Nicole's Quick Take: Lauren Almquist is an herbalist who helps people grow healing herb gardens, not typical vegetable beds, and wasn't sure a general garden business course would fit her niche. Fortunately, it did. She says Garden Coach Academy pushed her to take herself seriously as a business owner and gave her the structure to keep moving instead of spinning in her own head.

Not Every Garden Coach Grows Tomatoes

Most of the garden coaches I have trained grow kitchen gardens, which are usually full of vegetables.

Lauren Almquist does something different; she's an herbalist.

Through her business HeartSpace Herbals and Garden Design in Jamaica Plain, MA, she helps people build gardens meant for healing, ritual, and connection, not just dinner.

When she first looked into Garden Coach Academy, she wasn't sure a course built around a general garden business model would fit someone doing something as specific as hers. It did, and her story is proof that this works well beyond the vegetable patch.

Taking Herself Seriously as a Business Owner

Lauren already had real expertise. She'd studied herbalism formally and built a specialty most people never even think to look for.

What she didn't have yet was permission to treat her skills as a real business instead of a passion project, and that's often the harder gap to close.

Here's how Lauren describes the shift while taking the Garden Coach Academy course:

"It really pushed me to complete some tasks. It pushed me to really take myself seriously and to really imagine myself being in business and to take the steps to get there and to have that support. So it was a huge, it was a game changer for me."

Guidance That Still Lets You Be You

Lauren was specific about what the support felt like:

"It's such a supportive community. Nicole is so amazing with how she steps everything out. She guides you in a way that allows you to still be you and do your own individual thing, but to have some guardrails, some guidance, that can be really awesome."

A good framework doesn't flatten what makes your practice unique. It gives you edges to work inside of, so your specialty stays exactly as specific as it needs to be while the business part finally has structure around it.

What Stops You When It's Just You

Nearly every coach I've worked with sometimes struggles with knowing what to do next.

Passion and expertise on their own don't stop you from circling the same decision for six months. A program that hands you the next step does.

Lauren was honest about what happens without that structure:

"If it's just you and yourself, I know I spun a lot. It really helps to keep moving forward."

Her Advice to Anyone Considering Joining:

"If it speaks to you at all, pull the trigger and do it."

What the Garden Coach Academy Online Course Builds, Whatever Your Niche

• A twelve-week structure that adapts to your specialty, whether that's vegetable gardens, herb gardens, native plants, or something else. The course covers business setup, offers, finding clients, and running the business long-term.
• Real pricing and sales frameworks, so you're not guessing what a consult, an install, or ongoing coaching should cost, no matter what kind of garden you specialize in.
• Weekly live coaching calls to work through the specific questions your niche brings up that a generic course wouldn't touch.
• Ready-made business assets, from your website setup to client agreements and consult intake forms, so the paperwork is handled and you can focus on your specialty.
• A Gardenary wholesale account, active from week one, alongside room to build your own specialized offers on top of it.
• Lifetime access and an ongoing coach community, including coaches working in niches well outside typical vegetable gardening.

You can see the current curriculum and apply at Garden Coach Academy.

Where Lauren's Business Lives

Lauren works with clients through HeartSpace Herbals and Garden Design, guiding them toward herbal gardens built for food, medicine, and a deeper connection to plants, whether that's a small container garden or a larger shared community space.

She trained in herbalism and plant spirit healing at the Gaia School of Healing in Vermont and studied permaculture design through the Resilience Hub in Maine. She's also an Accredited Organic Land Care Professional through the NOFA Organic Land Care Program, a member of the Permaculture Association of the Northeast and the Ecological Landscape Alliance, and a Certified Gardenary Consultant.

If you live near Jamaica Plain, MA, and want a garden built around healing, ritual, and connection rather than a typical vegetable bed, you can book a complimentary call directly through HeartSpace Herbals and Garden Design.