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This election week, Ricki decides to destress by taking a weed gummy and talking about gardening alongside two pros – TikTok gardener Brian Brigantti and landscaper John Bonny. They chat about what’s growing in their gardens, how to create a sanctuary in your backyard, and what taking care of plants can teach you about taking care of yourself. This episode is the perfect antidote to election coverage!

This election week, Ricki decides to destress by taking a weed gummy and talking about gardening alongside two pros – TikTok gardener Brian Brigantti and landscaper John Bonny. They chat about what’s growing in their gardens, how to create a sanctuary in your backyard, and what taking care of plants can teach you about taking care of yourself. This episode is the perfect antidote to election coverage!

You can find Brian Brigantti @redleafranch on Instagram and TikTok. And check out his book, “Gardening for Abundance: Your Guide to Cultivating a Bountiful Veggie Garden and a Happier Life.”

You can find John Bonny @cultivategardendesign on Instagram.

Follow Ricki Lake @rickilake on Instagram. And stay up to date with us @LemonadaMedia on X, Facebook, and Instagram.

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Transcript

SPEAKERS

John Bonny, Ricki Lake, Brian Brigantti

Ricki Lake  01:37

This is The High Life with me, Ricki Lake, where we find out how my guests crack the code to living a full and vibrant life, so you can too now, okay, this is the week. It’s election week, I felt like I needed to do something that’s sort of the antithesis of that, and do something that’s joyful, relaxing, beautiful. And, you know, I’m also on a weed gummy. So today I want to talk about something that is near and dear to my heart. I love my garden. It just, it’s heaven. It’s healing. It’s medicine to me and and to see things grow and thrive on my property, it just brings me such joy, and I am so excited because I have two guests joining me today is my dear friend, my soul brother, and my landscape designer, John Bonny, great to have you here. John, thank you.

 

John Bonny  03:14

Thank you, Ricky. I love you so much, and I’m so excited to be here today with you and Brian.

 

Ricki Lake  03:19

And our second guest today is Brian Brigantti. He’s a Tennessee based gardener and Tiktok sensation at red leaf ranch. His new beautiful book is called gardening for abundance, your guide to cultivating a bountiful veggie garden and a happier life in it, he shares practical gardening tips and commentary on how to create abundance in all parts of your life, the beauty of connecting with nature and the value of resting in the winter after the harvest is done, I literally like, like, I’m like, chills all over. I’m so excited. Welcome Brian. It’s great to have you.

 

Brian Brigantti  03:53

Oh my gosh, thank you so much for having me. I’m honored. I’m thrilled. I’m so excited, and I can’t wait to talk all things gardening and abundance.

 

Ricki Lake  04:02

And abundance. You know, I always start my show the same way, so I’m gonna ask each of you the same question, okay, where are you getting your highs from right now? What is bringing you joy lately, besides your garden? Maybe I’ll start with you, Brian.

 

Brian Brigantti  04:14

I have to say by garden, because we are in the midst of harvest season right now. And I don’t know if you saw but I am in the middle of harvesting so much beautiful squash. This year, I grew the biggest squash I’ve ever grown in my life. Her name is Bertha, and also Agatha. There are two of them. And just the joy of like knowing I grew that for so long, like it was on the vine for months, they were on the vine for so long, so to finally be able to clip them and know that they are safe, because we did lose the squash. We’ve had some frost here. But there’s no greater joy. There’s no greater joy.

 

04:50

You mourn the loss of your vegetables. I see it.

 

Brian Brigantti  04:53

Yeah, you put months of work into growing this gourd, and just to find it rotted and sloppy on the ground, it’s hard. BREAKING

 

Ricki Lake  05:01

Okay, John, where are you getting your highs from?

 

John Bonny  05:04

I’m definitely getting my highs from coming up to see your garden and the different things that are coming about, like the cannabis garden was a total success this year. And I’m also enjoying putting myself first, starting my day with meditation, putting good foods into my body, getting out and earthing myself in grass. And just like getting just putting an hour aside for myself to decide, how do I want to lead my day, rather than being at the effect of the world, and gardening is so much a part of that, yes.

 

Ricki Lake  05:34

Well, let me just add that my high, I told you, I already took a gummy and I this season of the show. I haven’t, but I felt like today we I had to, I had to. But John, what is earthing? You mentioned earthing? What is that for everyone?

 

John Bonny  05:48

Earthing is the practice of getting out and making contact with the earth with your bare feet, whether it’s grass or soil, and the earth is charged with electrons that we absorb, and we’ve cut ourselves off from this natural energy. And so these electrons help us. They help give us energy. They they help us with our stress levels. People that do practice earthing find that they’re sleeping better, their anxiety levels are down, and inflammation is down, and this is all scientifically proven.

 

Ricki Lake  06:21

Wow.

 

Brian Brigantti  06:22

There are some days where I literally just take off my shoes, take my shirt off, and I just lay in the grass, just lay, just lay it. I love it. Feel it. Just feel it. I love it.

 

John Bonny  06:31

I love it.

 

Ricki Lake  06:32

You’re both from Chicago, you know that, right? You’re really Chicago.

 

Brian Brigantti  06:36

I didn’t know that. That’s awesome.

 

John Bonny  06:38

Yeah, I grew up in Chicago, and I think we have a lot some similarities too. I was an actor, professional actor. You’re a model, a photographer. It’s like the worlds are very similar in terms of, I think, how gardening has played into our lives.

 

Brian Brigantti  06:48

Yeah, I’m glad we both found our way to a garden, especially being from Chicago, of all places.

 

06:56

Yeah, how did you tap into nature growing up in Chicago?

 

Brian Brigantti  06:59

Well, for me growing up, you know, being in the concrete jungle, I couldn’t really immerse myself. I mean, there were moments where I would travel with my family to, like, the Forest Preserve, and we were able to get our Fix there. I mean, we had our beach. Also not, not super naturey, you know, it’s a lake beach, and there’s a giant skyscrapers behind you, you know, I really couldn’t get into it until I moved here to Tennessee.

 

Ricki Lake  07:24

During COVID, right you moved during the pandemic.

 

Brian Brigantti  07:27

It was right before COVID. The timing was so divine, so divine, literally, like six to eight months before the pandemic. I was actually living in New York City, pursuing photography full time, and my partner was living in Tennessee already, and we were I was traveling back and forth between New York and Tennessee, and we kept that up for about a year. And every time I came to visit him, it just got harder and harder to leave, until finally I had a mental break. I was like, I can’t do this city life anymore. I’m working so much, but I feel like I’m gaining absolutely nothing, especially for my spirit. So I finally decided to leave it all behind and move to Tennessee a year after all that.

 

08:11

And you’re not when I when people think Tennessee, a lot of us picture Nashville. You are on the outskirts. You are in a rural part. How much land do you have?

 

Brian Brigantti  08:18

Yes, we are deep in the bush. I’m about an hour and a half southeast of Nashville. We have 15 acres out here of absolute paradise. And even more wild is I wasn’t really involved with the purchase of the land. My partner was because we he moved here initially to expand his nursery business. He grows carnivorous and tropical plants. But they didn’t even look at the property before buying it, they were just like this price for this much land, no way. And I kid you not, it is the most perfect piece of land we could have ever imagined in terms of location, in terms of, like, the actual, like, geography and topography of the land, the way it’s laid out, the way we are nestled right at the heart of the property. It’s it really feels like heaven here.

 

09:02

The way you describe your sacred space is the way I talk about mine. And mine could not be more different. I live on the coast. I live in Malibu. I’m in the hills, but I have, you know, a 270 degree unobstructed ocean Mountain View, a garden and a view, and we only have an acre. But we, and I have to say, we, John, Bonnie is like the angel of this property. And Brian, I don’t know if you know any of my story, but I lost my last partner to suicide and mental illness in 2017 my beloved Angel, Christian. So, so John, we were all friends. You know, when he passed in the middle of this project, I bought the house in 2013 for us to grow all together. You know, it’s on this mountain top. It’s very private. And when he passed away in 2017 i My heart wasn’t in this project anymore. You know, I was like, I don’t want to be here. This was never the plan to be like, alone up on this mountain. And so John, who was my landscape designer at my other house, when I sold that, he helped me with this one, and he was sort of. The, I mean, almost like, like, I don’t, I don’t even know what to call it, but you were just the protector. And he had to make this. I couldn’t even make decisions, you know. I was just like, Fuck this, you know, excuse my French. But like, I was like, it was a money pit that I couldn’t, I had to finish. So he just took on this property. We tore down the house. You know, there’s only two things that are original to the house, the fireplace and the vines. We had these vines. What are the vines that are growing on the house?

 

John Bonny  10:25

So the vines that were attached to the house were a combination of Jasmine to stick this and honeysuckle, and they’re probably about 50 years old, and the trunks were just gnarly and just, you know, completely covering the house. And that was one non negotiable thing with Ricki. He’s like, I, you know, we’re tearing down the house, but I want to save the vines. And I had every contractor telling me it couldn’t be done. And I was like, Oh, well, they built Disneyland, so we can figure out a way to do this. So we we built a trellis that actually extended out into the property, like 45 feet away, and took the entire vine and trained it to grow away from the house while the construction was going on, we rebuilt the pergola out of metal, and then we took like a lift fork, and we brought the vines back onto the house so they’re they’re perfect. They were perfectly preserved, and they’re so fragrant right now too.

 

Brian Brigantti  11:14

Gardens are such a testament to human ingenuity, because the things that we do to protect these plants, one of the biggest things I learned early on in gardening is, yes, like, one of the most valuable things in the garden is time, time, time, time, especially when it comes to perennial plants like that and trees and things that need that kind of time to mature and really grow old with you. When you have something that well aged, it’s so heartbreaking to, like, rip it up. So I’m so happy to hear that that you took, you took the necessary steps to protect that.

 

Ricki Lake  11:48

We brought in all these mature like giant Canary palms, and it feels like you’re in Big Sur, because I have these mature pine trees. You know that where I live, the whole area was was wiped out by a fire in 93 for some reason this property, nothing burned on this property. So all these trees are some of the rare you know that you don’t find trees this big in that area because of the fire, and the olive tree was not going to make it, right, John, you tell about that olive tree?

 

John Bonny  12:17

Yeah. So, so I found some ancient olives. It actually was the first olive that spoke to me. I’d never had that experience where I was asking on a field of olive trees, which one was the right for the property. And I remember just this electricity going up my arms and just knowing. And I just got down on my knees, and I was like, I can’t believe I’ve actually heard a tree speak to me. So we craned her in, and she did. She had a really hard time adjusting, because, you know, we brought her, you know, several 100 miles, and it was a different environment. And for the first year, it really, it really, really struggled. But I got some advice from many different sources, and she slowly, slowly came back. But she she anchors the property, along with the two large Canary palms that we had craned in as well too.

 

13:03

Okay, so wait, you guys come from Chicago. You are a model. You are an actor, a photographer. How did you like was was switching to gardening hard? How did you learn?

 

Brian Brigantti  13:13

Funny enough, I really feel like in a past life, or many past lives, I have worked with the land, because once, when I started gardening, it really felt like a homecoming, and just for a little bit of context, I never gardened before moving to Tennessee, what really sparked my journey in gardening was the pandemic, and more specifically, growing our own food to be more self sustaining and not so dependent on external sources to survive whatever was coming. My partner, on the other hand, he’s been growing literally since he came out the wound. He is an avid gardener, an avid grower, but he never really focused on growing food. So thanks to him, I did have a lot of guidance, and, you know, his wisdom to tap into, but it was really my own journey to embark on, and like I said, it really felt like a homecoming the moment I broke into the ground and the smell of the earth like rose and hit my nose like I got like this immediate flashback of when I was a little kid in my backyard in Chicago, flipping rocks, looking for bugs and smelling the earth in that process. And that is literally a feeling I had not experienced since I was a kid. So having that moment really made me feel like I made I mean, also moving to Tennessee six months before the pandemic, but also experiencing that really made me feel like I made the right decision coming here and and there was purpose here, like I was about to embark on something that, looking back now, I had no idea was going to change my life the way that it did.

 

Ricki Lake  14:43

Wow, what was the first thing you planted? Do you remember?

 

Brian Brigantti  14:46

Kale, yeah, I planted so much kale. I planted it wrong. I planted them like, way too close together. They were not growing. A few of them died. I was like, Oh, my God, what’s happening. But, you know, after doing. Little research, I ended up dividing them and spacing them out a little more, but yeah, it has been. Now I grow absolutely everything that you can possibly imagine.

 

15:10

You found your purpose, like by accident. You found it. Can you relate to that, John?

 

John Bonny  15:15

Yeah, completely. I mean, I grew up in the suburbs, an only child. My parents were laughing at me because I brought home some marigold heads, and they just thought they were dead, marigolds, and I would put them in the ground and water them, and they’re like, those things will never grow. And then after about a week, when they started sprouting, because the seed heads are in the flowers, they gave they gave me my first garden. They gave me my first vegetable garden. And you know, I spent a lot of time in it, because I got really not many people to play with in my neighborhood. So that was the basis of my great my grandfather also had a farm in Wisconsin, so we would spend our summers up there. And that’s really where the magic was, and that’s where I always felt the most comfortable. So when I moved to Chicago and I was an actor, and, you know, auditioning and working, you know, we were theater. Theater was dead in the summer, and so was commercial work. So I needed something to balance the balance my life out, and it actually works per it’s a total symbiotic relationship, because acting is so out there. It’s about performing and being on. And this was About going inward. This is about calming myself down, taking my time. This is grounding me. Before I even knew anything about earthing, and it really kept me calm, you know, so I can totally relate to the you know. Just felt natural, and I was really grateful to be able to do that during the summer months and work as an actor during the other months.

 

Brian Brigantti  16:31

That’s incredible. Again. I’m so happy you found solace in the garden. Funny enough, I feel like one of the biggest hurdles I faced when gardening was learning how to be okay, in that stillness, in that calm. Because growing up in Chicago, I also lived in San Francisco, going to school for photography, then living in New York, the big city was, was all I ever knew. And I was always hustling. I was always grinding, whether it was school or a job or who knows what, the city has a way of taking you on, just taking you in its current so when I finally had those moments of stillness and calm, like I had to fight with myself internally, with being okay with that stillness, because, like, a part of me felt so guilty about like not doing anything and just being present in the moment, like I was, was always at a battle. I still kind of battle it a little bit you.

 

Ricki Lake  17:21

I was gonna say, do you you miss, like New York? Is there a part of you that when you’re because I can kind of see the answer. I know people say to me, I did my old show back in New York, and it’s like, do you miss? No, I love New York. I’ll always be I was born and raised. I absolutely identify as like a New Yorker. No, I don’t miss that, that grind.

 

Brian Brigantti  17:43

Those cities, those metropolitan places, I feel like in some form, they’ll always exist. They’ll always be there. But, but to find a space as sacred as your garden, yeah, that is an opportunity that you cannot pass up. Yes, and I really, if I stayed in New York in the midst of all that, I have no idea where my life would be, I’d be a mess.

 

Ricki Lake  18:04

Okay, gotta take a quick break, and then I have more questions for Brian and John.

 

18:12

How did you grow this, like loyal following? I mean, you have over 3 million followers on tick tock. How did you grow this huge audience that just loves you.

 

Brian Brigantti  22:01

Oh, my God, Ricki, it happened so fast, so fast. And in the beginning, I didn’t really have a plan or an expectation, like I started gardening solely for the the need to grow our own food. You know, it wasn’t until about a year that I got into gardening. I mean, I was sharing a few things on Facebook and Instagram, you know, the platforms that I knew, and a friend of mine reached out, and he was like, she was like, Brian, like your energy and what you’re doing, like, you need to try Tiktok. You need to try Tiktok. And I was so hesitant, because, like, being of having a photographer background Instagram was, was it, you know, like, why even try learning a new platform? And it took me about six, seven months before I finally caved, like heard my ear, like, Tiktok. But I finally caved, and it was in January of 2021 ish, or February 2021 ish, where I started, like posting a little bit more consistently. But it wasn’t until that summer of 2021 where things really, oh, my god, things skyrocketed in May, I had like 1500 followers, and I shared one video of me feeding scrambled eggs to my chickens to recycle the eggs so they wouldn’t spoil. It went it went viral. And then I started posting more of the harvest. Started posting me grilling a sunflower. And by the end of that summer, I had over a million followers.

 

Ricki Lake  23:24

That’s incredible.

 

Brian Brigantti  23:27

Tiktok has a way of like, putting your content in front of the people that need. What you’re giving.

 

23:33

Yes, how much work do you put in every day in your garden? Is it an all day thing?

 

Brian Brigantti  23:38

I’d say, I’d say it’s a morning and evening thing. Middle of the day is usually too, too intense with the sun. So I’d say about like three to four hours a day, every day, in the garden, just with the garden and then the added layer of creating content. Now it’s like, right, right. There’s so much to do, never ending, that the hustle is back, the grind, the flow is back. I’ve never been busier, but I’m so happy. Everything is a lot more aligned now and purely of my own creation. You know.

 

24:07

Yeah, abundance for sure. Now, every video you do, you end by saying, abundance. I love it. What inspired you to do that?

 

Brian Brigantti  24:16

The audience, my community, really embraced that. I remember the very first harvest that I posted, where at the end I was like, wow, look at all of this abundance. Isn’t it beautiful, thinking nothing of it. And then the next harvest I posted, and I didn’t say abundance at the end, oh no. Oh my gosh, they lost it. They were like, You made me wait three minutes for the end of this video, and you didn’t even say abundance, so funny. Something’s happening here, something’s happening here, like that. That’s when I really realized, like, wow, this is this is bigger than me, and what I’m doing, like, it’s actually having a profound impact on people. And my favorite comments or messages that I get, or even videos that people post and tag me is them saying. And abundance in the video, like, I’m in the grocery store and I I got some produce and I said abundance. Or I plucked my one tomato from the garden and I said abundance. Or I hear your voice saying abundance in my head.

 

Ricki Lake  25:12

I just love your content is teaching people, you know, and it’s like, so good for the earth. It’s like, what you’re doing is really educating people in a very like, joyful, entertaining, light way, and that, yeah, awesome.

 

John Bonny  25:27

Yeah. I love how you engage with people Brian and I love that your content is realistic. You talk about, like, how Instagram, you know, sometimes we’re always focused on the shot, right? You know, as a landscaper, I want to, I want to show my shot to my clients, but I love how you show the Rotten Tomato along with all the abundant ones too, because it’s really, that’s what gardening is. You know, it really is. It can be. It can try your patience, because you do have to be patient. And there are so many factors that you can’t control the weather, you can’t control the pests. And I struggle with organics, and I only use organics, but struggling with pests is a real challenge, you know, and that’s it’s good to show that. I think it sets a realistic expectation for people.

 

Brian Brigantti  26:08

Absolutely. And that’s exactly it. I want to show the reality of gardening. I mean, at the end of the day, I am still a beginner. I am still learning so much every single day. I’m still making mistakes, and I feel like when people make mistakes or something doesn’t necessarily go their way in the garden or in any aspect in life, they get unmotivated or deterred from trying again, but that that’s You can’t let yourself miss out on the experience of having a garden or any other thing just because something didn’t go your way. You know that things perish in the garden all the time, but from that death, you know, you have compost, even of rotting fruit, it’ll fall to the ground, its seeds will replant into the soil, and more life will grow. Like it’s really all about your perspective and shifting that has been like the most important thing in the garden.

 

Ricki Lake  26:55

You guys.

 

Brian Brigantti  26:57

Yes, why?

 

Ricki Lake  26:58

My edible just kicked in.

 

John Bonny  27:02

I’m gonna deep down.

 

Ricki Lake  27:05

We joke John and I joke, I, when I die, I want to be cremated, and I don’t want to, you know, to be buried. But if my, if I did have a tombstone, it would have to say, you know, Ricky Lake, my edible just kicked in. But full transparency, but Johnny, can we tell Brian about the tree house that we’re making a tree house, speaking of abundance, you know, and it’s gonna have an amazing garden heading to it. Go ahead. I mean.

 

John Bonny  27:28

She has an amazing courtyard that feels like Ibiza. It’s very tropical. We mixed in some succulents and things that are more drought tolerant. The backyard is like Big Sur and has a beautiful, beautiful view of Malibu coast. And she’s also blessed to have a forest of pine trees in the front yard, and we are going to take advantage of that space, and we’re building an adu tree house that’s gonna have mostly glass so we can see the trees from inside.

 

Ricki Lake  27:53

And it’s gonna have a cuddle puddle. It’s gonna have a cuddle puddle.

 

Brian Brigantti  27:56

It’s gonna have a cuddle puddle.

 

27:57

Yeah, Brian, will you come and look into my garden and meet us in person. Promise me, if you’re ever in the you know LA area, you’ll come over,

 

Brian Brigantti  28:06

Yes, and we have to cuddle in this cuddle puddle.

 

28:09

It’s really John, could you tell Brian, like, some of what we have growing on the property?

 

John Bonny  28:13

Yeah, well, so right now, I mean, the passion fruit is just insane, like it’s beyond any expectations. If you’re talking about abundance, we nailed it like and we’re so grateful for it.

 

Ricki Lake  28:23

How many did we harvest this year?

 

John Bonny  28:25

When I planted it, it was throughout four years, three or four years ago, and it was five feet tall. It is 60 feet long now. And we actually started to harvest about a month ago. We’re up to 500 we have photos. It’s amazing, like we’re doing passion fruit margaritas. Passion fruit, you know, everything, it’s just passion fruit sees one of the most unique fruits. Yeah, it’s so unique.

 

Ricki Lake  28:51

It’s thrilling. Can you grow passion fruit in Tennessee?

 

Brian Brigantti  28:54

Yeah, actually, we can. There is a native variety of passion fruit, I believe it’s called passive flora and carnata that just grows wild here, literally, on the side of my house, we have, like, an entire patch of passion vine just growing. And I didn’t know that before moving here, so seeing them and seeing their gorgeous flower, oh my gosh, and getting on the fruit, it’s a different kind of passion fruit than the tropical one. It’s softer, but similar flavor profile. But yeah, I’m Colombian and Puerto Rican, so like, passion fruit was, like, a huge part of my upbringing, Maracuja. So to have it growing just on the side of the house, it was like, abundance.

 

29:33

I just this morning I delivered to my good friend, who’s my veterinarian, Dr Lisa. I went and brought her about 75 passion fruit this morning.

 

Brian Brigantti  29:42

What a gift. See, that’s abundance right there. That’s abundance right there. And

 

29:47

the avocados, my avocados, people say they’re the best they’ve ever had. It’s incredible.

 

Brian Brigantti  29:51

They’re so creamy. They’re so right off the vine. I can’t even imagine right off the tree.

 

John Bonny  29:57

Yeah, they’re so creamy. We have, we have. Iron lemon, and we have bears lime, and we have tangelos. We have a bunch of we have a bunch of salvias on the property, which are great because they smell great, but they’re also great for teas, scented geraniums to keep away some of the pests, the mosquitoes. We have oregano and rosemary.

 

30:18

Wait, tell them about Lotus Land and the seeds. Have you ever been to Lotus Land? Brian, do you know what it is?

 

Brian Brigantti  30:24

No, but as in lotus, like the water plant, Lotus?

 

30:28

Lotus like succulents? Yep, exactly. So. So this woman, she was an wannabe opera singer, Ghana waska. Is her name, Ghana waska, and she got rich by marrying rich men and divorcing them, and she would travel the world and collect seeds from all around the world. And she has the largest she’s obviously long gone, but her space is the largest succulent garden in the world. It’ll blow your head off.

 

Brian Brigantti  30:55

What an icon.

 

Ricki Lake  30:57

Yeah, did I describe it well, John?

 

John Bonny  30:59

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, she has the largest private collection of succulents and palm trees and cycads. She has a pond that has a that’s lagged with abalone. It reflects the moon. So anyway, it’s just, it’s insane. You have to go, when you come up and visit, we’ll take you there.

 

Brian Brigantti  31:15

It’s so special going to places like that. I’m just like, seeking that inspiration. We just went to Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. Have you ever been there? I have not. I’ve heard of it. It is the only garden I’ve ever visited where I actually it brought me to tears, like I was crying. I was sobbing. Because, you know, with everything that’s going on in the world right now, it’s like really hard to have faith in humanity, especially with like the climate and the environment and how destructive we’ve been over the past century. But when you go to spaces like that, and you see the potential of humanity and like what they can do to create beauty and like work in harmony with nature in that way, it just that’s what we want to do here, like have this place be a place where people can come and get inspired to reconnect with nature like that.

 

John Bonny  32:01

Because, have you seen the documentary The biggest little farm? So it’s a perfect example, right? It’s so good, you know, it’s a perfect example of like wet, you know, takes how many years for it to all work together? And I think we’re kind of hitting our stride now. I think the thing I struggle with are snails. We have the worst snail like they are. They’re bigger than a 50 cent piece, and they’re big, and they can obliterate a garden in a day. So without having ducks or, you know, on the property to eat them, you know, we’re really picking them off and treating them as organically as possible.

 

Brian Brigantti  32:34

Have you tried putting out beer? Have you ever tried that?

 

John Bonny  32:37

Sometimes we have such it’s such a big space. We did. […]

 

Ricki Lake  32:45

I don’t remember beer being spread.

 

John Bonny  32:46

We put out margaritas, and it really didn’t do anything for them.

 

32:49

Exactly, yeah, they didn’t bother me after I had a few passion fruit margaritas.

 

32:53

I’ve tried it once, I’ve tried it once, with not much success, because I thought my issue was slugs. But I guess it wasn’t slugs. It was something else. But apparently, if issues with slugs or snails, they’re really drawn to Yeah, they’re heavy drinkers. So you put out a little bowl of beer, and they literally drink themselves to death on it.

 

Ricki Lake  36:12

Oh, wow.

 

Brian Brigantti  36:12

Yeah, that’s a way to go.

 

36:54

What has taken care of your plants and your crops taught you about like care for yourself.

 

Brian Brigantti  37:01

Oh my gosh. There are so many things. There are so many things, I feel like every, every aspect of taking care of a garden, whether it’s watering, pruning, fertilizing, harvesting, waiting like there are just there are just reflections on reflections on reflections on how we should be tending to ourselves and our communities too. You know, like, yeah, I feel like we’ve become very devoid of community and nature. I feel like in this modern era, we’re actually living very opposite of what we’re designed to be living. You know, being in community, being in nature, things like that. So yeah, every day I’m just learning. I’m learning more and more on on how I can better take care of myself.

 

37:48

It’s so interesting how you’re straddling both, like you’re you know, you have, you’re in the technology world succeeding, and then you get to do the opposite.

 

Brian Brigantti  37:56

I’m so grateful. It’s such a beautiful balance, especially being in the garden space with creating content like I follow the natural cycle of the garden, which is so sweet. Unlike other creators you know that have to ideate or conceptualize either a script or a dance or a recipe or whatever their niche is, me, I just get to go outside see what’s happening and recorded as it happens. And I think that’s what makes my my content so digestible, is like it’s happening real time. It’s like you’re really experiencing the joy that I’m experiencing in that moment, because it’s literally happening as I’m recording. And once winter comes and the garden goes to bed, best believe I will be sleeping as well like I cannot wait for winter. I’m so ready.

 

Ricki Lake  38:47

We got all our cannabis. We dried it all. I say we John, you did it all. I did the very bit when you were out of town. I trimmed and I got them down. And I was frustrated that I couldn’t figure it out, like trial and error. Because growing cannabis, you know, you think of it as a weed, it’s it’s pretty complicated.

 

Brian Brigantti  39:05

It is. They’re actually very particular about the regimen and like the light requirement that they need, and harvesting at the right time, managing pests that are a whole other world cannabis.

 

John Bonny  39:16

Yeah, it was. It’s a and when you’re growing outside near, you know, the coast, you’ve got humidity, you’ve got fungus, you’ve got molds, yeah, you’ve got natural pests that come in, and the plant will look great one day, and then next day the buds are like, kind of weeping, and you’re like, what? And then you see all these Caterpillar worms inside, so constantly spraying, you know, naturally, organically, but definitely a lot of work and trimming. I didn’t know how, much work that takes, too. So that’s when I was like, Okay, I gotta slow down. I can’t I can’t rush this process. I’m gonna enjoy this process. Rather than trying to think that I’m like, on a schedule, I have to have it done by a certain time, take my shoes off, sit down in the grass, let the sun, like, kind of shine on me, and just slowly trim. And it’s the best feeling to slow down.

 

Brian Brigantti  39:59

Yeah, it’s. Yes, when, when working with plants, there’s definitely a point where you have to relinquish control, otherwise, this is actually going to be a more stressful thing than anything you’ve ever done in your life. You know, nature is going to nature. Plants are going to do what they do, animals are going to do what they do.

 

Ricki Lake  40:19

People are going to do what they’re gonna do.

 

Brian Brigantti  40:20

Exactly, it’s just like learning how to like, go with the flow of a garden and and, you know, focus on the things that you can control, rather the things that you you cannot. Something that’s been really special is learning how to like, coexist with the natural world. Rather than trying to force everything out, I’m actually working on inviting it in by planting, like, an excess of plants, like, actually, plant more. Don’t, Don’t stop, keep planting, especially native plants, because that’s gonna, like, the native wildlife is absolutely gonna love it. And I know you mentioned you had issues with birds getting at your tomatoes. I had that issue this year as well, but over the past few years, I haven’t, because I planted elderberry, which is a native berry here, and it produces so many berries, like, such an abundance of berries. Oh, so they go after that, instead the tomatoes, they go after that. And it’s like, it’s actually part of their natural diet. So they, like, would prefer that over the tomato. Usually, when they start eating our veggies, is because, you know, we’ve kind of come in and developed over their homeland, and their food is gone.

 

41:21

All right, wait, you guys, one final question. Okay, what, Brian, what do you wish you could have told yourself when you were first starting your garden?

 

Brian Brigantti  41:31

Oh my gosh. Buckle up. Buckle up. Buttercuff, because things are about to get really wild for you. Really wild for you. Yeah, really wild for you.

 

41:43

In what way? In what way is it wild? Like? Is it overwhelming? Is it too abundant?

 

Brian Brigantti  41:50

In a way? Yeah, yeah. It’s like, there’s gonna be so much information and so much that you’re gonna have to, like, prepare or brace yourself or or face head on at the moment, just like, be grateful, literally for every single day and take it for what it is, because you never know what’s going to happen one day can literally alter everything. For example, here in Tennessee, we actually had our first tornado by the property in May, and it took out a lot of trees like and our mother oak our mother oak tree, our biggest tree on the property. She lost her life that day, but it completely altered our landscape. You know? Wow. That must have been terrifying. Oh, my God. I never want to experience anything like that again. Please. I could do without any more tornados ever, please. But yeah, just just be grateful and present for every day that you have. And yeah, yeah, especially now that I’m in this realm of, like, not just gardening, but creating content, and that being my full time endeavor and everything that comes with it, I feel like this year in particular, it’s actually been the hardest for me to be present and grounded in what I’m doing, because I feel like now I’m being pulled in so many directions.

 

43:12

Yeah, it’s like, almost like, be careful what you wish for, right?

 

Brian Brigantti  43:15

Yeah, I mean again, very grateful for it, very ready for winter and taking that time to rest, but it can be hard to stay grounded in it.

 

43:24

Yes, so John, same question, what advice or what do you wish you had told yourself about this journey of where you’re at now with gardening?

 

John Bonny  43:32

I think I would have told myself to slow down, be patient, relish the present moment, because it goes by so fast. Life goes by so fast, and if you want to slow it down a little bit, just spend more time in nature. Tap into yourself, trust your instincts and let nature guide you.

 

John Bonny  43:53

I love this conversation, you guys, really. I mean.

 

43:55

This is exactly what I needed today.

 

43:59

I feel the same way, and I feel like again, thank you so much. And let me, let me just say I really am high. I really did take this gummy and so, I mean, it’s you too. I love you. You’re speaking my language. I’m gonna go walk barefoot in my garden and just take a deep breath and show just the gratitude that I have for this beautiful, abundant garden of mine, every butterfly, every hummingbird that chooses to come and drink on my land in front of my window. You knowit’s everything.

 

Brian Brigantti  44:33

Yes, it’s literally giving life to a space.

 

44:36

Thank you so much. Brian, such a pleasure. And John, I’ll see you later tomorrow. I love you.

 

John Bonny  44:44

I love you. I’ll see you. Yeah, I’ll see you this week.

 

Ricki Lake  44:47

I love you. All right mwah.

 

Brian Brigantti  44:49

Thank you so much. Thank you abundance.

 

Ricki Lake  44:57

That was such a breath of fresh air. Um. I don’t think it has anything to do with the gummy that I took, but truly, I mean, in a week when things are crazy in our big outside world, to be able to come together and talk about something as beautiful as gardening, it really was healing for me. You can find Brian Brigantti on Instagram and Tiktok @redleafranch. Make sure to check out his book, gardening for abundance, your guide to cultivating a bountiful veggie garden and a happier life. And you can find my friend John Bonnie @JohnBonnie_LA and @cultivategardendesign on Instagram. Thank you all so much for listening. There is much more of the high life with Lemonada. Premium subscribers get exclusive access to bonus content like premium with my friend and recent guest, Why subscribe now in Apple podcasts.

The High Life is a production of Lemonada Media. Isabella Kulkarni and Kathryn Barnes, produced our show. Our mixes by James Sparber. Executive Producers are Stephanie Wittels Wachs and Jessica Cordova Kramer. Additional Lemonada support from Rachel Neel and Steve Nelson. You can find me  @Rickilake on Instagram. Follow The High Life with Ricki Lake, wherever you get your podcasts, or listen ad free on Amazon music with your Prime membership.