Rochelle Greayer from Rocket Science to Garden Magic (#42)
In this episode of The Plantastic Podcast, I chat with Rochelle Greayer about her incredible journey from working in rocket science to discovering her passion for garden design after a life-changing visit to the Chelsea Flower Show. We discuss how that pivot led to her founding Pith + Vigor, teaching design online, and most recently, leading the redesign of The American Gardener magazine with her editorial mantra of “surprise, delight, and joy on every page.” Rochelle shares practical ways to find garden inspiration and helps listeners break free from conventional design thinking. We explore creative exercises to uncover personal style, like rapid-fire image selection, and how storytelling can shape meaningful landscapes. She also offers perspective on how to nurture your creative side especially if you're juggling multiple roles. It’s a vibrant, idea-packed episode for anyone who wants to grow both a garden and a creative practice.
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Show Notes
Discount link for upcoming webinar Designing with Plant Shape and Form on Monday June 30 at 6 pm CDT
ROCHELLE GREAYER BIO
Rochelle Greayer is the current editor of The American Gardener magazine for the American Horticultural Society and a garden designer, writer, and the creative force behind Pith + Vigor, a literary newspaper and online magazine for garden enthusiasts. She is the author of Cultivating Garden Style, a rich book that blends design guidance with inspiration, and has co-authored The Essential Garden Design Workbook and The Garden Makers Manual. Rochelle also founded the acclaimed blog Studio ‘g’, co-founded Leaf Magazine, and contributed a long-running garden column for Apartment Therapy.
A graduate of the English Gardening School in London, Rochelle has designed gardens for private residences and hotels across the globe since 2002. Before her horticultural career, she was a literal rocket scientist where she worked in aerospace and software engineering, helping launch Russia’s first commercial satellite and riding in the cockpits of F-14s and F-18s. Though she didn’t make it to space, she likes to say her fingerprints did. Rochelle brings both scientific curiosity and creative flair to everything she does.
THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST
The Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes. He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX. To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.
You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com. He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter plant•ed, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe. Until next time, #keepgrowing!