail end of, of this remodel. So I knew like this was going to be the space where I started cut flower journey. And it kind of just happened perfectly because i knew the space I knew,
00:13:52
Claudia
Like I know the soil, the soil wasn't great. So I was kind of like mentally prepared for what we would have to do to get the garden and the soil up to par for what we wanted to do So it was nice because I had kind of a head start of how this climate in this area behaved for many seasons. So it worked out really great for us that way.
00:14:12
Jennifer Gulizia
That's amazing. It's always neat when you can keep a house in the family like that.
00:14:13
Claudia
Yeah.
00:14:16
Claudia
Yeah, for sure. For sure. It's been, it's like, it's been stressful, but it's also been quite a big blessing. You know, the days that I get irritated about things not being done, but I'm also like, how lucky are we that we got to do what we got to do? So, yeah.
00:14:32
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that mindset as I was digging dahlias today and it's taking four times longer than normal because of our new soil that's poor and has clay and we let clover go that we should not have.
00:14:36
Claudia
Yeah.
00:14:41
Claudia
Yeah. Yeah.
00:14:44
Jennifer Gulizia
It's just taking forever. And I'm like, okay, I found myself complaining. And then I'm like, how lucky am I that I get to dig up all of these dahlias that are producing all of these tubers.
00:14:52
Claudia
Yes.
00:14:53
Jennifer Gulizia
And then my mindset just totally changed.
00:14:56
Claudia
Totally.
00:14:57
Jennifer Gulizia
So I love that you said that.
00:14:57
Claudia
Totally. Yeah, yeah. It's definitely something I like to like tell myself if I'm tired or if I'm this, I just think, okay, what a blessing that you're tired doing the things that you love.
00:15:07
Claudia
You know, like I just, that's the mentality i we have to have, especially in what we're trying to do you know, juggling so much.
00:15:08
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes.
00:15:16
Claudia
It's just, it's easy to let like those intrusive negative thoughts come in. So I just, I always try to just be as positive as I possibly can.
00:15:26
Jennifer Gulizia
That's such a great mindset to have.
00:15:26
Claudia
Yeah.
00:15:27
Jennifer Gulizia
I want to go back. You mentioned that the soil wasn't great. What did you do to heal the soil or to improve it so that you could have such a beautiful garden?
00:15:31
Claudia
Yes.
00:15:34
Claudia
Oh, Jen, I just prayed. Okay.
00:15:40
Jennifer Gulizia
I wish it was that easy.
00:15:41
Claudia
I know, right? So like probably what your soil is, it was very compact clay. And here's the thing, clay actually does have nutrients in it.
00:15:53
Claudia
But when it's so compact, it's hard for plants to access those nutrients, Right.
00:15:53
Jennifer Gulizia
can
00:15:58
Claudia
So we tried a few different things. We did quite a bit of lime into into our our like holes that we were planting new things.
00:16:08
Claudia
We did gypsum. But really what we found what worked the best was compost. And instead of using mulch, we used compost for several years as our mulch.
00:16:19
Claudia
And it actually has a really beautiful finish. It's very fluffy.
00:16:24
Jennifer Gulizia
Aha.
00:16:25
Claudia
And so it actually lasts a long time and it retains the color really well. And then we also use a lot of Biotone starter fertilizer from Espoma. And that really has transformed our garden and our plants.
00:16:37
Claudia
let me tell you what, that like charges up your soil for anything new that you're planting. So I'm like a big, firm believer of Espoma, especially their Biotone Strider Fertilizer that has worked wonders for us.
00:16:51
Claudia
And I'll be honest, in the beginning, like I didn't, I was just trying everything. I did Miracle-Gro. would literally like dig a hole with a shovel and it it felt like a workout, right?
00:17:03
Claudia
would have to use like picks to just really go at it Now we have an auger, which is like the best thing ever.
00:17:09
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, amazing.
00:17:10
Claudia
recommend for making an auger. Like it's a good investment. But anyways, so we would just dig these holes and then I would put like miracle grow garden soil in there and just like beg that something good would happen.
00:17:23
Claudia
And then I learned about Espoma and then I went down You know, the rabbit hole, just reading and reading and reading. And the science made sense to me. Everything made sense to me. And I was like, OK, I made the switch. And ever since, everything has just been growing so well in our garden. So, yeah, I think if if you are buying a house and you're starting a garden or, you know, a farm, as you probably know this. I think compost is going to be like the number one thing first. Investing in good, good compost has really made a difference for us.
00:17:55
Claudia
So I would highly recommend anybody do like do your research on different companies because, I think I don't always think some of those companies have best practices. So it's really important to know like how your compost is being made and where it's coming from and the sources that they're using. i think that also makes a really big difference. So yeah, I would recommend that first, like compost and then bring in your biotone starter fertilizer. Those two combined have been like the heroes for our soil. Now our soil is just like very lofty and fun to dig into. There's some areas, like we just planted a new planting strip and that hasn't been planted in years. So it was definitely like, okay, we know what to do now. We came in with compost, we came with the biotone and now the plants that we've planted there are doing fine. So, you know, it just takes time. It takes time to time and patience, but it'll get there. It'll get there.
00:18:55
Claudia
Yeah.
00:18:55
Jennifer Gulizia
That's one of the hardest things. a friend is a landscape architect, and she once said to me, she said, plants, first they sleep, then they creep, and then they leap with a three-year period.
00:19:07
Jennifer Gulizia
So i'm trying to tell myself that.
00:19:07
Claudia
Yeah.
00:19:08
Jennifer Gulizia
I'm like, okay, the farm this year is sleeping. Next year, hopefully it's going to creep. And then by year three, hopefully it'll leap.
00:19:13
Claudia
Yeah. Yeah.
00:19:16
Claudia
yeah And it happens so fast.
00:19:17
Jennifer Gulizia
But
00:19:18
Claudia
Like all of our trees are leaping. I'm like, oh my gosh, wait. didn't think about this.
00:19:21
Jennifer Gulizia
that's amazing.
00:19:23
Claudia
but Yeah.
00:19:25
Jennifer Gulizia
The compost, though, what you said about that is such an important piece because at our last location that we were growing, I brought in some compost and I just brought in what was cheap. It was organic, but it was cheap.
00:19:37
Jennifer Gulizia
And we had lots of problems with it. I had fusarium in it. I mean, I planted multiple rows where i lost status.
00:19:37
Claudia
the Yeah.
00:19:42
Claudia
and
00:19:45
Jennifer Gulizia
I lost lisianthus. I lost, I didn't lose dahlias, but the dahlias didn't do great in it.
00:19:50
Claudia
Okay.
00:19:51
Jennifer Gulizia
But I lost a whole bunch of plants.
00:19:52
Claudia
Great.
00:19:53
Jennifer Gulizia
So this time around, I was like, okay, I need good compost. And I had rexias come in all the way from Eugene, which is about four hours from here, but they deliver all over Oregon and Washington.
00:19:57
Claudia
Yeah.
00:20:00
Claudia
Oh, wow. Okay. Okay.
00:20:05
Jennifer Gulizia
And I didn't have money to put compost down
00:20:05
Claudia
Great.
00:20:08
Jennifer Gulizia
on everything.
00:20:08
Claudia
Okay.
00:20:09
Jennifer Gulizia
So we were working with an agronomist because we're at such scale. And so we put amendments down. But as I'm digging now, the areas that did get compost, it'll be like, I'm digging through clay.
00:20:20
Jennifer Gulizia
It's like four shovels through to get one tuber out. And then all of a sudden you put your shovel through and you're like, oh, this is where there's compost.
00:20:28
Claudia
Yeah.
00:20:29
Jennifer Gulizia
Yeah.
00:20:29
Claudia
It's so nice. Right. It's so different. And you're right. It is like, it is an expense, right? It was in like, when we started this, when we started guarding, I wasn't working because our lab got shut down.
00:20:40
Claudia
So I had to like, really think about what, like, where can I spend my money?
00:20:41
Jennifer Gulizia
Right.
00:20:44
Claudia
Like, what was the most important thing?
00:20:45
Jennifer Gulizia
right
00:20:47
Claudia
And I am the type of girl that will always look for a good deal. So, you know, anytime a plant was on sale, I was like, i don't know what I'm going to do with it. i'm just going to buy it. But like that initial investment, yeah, it was the compost and it was a lot of money for us, you know, just to buy, you know, a truckload of compost. And we just took a leap of faith and luckily it worked. And, you know, here we are today. We still use compost quite a bit in terms of like using that as our mulch. This year we we did use mulch because we we had quite...
00:21:17
Claudia
we had several, several inches of compost and we felt like, okay, everything looks good now. So we brought in like a a thin layer of mulch this year and, you know, the garden did really well with it as well, but compost is going to be your best friend.
00:21:30
Jennifer Gulizia
It's always one of those hard things to spend money on because you're like, I've got this heap of black dirt. And I'm like, OK, remember, it's black gold. It's it's it's feeding the but biology underground.
00:21:38
Claudia
Yeah.
00:21:40
Jennifer Gulizia
But at the time, it's one of those things where you you can't see the effects immediately.
00:21:40
Claudia
That's right. Mm-hmm.
00:21:44
Claudia
Mm-hmm. Right.
00:21:46
Jennifer Gulizia
But it does make such a difference.
00:21:46
Claudia
Exactly. It does. You know, I met Dan from Dan's Dahlias. absolutely adore him.
00:21:52
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes.
00:21:53
Claudia
I love him so much. We did a we did an interview with him last year. And we were off camera. We were just talking about like the compost. I have a habit. Every time I visit a farm, I touch the soil.
00:22:04
Claudia
Like literally like get on my knees.
00:22:05
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh,
00:22:06
Claudia
I'm like, let me just see your soil. Because everybody's soil is so different.
00:22:10
Jennifer Gulizia
yes.
00:22:10
Jennifer Gulizia
Uh
00:22:11
Claudia
And so his was very like rich.
00:22:13
Claudia
And he said he uses cow manure. And like, and he noticed his doll, his dolly is loved it. And so he, I think one year they just brought in like truckloads of it and they planted like almost directly into it and it, they did great.
00:22:20
Jennifer Gulizia
huh.
00:22:29
Claudia
And i was like, oh, that's very interesting.
00:22:29
Jennifer Gulizia
Wow.
00:22:31
Claudia
So I'd love to learn more about that from him. But yeah, I don't know if it's cheaper to bring manure in. I have no idea when you are growing at scale, like you, like, does it make sense to do that?
00:22:42
Claudia
I don't know, but I thought that was very interesting.
00:22:45
Jennifer Gulizia
Well, I know that we constantly, because our new farm is out in the country, we'll have neighbors and I'm doing neighbors in quotation marks because they're like several miles down the road, but they'll be like, we have goats.
00:22:55
Jennifer Gulizia
If you want to come get the manure, it's all yours.
00:22:57
Claudia
Yeah.
00:22:58
Jennifer Gulizia
And I'm like, well, how am I going to shovel it and transport it I don't have the bandwidth right now, but you can often get manure
00:22:58
Claudia
Yes.
00:23:03
Claudia
Yeah, yeah.
Scaling Up the Flower Business
00:23:05
Jennifer Gulizia
for free.
00:23:05
Jennifer Gulizia
I'm finding.
00:23:06
Claudia
Yeah, yeah, for sure. People want to give it away.
00:23:09
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes.
00:23:10
Claudia
but that's a good like that's a good source. I mean, chicken manure, obviously, I mean, doesn't smell great, but, you know, that that does do a lot for poor soil as well. So we I don't think we've ever had to use chicken manure. We do have some. But, you know, with the biotone and the compost, things have been have been loving that.
00:23:29
Jennifer Gulizia
That's awesome. Yeah.
00:23:30
Claudia
Yeah, yeah.
00:23:30
Jennifer Gulizia
and It's just such a process, but it it really does make a difference.
00:23:35
Claudia
It does. does. It does.
00:23:37
Jennifer Gulizia
So you're five years in now on your garden.
00:23:39
Claudia
Yeah, I would say five years and then really growing flowers on a more serious like way. I would say probably like three years.
00:23:51
Claudia
I would say like truly understanding how flowers work.
00:23:51
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:23:54
Claudia
I and i did take Florette's course and that was very helpful. That was one of my Christmas christmas gifts one year was the the course. And that was a tremendous help in just learning all of like the behind the scenes of how, you know, a farmer grow flowers to scale and then I had to just bring that back down into my small space and how do I do it without compromising my garden space because I think even when we have we do have a hope to buy land that's our goal for in the next like year or two is find some acres to scale up but I will always want to have like a garden or like a farm within a garden type of feel For me, that like I can't say I love one more than the other. you know they For me, they're equally important. I just want to be able to scale way up in terms of flower production. So yeah, i would say i would say about three years for sure, like flowers and then yeah gardening for five years.
00:24:57
Jennifer Gulizia
So you talk about scaling up, are you selling your flowers or what do you do with your flowers right now from your garden?
00:25:03
Claudia
Yeah, it's funny. There's this really cute quote. always forget how it goes, but my my husband always says it to me, like, when you love a flower so much that you don't want to cut it. And I feel like that is me. Like, I just love looking at all of my flowers. I just, I'll walk by them and I'll just talk to them. Like, how are you today? Like, you're all blooming beautifully. Good job. And so i do cut flowers from bouquets.
00:25:26
Claudia
Probably three years ago, I started doing like free bouquets for our neighbors, nurses, nursing homes, our family. a lot of my uncles are in the retirement facility world.
00:25:37
Claudia
And so I would bring like little bouquets to the residents. And that was always really fun, especially during that time. I literally will put like bouquets in my gorilla cart and walk around my neighborhood and like knock on people's.
00:25:49
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, I love it.
00:25:50
Claudia
OK, because i love I like you have to I want to share my flowers. You know, I want to share and I didn't have a system set up where I could sell them.
00:25:55
Jennifer Gulizia
Yeah.
00:25:58
Claudia
So that's what I did. And then this year I actually started selling them for the first time. I i have a corporate job. So that is something that, you know, that i do have a regular nine to five on top of our YouTube world. And I just made a post in our internal communication app saying, hey, I, you know, grow flowers, blah, blah, blah. These are my bouquets. And then within like a minute or two, i had 15 orders and I was like crying, Jen. I was like, people want to buy my flowers and my bouquets. And I was it was like one of the happiest days of my life. Truly, truly like one of the happiest days of my life. And, you know, so I made all of these really beautiful bunches and I brought them into work.
00:26:42
Claudia
Total, total like mess, if I'm being completely honest, because transporting flowers, I don't know how you guys do it, how the farmers do it.
00:26:50
Jennifer Gulizia
My car smells really bad, I'll tell you that.
00:26:53
Claudia
it It was difficult life because we have I have a truck. And so like the water was flashing everywhere and the paper that I wrapped them in got wet. So I had to rewrap them at work in the parking lot.
00:27:05
Claudia
And I'm just like, you know what? we're We're just going to pivot. We're going to do it. It's fine. And so I did start selling them. And I really love that. The goal this year was to have a flower stand, but because of our filming schedule got so out of control, we just didn't get around to it.
Connecting and Creating Opportunities
00:27:20
Claudia
But I do hope to sell Dahlia tubers this year.
00:27:20
Jennifer Gulizia
Totally.
00:27:23
Claudia
we We still have to dig up our Dahlias and see how they look. And I'll probably actually pick your brain about selling online after this call, because I have a lot of questions. I know Oregon and Washington are different and A lot of our Washington friends have told me what they do, but it's like, okay, what what did the Oregon girls do? Like, what do we have to do? That's different from them. But definitely at least like a small in-person sale, I think i would I would do. Maybe team up with a couple of the other girls who do sales at their barn or their farms. I'm thinking something like that as like an introduction.
00:27:57
Claudia
It feels very scary to me.
00:27:58
Jennifer Gulizia
Maybe you can come join me at the farm.
00:28:00
Claudia
Yes, I would love that.
00:28:01
Jennifer Gulizia
I'm thinking about doing an in-person one this year because we don't have a good spot to ship.
00:28:04
Claudia
Oh, really?
00:28:04
Jennifer Gulizia
So yeah.
00:28:04
Claudia
Okay, then yeah, let's talk about that. I think that would be much fun. And you live in like the funnest place to visit. Oh, I love the gorge. It's so beautiful out there. So people can make like a day of it.
00:28:15
Claudia
You know, you can come out, explore the town, come to Jan's Farm, buy tubers, and then go back home.
00:28:16
Jennifer Gulizia
Totally.
00:28:22
Jennifer Gulizia
Walk through the mud.
00:28:22
Claudia
It'd be really fun.
00:28:23
Claudia
Yeah. Yeah.
00:28:26
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, hopefully it's not money by then. But yeah, that's exciting.
00:28:27
Claudia
Yeah. Hmm.
00:28:29
Jennifer Gulizia
So with your, you have a long-term goal of buying land and is that your goal to become a farmer now?
00:28:35
Claudia
Yeah, yeah, I do. I do think that's like the trajectory that I i see myself. I think like, again, being a gardener and filming that journey, i think ideally our dream would be to buy land that's like raw land and develop it into a beautiful garden. And, you know, open that up to people to come visit and then the farm side of it, you know, so I don't know. i have a vision in my mind of what that would look like. And I have big dreams. I'm a big dreamer. And i know what I feel I know what I want it to feel like. I just don't know how we get there. Right. Like, I know it's going all come come together. but yeah, I eventually I do think I like flower farming is going to be like a big part of our life and like kind of the path that I want to take.
00:29:24
Jennifer Gulizia
That's exciting. Well, I can say you're doing the right steps.
00:29:25
Claudia
Yeah.
00:29:27
Jennifer Gulizia
Like if you have clarity now, that's the first piece is I always say, like for me, when I lost our growing space, I was, I thought that was the end.
00:29:29
Claudia
Yeah.
00:29:32
Claudia
Yeah.
00:29:35
Claudia
Right.
00:29:35
Jennifer Gulizia
I'm like, I don't want to give up flowers. What I do. And that was why I hired a coach at the time.
00:29:38
Claudia
Yeah.
00:29:40
Jennifer Gulizia
And the one thing she said is she goes, what do you really want?
00:29:40
Claudia
Yeah.
00:29:42
Jennifer Gulizia
You have to get crystal clear on that. You don't have to know all the steps to get there, but if you just know that one thing, and then you keep working towards that, every step will get you there.
00:29:44
Claudia
Yeah.
00:29:47
Claudia
Exactly.
00:29:50
Claudia
Mm-hmm.
00:29:53
Jennifer Gulizia
And then all of a sudden you'll look back and go, that's where I had to go through all of that to get me to that spot. So,
00:29:58
Claudia
I feel so validated in you saying that because that's exactly how I feel. Like I know what I want it to be. i just, I don't know every single step to get there, but I'm going to get there. Like there's no way I'm not going to do this. So I'm so excited about that. And by the way,
00:30:14
Claudia
When that happened, when you lost your groin space, i don't think we were friends yet, but I had been following your journey ahead ahead of like you and I connecting. And I honestly, I think I even sent you a message one time, like I am praying for you because i totally...
00:30:30
Claudia
believe in everything that you're wanting to do and that you are doing for your community, for the flower community. And I was like, something really special is going to happen for this girl. Like, I don't know what that is yet, but something really great is going to happen.
00:30:40
Jennifer Gulizia
Thank you.
00:30:42
Claudia
And look, it did, you know, and like and i and it's fun because we all get to witness it from the beginning like you're sharing from the beginning and i think that is so exciting just to see how your farm is going to grow and flourish and what you're going to do next so it's really fun to watch yeah
00:31:02
Jennifer Gulizia
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. It's it's always interesting in looking back on those things because at the time I was so devastated and I had the mindset, why is this happening to me?
00:31:09
Claudia
yeah
00:31:11
Jennifer Gulizia
And I was angry because it was like, my job was ripped out for me, like or the space that I could do my job, it felt like was ripped out for me. But when I stepped back and I got clear, it was like that opportunity, like had I not lost that growing space, I would have never been pushed to find something else.
00:31:28
Claudia
Yeah. Yeah.
00:31:29
Jennifer Gulizia
And it also forced me to start the podcast because I thought that I was going to be disconnected from the industry.
00:31:33
Claudia
Yeah.
00:31:35
Jennifer Gulizia
So i'm like, I can't lose my connection to flowers. So I literally a month after finding out I was losing the growing space, that I'm going to do a podcast.
00:31:38
Claudia
There
00:31:42
Jennifer Gulizia
And it was to talk.
00:31:42
Claudia
you go.
00:31:43
Jennifer Gulizia
it It was because I talked to so many amazing people on this podcast. and the amazing listeners that listen to this podcast who reached out to me said, oh, have you listened to this? Have you seen this?
00:31:55
Jennifer Gulizia
That my mind said, well, if they're doing this, why can't I?
00:31:58
Claudia
Right.
00:31:58
Jennifer Gulizia
and it caused me to take that next step and then that next step. And then all of a sudden, one day i changed my Zillow search from two acres to 20 acres or to unlimited acres.
00:32:09
Jennifer Gulizia
And here's this 20 acre farm, because in my mind, I'd always said, I can't farm 20 acres.
00:32:11
Claudia
Yeah.
00:32:15
Claudia
right yeah
00:32:15
Jennifer Gulizia
because that's too much. But I was looking at two acre parcels that everyone in Portland was looking at to have a big green grass lawn.
00:32:19
Claudia
Yeah.
00:32:23
Claudia
Yeah. Right? Like, why?
00:32:25
Jennifer Gulizia
And so as soon as I changed that, the universe was like, here's a parcel that no one else wants that you can you can develop.
00:32:28
Claudia
Here you
00:32:33
Jennifer Gulizia
and it's amazing because it's a blank slate like you talked about, and we literally get to build it from the ground up.
00:32:36
Claudia
go.
00:32:38
Claudia
Yeah. And isn't that just magical?
00:32:39
Jennifer Gulizia
And so I'm Yes. So I heard something.
00:32:42
Claudia
Yeah.
00:32:43
Jennifer Gulizia
It was just, it was either this morning or last night. Gabby Bernstein said, when you're trying to manifest or create something, the universe has three answers for you.
00:32:48
Claudia
Mm-hmm.
00:32:53
Claudia
Yeah.
00:32:53
Jennifer Gulizia
It's either yes, not yet, or it's not a no. I don't think it was a no. It was something though, like it's a lesson, like it's either teaching you a lesson, it's giving you a gift or it's preparing you.
00:33:07
Claudia
I love that. Can we all just take a minute and take that in? Because I think we all need to hear that. That's so true.
00:33:13
Jennifer Gulizia
so
00:33:13
Claudia
That is so, so true. Oh my gosh, that is so true. Like I totally feel like that sometimes. There are a days where I'm like, why not me? Why am I not there yet? Why don't I have a farm yet?
00:33:24
Claudia
Why, why? why my god Ready?
00:33:26
Jennifer Gulizia
because the right one is not ready for you yet and it's so hard when you're in that spot and you're like well why not i want it now
00:33:29
Claudia
right. Yeah.
00:33:34
Claudia
Right. Yeah, i want it now. Exactly. But my ideas, it's going to be so great. Like, I can't wait for people to see.
Balancing Work and Passion
00:33:41
Claudia
Yeah, I this is like cathartic for me to hear that.
00:33:47
Jennifer Gulizia
So when you picture this farm, is it near you where you currently are? Are you open to going anywhere? What is your vision?
00:33:55
Claudia
Yeah. So funny enough, like we we toyed very, very briefly. We toyed with the idea of moving to like the Midwest for like a split second. i was like, what about Texas? I'm like, no, no, we can't go to Texas. We even thought about like upstate New York because there's really good land there for, you know, for affordable like it's affordable, you know, anywhere like in the West Coast, everything is so expensive here.
00:34:20
Claudia
Like the it's just so expensive to buy land up here. And we quickly realized, especially Sergey, that he cannot be anywhere where there's not salt water.
00:34:31
Claudia
So our friends ask, well, what about like living near a lake? And he was like, no, it has to be salt water, but we don't wanna live on the coastline. So I think our dream place is Washington.
00:34:40
Jennifer Gulizia
Mm-hmm.
00:34:43
Claudia
So we have been very diligent about looking at what's available up in Washington, up north. We love the Skadja area. i love the Skadja area so much. So like anywhere up there, I think is where...
00:34:58
Claudia
will I think we dream of end up being we could potentially maybe find something here in Oregon, but I think we want something new. We want something different, you know, and we want and we want to find a small community, too. Like we like the small town. we like that, like sense of community. I feel like we don't have that here. I love our neighbors.
00:35:18
Claudia
Great neighborhood. But I just want that like farm life community. And I think there's there's a very big presence of it up there. anywhere like that i think is where where we hope to be yeah
00:35:32
Jennifer Gulizia
That's exciting. So you mentioned that you have a corporate job and that's where you sold some of your flowers this year. So you are literally juggling your YouTube creation, being a gardener, like, cause you don't have just a small garden with a couple of raised beds. You have a full scale garden that demands a lot of your time and you have a corporate job.
00:35:55
Jennifer Gulizia
How do you juggle all of that?
00:35:57
Claudia
I don't, you don't sleep. Like you just, something's gotta give. No, it's going back to like what we're saying, like when you really love something and you're tired all the time, I just keep telling myself like, again, how lucky am I that I get to do this?
00:36:11
Claudia
And my mom even, she'll tell me like, don't ever complain about being too busy or too tired because you're doing things that you love. Like just, you know,
00:36:18
Jennifer Gulizia
Thank you.
00:36:19
Claudia
Say your prayers for for for having all of that. So to be honest, it's very hard because my corporate job is demanding and it's a regular, you know, eight to five Monday through Friday. Some weeks I feel like I work 50 hours. Sometimes it's a little bit slower because we work with, you know, different projects.
00:36:54
Jennifer Gulizia
Wow.
00:36:56
Claudia
And we've been doing that for a little over a year and now, full time. So I feel like I've been on YouTube full time for a year. And it's really thanks to my friend Janie again at Dig Plant Water Repeat.
00:37:06
Claudia
She really got into my mind about it when she came to our garden. But anyways, so it is a lot of work because I film and I edit my own videos too. So it's all us. And so I would say between my corporate job and YouTube, I probably put in at least 70 hours a week.
00:37:22
Claudia
in terms of working, filming, and my job and all of that. Luckily, my husband, Sergey, is really supportive. And so he will get things set up. you know like If I'm doing a specific project that day and I might need my table, I need all of you know i need these vases because I'm going to make an arrangement. I need this. I need that. Like he's really good about like, what can I do to get you set up so you can just start filming? So that is very helpful. Like having a partner that supports your dream and can help. That's great. I'm just very particular about how I want my videos to look. That's why I choose to do my own editing. But the days that we post our videos, I'll be honest, most of those days I don't go to bed to at least one o'clock.
00:38:05
Claudia
in the morning and then I had to get up by seven, you know, to start my job at eight.
00:38:06
Jennifer Gulizia
wow
00:38:10
Claudia
So you do sacrifice, a you know, quite a bit of your time. Sometimes it's not that demanding because, you know, you have more daylight and you have a little bit more flexibility, but especially in the wintertime, it's a lot more challenging for me because we, yeah I can't always just leave my job during the day to go film a video.
00:38:28
Claudia
Sometimes I can, and then I can make up those hours after, after hours when it's dark. But it is very demanding. It is. But again, it's doing what we love to get to where we want to be.
00:38:39
Claudia
So, yeah, I don't I don't want to stop. And eventually I think YouTube will be our full my full time job. We're just not there yet. Yeah.
00:38:50
Jennifer Gulizia
So with the YouTube, you said your husband inspired you or mode encouraged you to start this.
00:38:56
Claudia
Yeah. Yeah.
00:38:58
Jennifer Gulizia
Did he have a background in video or how did you guys decide that we're going to go in on YouTube?
00:39:03
Claudia
No, we had no idea what we were doing. We we literally learned like as we went. so He told me we were very honest with each other because he was also working on his master's degree and he had his own career goals. And so we were very clear that like, OK, if you do this, like you have to learn how to edit. You know, you have to learn how to put together a workflow when you're editing like that's on you. He did the research for like buying all of the equipment that we needed. So in the beginning, I'll be honest, and you don't have to do this if you start YouTube.
00:39:37
Claudia
We spent thousands of dollars on cameras and mics and like what what's the best thing and, you know, all of the silly stuff. I promise you, you could do it on your phone. So many big YouTubers do it on their phone and you would never
YouTube as a Creative Platform
00:39:49
Claudia
know. And their footage is great. So you don't need to spend a ton of money.
00:39:54
Claudia
on equipment. Just good audio is going to be the most important thing. And then we just really started. Like i I quickly learned that everybody has their own way of editing and filming a video on YouTube. and there's always going to be crossover because we're all gardeners. There's only one way to film me planting a tree or a rose or talking to, you know what I mean? Like,
00:40:16
Claudia
there's going to be a crossover. But what I found helpful is watching other YouTube channels. So, like, uh, just to see like the angles that they film in.
00:40:26
Claudia
So it had nothing to do with gardening or flower growing. It was just other YouTubers that I watched. Like there was one guy who reviews camera equipment, but I love the way he edited his video.
00:40:38
Claudia
So like, I started to pick up tricks there. And then I went on YouTube to learn how to edit videos. That's how I learned. So yeah, we there was a lot of this ups and down how we got there.
00:40:45
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:40:51
Jennifer Gulizia
What advice would you give to a gardener or flower farmer who's listening today that's either started a YouTube channel or thinking about starting a YouTube channel? What should they know?
00:41:01
Claudia
Yeah. So I'll be honest. I'm a hype girl and I'm always going to hype you up. Not a lot of people in this community is like that. I'm being completely honest. And so that's a little bit disheartening. So I think focus on what you love and stay in your own lane Imposter syndrome is very real. So do not compare yourself to other people. i was doing that for such a long time. That's why in the beginning I wasn't consistent because I always thought everything had to be perfect before I filmed anything. and That's not true. People want to see...
00:41:33
Claudia
the real, like raw, everything that's going on. So if it's messy, if you have a bunch of pots, if you have a bunch of trees or plant, like whatever, just show that because that's real life. And so don't think you have to be perfect or you have to look a certain way or have a certain amount of property or flat, like whatever. If you want to do it, then do it. And don't watch other YouTubers in your in your niche because you're going to compare yourself all of the time. Don't do it. Like I just, I don't watch any other gardeners anymore because I just, like I wish everybody well. I frankly just don't care what anybody else is doing. I just want to do my own thing. And so just like have that focus. So that is the biggest advice I can give you just have a focus and just stay in your lane and like
00:42:21
Claudia
you know, do what you wanna do. And don't try to reinvent the wheel either. People always think you have to be creative in this. It's about what's already out there, but how do you put your own spin on it? So don't be shy that like, oh, I was inspired by this person, but I'm gonna do it my way. We all do it. There's nothing like new to recreate, you know, to create out there. So it's not about copying people, but it's about taking an idea or something that you see somewhere and then you make it into your own.
00:42:48
Claudia
And so don't overthink it and do it. Like if you want to do it, you should just do it. And it's going to suck in the beginning. You're going have like 10 viewers. then it slowly starts picking up and picking up. And, you know, yeah, you your your your channel will start growing. So just just do it.
00:43:06
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that it's almost, well, it is kind of, it can be a journal. Like it I see some people call it their vlog instead of a blog.
00:43:12
Claudia
Yeah.
00:43:13
Jennifer Gulizia
Because I started out blogging and now I'm like, I wish I would have started out just telling the stories instead of having to write them down.
00:43:14
Claudia
Great. Yeah.
00:43:19
Jennifer Gulizia
It would be so much easier.
00:43:20
Claudia
I do too. Yeah, because we're visual learners, you know, and I think that's what I think our industry has to recognize too. it's It's hard for me to sit down and read an article. It's really like my attention is just not there.
00:43:31
Claudia
But if I see Jen, if I see you walking around your farm just watching with your phone showing us, I'm like, oh, I want to see this. This I can like tune in and like get excited about.
00:43:42
Claudia
So don't be shy from like social media because one, it's free marketing and it's a good way to put yourself out there.
00:43:42
Jennifer Gulizia
Right.
00:43:48
Claudia
And if you have something of value to sell, like that's the way you build your audience and just connecting with people. I'm a people person, so I love to connect with people. So i I love to share my little, like what I'm doing in my own little corner of the world.
00:44:04
Claudia
And I love my audience. I do. My subscribers are the best. At least I have the best subscribers. I love them so much. They're great.
00:44:11
Jennifer Gulizia
No, when you say you love your subscribers, i I don't fully understand YouTube. So do you have connection?
00:44:16
Claudia
Yeah.
00:44:17
Jennifer Gulizia
Do you actually talk to the people that watch your channel or do you engage with them?
00:44:19
Claudia
So. Yeah, I engage in the comments.
00:44:24
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:44:24
Claudia
don't always get to reply to every single comment that comes in. But I do see I read every single one of them. And so and you start to see like your regular subscribers that tune into your videos, you know, on the days that I post.
00:44:39
Claudia
I post every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday morning.
00:44:42
Jennifer Gulizia
Wow.
00:44:42
Claudia
That's when videos go live. so you start to recognize the names, you know, and then sometimes they'll send me a message on Instagram and I've met so many of them at different local events that they drove out to just to meet me in person. And I thought, like,
00:44:59
Claudia
Why? Like how? Like how? It's so exciting, you know, and it's all of these amazing people online that you get to connect with. And so it's just like Instagram, but it's on YouTube. People comment and you get to connect with them that way. And it's really fun. Like I i truly love meeting, meeting them in person, but just also talking to them in the comments section. It's really, really fun to learn, you know, to learn from them as well.
00:45:24
Jennifer Gulizia
That's great. Can I ask you a few more YouTube questions?
00:45:26
Claudia
Oh, please. Anything. I'm an open book. I promise.
00:45:29
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:45:29
Claudia
I'm an open book.
00:45:31
Jennifer Gulizia
So you mentioned that audio is important.
00:45:33
Claudia
Yeah.
00:45:33
Jennifer Gulizia
How do people record with good audio? Because I mean, my cell phone's right here.
00:45:36
Claudia
Yes.
00:45:37
Jennifer Gulizia
If I'm just walking around my farm, I actually can get really good video, but I'm in the Columbia Gorge.
00:45:39
Claudia
Yes.
00:45:43
Claudia
Right.
00:45:45
Jennifer Gulizia
For those of you that don't know, we're called the windsurfing capital of the world for a reason.
00:45:45
Claudia
Right.
00:45:48
Jennifer Gulizia
It is so windy here. So I have posted videos and people will comment, I can't hear anything because it's so windy.
00:45:54
Claudia
Yeah.
00:45:55
Jennifer Gulizia
And I'm like, I've got a muffler on my phone and it's still terrible. How do you get good audio?
00:46:00
Claudia
Yeah. So good audio. So you have to invest into a good mic system. The first one I ever had was Rode, R-O-D-E. And that one, yeah, that one worked good for for a while until I switched to DJI.
00:46:08
Jennifer Gulizia
I use those, yeah.
00:46:14
Claudia
And that's my preferred one. So it's like it comes in a little box and they're two little mics and you just clip them on. Really take time to understand how that one works, because there is a feature on the DJI one that does noise canceling.
00:46:30
Claudia
If you have it, it's like if it's blinking blue, it's not noise canceling. If it's blinking green, it's noise canceling. So that's really important is to like make sure that you're blocking out all of the other noises behind you.
00:46:36
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay. Sure. Okay.
00:46:44
Claudia
And you can connect that to your actual phone or a camera. For my main camera that I film with, do you do you care to know about this? Like I'm honest, I use an action four or five cameras.
00:46:52
Jennifer Gulizia
sir
00:46:56
Claudia
So it's kind of like a GoPro. I like GoPro too. I just like the action better. It's also a DJI camera. And that's really my main camera that I like to film everything. Sometimes I supplement with my phone.
00:47:08
Claudia
I will say like your iPhones, especially the newer ones, have a sharper look to them. So if you don't want to invest into a camera and you just want to invest into a mic, get the DJI mic and then use your phone. You can pair the two together. And then we use a bigger Sony camera to do like B-roll shots when we do garden tours and farm tours. But I also supplement that again with my phone and I just shoot in 4K at 30 frames per second. So you really can do just about everything with your actual phone, which some days I'm like, I'm in a pinch and I'll just grab out my phone as long as my audio is good because you can actually record audio directly to your mic and then export that audio.
00:47:52
Claudia
And then for editing, I just use Final Cut Pro, which was the easiest one for me to understand. There's the Adobe one, which is a little bit more complicated and, you know, you can really get get into all of like all of the the bells and whistles if you want but I found that Final Cut Pro was just the like super user-friendly and easy to learn there wasn't a big learning curve with that one that's what I remember
00:48:18
Jennifer Gulizia
That's good to know. I've used just iMovie to edit so far.
00:48:23
Claudia
oh yeah I'm going to break
00:48:24
Jennifer Gulizia
and it's it lacks a lot of things, though.
00:48:27
Claudia
Right. But it's like, that's great I think that's what I started with too. And then you if you purchase Final Cut Pro, I think it's just like a one-time purchase. And then you really like, you're it's kind of like iMovie, just more advanced.
00:48:39
Jennifer Gulizia
OK.
00:48:40
Claudia
And then you can really just go on YouTube and watch tutorials.
00:48:44
Claudia
And so you just learn that way. That's how I learned. And there are still things that I could do better, but I'm also... I'm not trying to make things flashy and like fire fire emojis or, you know, sound of effect like I don't nobody cares about that in our space.
Content Creation and Audience Engagement
00:48:59
Claudia
You know, we're not.
00:49:00
Jennifer Gulizia
We're not a tech industry.
00:49:01
Claudia
Yeah, we're not like, what's his name? What's his name? Mr. Beast. you know Like we're not trying to be like that.
00:49:06
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes.
00:49:07
Claudia
Like that's a whole different world from like flower and gardening. So don't overthink it.
00:49:11
Jennifer Gulizia
Right.
00:49:12
Claudia
Don't overthink. As long as your content is good, that's what's important.
00:49:17
Jennifer Gulizia
That's great to know.
00:49:18
Claudia
Yeah.
00:49:18
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay, so then once you go to publish something on YouTube, it asks for a title and a description.
00:49:23
Claudia
Yeah.
00:49:25
Jennifer Gulizia
How important is that?
00:49:27
Claudia
It's so important, but so it can be really annoying. I won't lie, you guys. like there There are times, let me just give you like a little behind the scenes. You will watch one of my 20 minute videos. That video might have taken like four hours to film.
00:49:43
Claudia
probably like another five hours to edit depending on what it was if we have multiple angles because and then you have to export all of those clips, align everything perfectly. It's exhausting. And then at the very end, you still have to come up with a creative title and a thumbnail.
00:49:58
Claudia
Just like why? And so i do think it is important. So for your thumbnail, what I like to use is Canva. It's just C-A-N-V-A. It's really easy. and i And I try to keep it simple. Like again, I don't I don't want to make things overly complicated.
00:50:15
Claudia
i like Canva because you can brighten a picture. So usually I'll just take like a picture from a scene in the actual video, take a screenshot of that.
00:50:19
Jennifer Gulizia
and
00:50:25
Claudia
And that will be my thumbnail. So I upload it to Canva. I might make it a little bit brighter. Don't, don't like do like a ton of editing you guys. Like when you do like the face tuning that looks so fake and like, you don't look like that in real life.
00:50:39
Claudia
So don't do it because it's really awkward. so don't try to make yourself like look into somebody that you're not. And then with your titles, the cool thing now on YouTube, it gives you a feature that you can try out three different titles and it'll tell you which one is performing its best.
00:50:53
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh.
00:50:56
Claudia
and I really just tried to keep it simple. Like I, I tried to pick up like a fun line that we had in the video and like, okay, what are we doing today? And I really just base it off of that.
00:51:07
Claudia
And then I do like a really short description. Again, i don't overthink it and publish it. And some videos do really great and some videos flop and you're like, why, like what happened?
00:51:18
Claudia
Why, why didn't people want to watch this? It was such a good video, you know? So I think it's also like learning your audience, is really important and paying attention to like, okay, what did they like? What don't they like? And a lot of them will be vocal and it can be me and they, some people can be very mean.
00:51:32
Claudia
So you have to have tough skin. so just be ready for the criticism. but you know, you just kind of pick up on like what works for you. Cause something might do really well for another gardener or a farmer, but it's not going to translate to you.
00:51:46
Claudia
Like they don't care about that from you They want to see something else from you. So really understanding your audience and your analytics is important. So take time to learn that. And I'm a data analyst. So, you know, it's it's nice because I actually get excited to read those charts.
00:52:04
Jennifer Gulizia
Well, if you're a data analyst, you maybe have heard Peter Drucker's quote, you can't manage what you don't measure.
00:52:09
Claudia
i yeah Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
00:52:12
Jennifer Gulizia
Back in my business days, that was one of my favorite quotes. And I still love diving into analytics.
00:52:17
Claudia
yeah. yeah
00:52:17
Jennifer Gulizia
I do have to say, you mentioned Canva. I was a professional photographer before starting my flower business.
00:52:20
Claudia
Yeah.
00:52:22
Claudia
Oh,
00:52:25
Jennifer Gulizia
And I spent many a days, many a nights in Photoshop. And I don't even know the last time I opened Photoshop because of Canva.
00:52:33
Claudia
yeah.
00:52:33
Jennifer Gulizia
Because it's so easy.
00:52:34
Claudia
Oh, yeah.
00:52:35
Jennifer Gulizia
It's so amazing.
00:52:35
Claudia
You know what's funny? So many of the farmers, like the flower farmers that I've met, guys are such good photographers. And I'm like, why aren't you posting more? Like, you know, like I feel like you get so in your mind, like you want to critique every little thing, but I'm like, why? This is perfect. Like you should be doing more. Like you shouldn't struggle with any of this because you're so good at it. You know what I mean? So it's like, just put it out there. Just put it out there. And exactly like Canva, It's like, I think it's like a $15 subscription a month for a pro version, which I do recommend you get. Cause then you, if you want to do like text overlay or a certain feature like that, then you can do that. so yeah, it's super easy. Keep it simple. Like again, we're not Mr. Beast that we need to like you put up a building blowing up behind us. you know it doesn't have to be complicated at all.
00:53:29
Jennifer Gulizia
I love what you're saying. It reminds me of what Amy Porterfield says. She says, done is better than perfect.
00:53:32
Claudia
Mm-hmm. Yes. Sometimes you just have to submit what you have, right? That's even like in the corporate world. Sometimes it's like I can get so, if there's even like a 0.5% error in my data, I'm like, oh no, I have to, like why? Like what's causing that error? And it's like, just get it out. Like it needs to go out to leadership. Just put it out there.
00:53:55
Claudia
Like just let it go. you know doesn't have to be 100% every time because, and then you'll just, you'll get into this rut of like, not doing it.
00:53:57
Jennifer Gulizia
Yeah.
00:54:04
Claudia
You know what I mean?
00:54:05
Jennifer Gulizia
Well, you hit a nerve with me because I can't even tell you how many pictures are on my camera. Like I have a professional, I have three professional cameras because I used to be a professional camera photographer.
00:54:16
Jennifer Gulizia
And so I, and I've barely taken any pictures on my camera. I have, I've probably taken 10,000 pictures on my cell phone this summer.
00:54:21
Claudia
Yeah.
00:54:24
Jennifer Gulizia
But how many times have I posted on Instagram this year?
00:54:24
Claudia
Yeah.
00:54:27
Jennifer Gulizia
It's terrible because I overanalyze everything I take and I'm like, oh, that's not good enough.
00:54:29
Claudia
Okay. So,
00:54:33
Claudia
Thank you.
00:54:33
Jennifer Gulizia
I'll retake it. And then I never get around to posting.
00:54:35
Claudia
Right, right. Okay, so your homework, okay, we're all going to keep you accountable.
00:54:39
Jennifer Gulizia
Perfect. I get homework.
00:54:40
Claudia
i think This winter, because there's nothing going on in our garden, you're going to do a lot of like throwbacks, okay? Throwback to, I don't know, pick a Dahlia, pick three, do your carousel and post your pictures. I'm going to literally be waiting to see pictures from you now. Because also, i do I do love when people post pictures on Instagram. Just, you know, when you do Instagram, you want to put like a carousel. So not just one photo, do multiple.
00:55:05
Claudia
But yes, we're all going to be like, hey, Jen, where are those pictures?
00:55:05
Jennifer Gulizia
Right.
00:55:09
Jennifer Gulizia
You said you have a lot on your camera.
00:55:10
Claudia
We're ready.
00:55:11
Jennifer Gulizia
Prove it.
00:55:12
Claudia
From like years ago, I don't care. I just want to see your beautiful photos because you you get so inspired, you know, by seeing beautiful things like that. And then it gets you excited for springtime and all of that.
00:55:22
Claudia
Yeah.
00:55:23
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely. I think... I don't know. I can't speak for everyone, but I've met so many people in the floral industry that are also perfectionists. Like were striving for perfect for perf.
00:55:32
Claudia
Yeah.
00:55:35
Jennifer Gulizia
i can't even talk here as I'm trying to say perfection.
00:55:38
Claudia
and
00:55:38
Jennifer Gulizia
We're striving for perfection. And it's like, oh my gosh, look at nature in front of us.
00:55:40
Claudia
Yeah.
00:55:43
Jennifer Gulizia
Like, If you overanalyze every bloom, none of them are perfect.
00:55:44
Claudia
It's not.
00:55:47
Jennifer Gulizia
there's you can I'm sure you can find a flaw in every one of them, but when you just look at it, it's like, this is beautiful.
00:55:51
Claudia
Yeah.
00:55:52
Jennifer Gulizia
It's perfect as is.
00:55:53
Claudia
Right.
00:55:54
Jennifer Gulizia
So why do we hold ourselves to such a high standard?
00:55:55
Claudia
Right. Right. Right. And I think it's like, I think there's a difference. Like, I i think it's okay to spend time creating things because sometimes people just post things to post things. I'm like, what value are you adding into the world by just posting that? I think there's an app for that. Like TikTok is a great place for just like,
00:56:16
Claudia
unfiltered, raw, go, you know, where like if you want something a little bit more curated, it's okay to take time to do something beautiful. But if you're the like, if you're zooming in to make like every little detail perfect and you're in your spending time editing a flower, like that's not real at that point. You know what I mean? Like you've just put something out there that's beautiful, but that's not real.
00:56:41
Claudia
So, you know, like don't get stuck in that. I know like, you you know, you're photographer, like the important things is good lighting, your shadows,
Embracing Passion and Learning from Failures
00:56:52
Claudia
et cetera. But other than that, it doesn't have to be like,
00:56:57
Claudia
There's a spider web in that photo. You know what I mean? Like just post it. At that point, you just need to post it.
00:57:01
Jennifer Gulizia
Right.
00:57:02
Claudia
Yeah. Yeah.
00:57:03
Jennifer Gulizia
I overthink everything.
00:57:04
Claudia
It's easy to be critical on yourself. Yeah. It's really easy to be critical on yourself.
00:57:09
Jennifer Gulizia
And the funny thing is, is we don't, like the things we think about ourselves, we don't ever analyze on someone else's picture. Like if someone else was to take that picture and I didn't realize it was out of my camera, I probably would never even second guess it.
00:57:15
Claudia
No.
00:57:19
Claudia
Yeah.
00:57:20
Jennifer Gulizia
I just go, oh, look at that beautiful picture.
00:57:20
Claudia
Right.
00:57:21
Jennifer Gulizia
Here's a heart. And I'm going to keep scrolling.
00:57:24
Claudia
Exactly. And like I sometimes, you know, you go down the rabbit hole and you're just scrolling and sometimes I'll just like come across like a flower page and I'm like, oh, my gosh, I'm just like obsessed with all of her photos.
00:57:29
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes.
00:57:34
Claudia
But if I sat there and like zoomed in, I'm sure I can find flaws. But but who's going to do that? You know, like nobody's going to do that.
00:57:40
Jennifer Gulizia
Right.
00:57:43
Claudia
So, yeah, you're always going to be harder on yourself. Like the things that you think about probably things that none of us will ever think about when we're looking at your your photos.
00:57:52
Jennifer Gulizia
That's such great advice.
00:57:53
Claudia
Yeah.
00:57:54
Jennifer Gulizia
I'm looking at the time here and we have covered so much already and I could talk to you for hours.
00:57:56
Claudia
Yeah.
00:58:00
Jennifer Gulizia
We got to meet at Marin from the Farmhouse Flower Farms book signing at Powell's Books this spring, and we've been able to continue our conversations
00:58:01
Claudia
Yeah. For sure.
00:58:07
Claudia
Yeah.
00:58:10
Jennifer Gulizia
since then. And it's been so fun getting to know you. And I can't wait till we can do some garden swaps. And we were chatting about maybe some antique shopping before this call started because we're so close.
00:58:21
Jennifer Gulizia
But before I say goodbye to you tonight or this evening, is there anything I haven't asked you that you would like to share with our listeners?
00:58:21
Claudia
yeah
00:58:25
Claudia
Yeah.
00:58:32
Claudia
you know, i just like what, whatever you're trying to do right now, if you want to get into like the gardening world, if you want to get into the social media world, just do it. Don't let yourself, like your life is too short not to do what you love. and Nobody's going to judge you as harsh as you're going to judge yourself because people just don't care and everybody has something going on in their life right now that I don't have time to judge somebody and like critique them.
00:58:58
Claudia
So just, you know, if you are really serious about doing something like that, then I think you should do it. I'm really excited for this next year in terms of like our videos that we're going to be doing too.
00:59:09
Claudia
So I hope people tune in. We have so many wonderful interviews lined up. We have a series called Meet the Farmer, Meet the Gardener on our YouTube channel where we visit different gardens and farmers and interview them.
00:59:19
Claudia
And i love storytelling. i love telling people's story to the world. i have met some of the most incredible people in this series and we have quite a really great lineup for 2026.
00:59:32
Claudia
So if you want to get inspired and learn like how these amazing gardeners and farmers got started, I hope you tune into those. Jen, you're definitely going to you're on the list for 2026.
00:59:43
Jennifer Gulizia
I would love it.
00:59:44
Claudia
So I cannot wait to come interview you and just show everybody your beautiful space. So, and I'm always here if you ever have any questions, if anybody just needs candid answers, I'm here.
00:59:55
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that.
00:59:56
Claudia
Yeah.
00:59:56
Jennifer Gulizia
What advice you wish someone would would have given to you when you were starting out?
01:00:01
Claudia
Yeah, so in terms of like social media or general,
01:00:04
Jennifer Gulizia
Just in general with the garden and where you're at now.
01:00:09
Claudia
embrace your failures. i think, I'm, I'm somebody that's really hard on myself. Like if I kill a plant or, you know, I, so I have a dolly tuber and for some reason something happened in store, right. And they're right. Like I, I, I get so hard on myself. I just, there are points I even cry cause I'm so mad at myself for failing at something. And life is just way too short to hold on to things like that. So,
01:00:37
Claudia
Just like our gardens and flowers, they change through season. So do we. And just embrace that change and be easy on yourself. Like let nature teach you life lessons.
Influences and Future Connections
01:00:48
Claudia
Don't be afraid to kill plants because you're going to do it. And it's actually at this point, I think it's more fun because and then it's like, OK, what could I have done better? don't worry about plant spacing as much as you think you need to, because I push those boundaries all the time. so we can talk about that at another time. And if you, again, if you want to get into social media, yeah, it's a hard space to be in, but there's too many creative people out there who are too afraid that get stuck in this, like,
01:01:18
Claudia
in this rut of not posting just because they're too afraid of what the world is going to say. But I promise you, people are going to connect with you, you know, and you're going to find your audience and you're going to find a group of people and you're going to create a community that you probably never thought you would ever have a reach to. And it's going to be so beautiful. So just don't be discouraged. Just go for it. Like literally just do it. Like, don't be afraid. Just do it. And if it doesn't work out, you can close the account like whatever, you know, And yeah, just like it's whatever. Nobody cares. Like nobody is going to care as much as you do. So yeah. And just have fun, have fun in the garden, try things, plant things that you shouldn't plant next to each other to see what happens. I do it all of the time. I don't have technical training. So my garden sometimes can feel like the wild, wild west, but it's beautiful. It works. Yeah.
01:02:10
Jennifer Gulizia
I think sometimes those are the most beautiful gardens.
01:02:13
Claudia
Yeah, I do too.
01:02:14
Jennifer Gulizia
they
01:02:14
Claudia
when yeah When we were in Chelsea this last year in England, we went to the English countryside and boy, that really, really changed the way i think about gardening now. So a lot more relaxed and less rigid than I was because I'm a neat freak.
01:02:28
Claudia
So now I'm just like, manh that's fine. That's fine. Let those leaves drop. That's fine. let that crawl over there where it shouldn't be zinnia popped up where i didn't plan it that's fine too embrace it embrace mother nature because it's going to be so much better than trying to control it yeah
01:02:48
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, that's really good advice to end on right there. Embrace mother nature instead of controlling it.
01:02:53
Claudia
yeah yeah yes
01:02:54
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay. Final question here. Where can our listeners connect with you?
01:02:59
Claudia
Yeah, for sure. I'm better at responding to comments and things and messages, i would say on Instagram. So in the garden with Claudia on Instagram and then on YouTube, again, in the garden with Claudia, we post Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. So if you ever have specific questions, I would recommend, that you know, in those videos. But yeah, just reach out yeah if you questions.
01:03:21
Claudia
If you have questions, I would say my email is not the best place just because if you have just a general gardening question, social media is the way to go where that's more of like business inquiries. So, but I'm always here to chat and talk and give any advice that I can.
01:03:38
Jennifer Gulizia
Well, this has been so lovely. It's been so fun chatting with you and you gave us some great advice and I've got some action items, including posting more on social media myself.
01:03:44
Claudia
you.
01:03:47
Claudia
Yeah, we're all watching her.
01:03:48
Jennifer Gulizia
So you guys, you're all watching.
01:03:50
Jennifer Gulizia
You can hold me accountable. Well, I can't wait to connect with you again. For sure, when you find that piece of land, you'll have to come back on the podcast and share that with us. And we'll be cheering for you and sending you positive energy for finding that place when the timing is right.
01:04:08
Claudia
Thank you, Jen. I had so much fun talking to you today. We could go on and on and on.
01:04:12
Jennifer Gulizia
We could.
01:04:12
Claudia
Yeah.
01:04:13
Jennifer Gulizia
i enjoyed this so much. Thank you, Claudia. We'll talk to you again in the future. Bye-bye.
01:04:17
Claudia
Thank you. Bye-bye.