Meet Annie Chubbuck of Seed and Vine

I recently got to chat with garden consultant Annie Chubbuck on the Grow Your Self Podcast. Annie's company, Seed and Vine Co., designs, builds, installs, and maintains kitchen gardens in Columbus, Ohio. She's one of my OG garden consultants that I got to train. I can still remember chatting with her on Instagram back in 2018, and I'm so inspired by what she's done with her company ever since.

Annie is first going to walk us through what a full year of gardening looks like in her climate.

What Does Your Garden Look Like from January Through April in Ohio?

January is when we're doing garden designs and prepping for spring. There's not anything that can be planted in January. However, if you have an existing garden, there can be crops like kale and other brassicas that have survived the winter so far. We don't get a ton of super cold days, so they might survive winter uncovered. We can also cover crops like arugula and spinach to keep them going longer. Carrots and other root crops can be overwintered in the garden.

A lot of herbs will continue through the winter, as well. That's true for hardier herbs like rosemary. I can usually go out and harvest some leaves in January, depending on the winter we've had. If there's a brutally cold day, it'll kill them off, but that's unusual.

In February, we can start seeds indoors for crops that take a bit longer to grow—broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, that kind of stuff.

Our projected last frost date for Columbus is not until mid-May, but we're usually starting to get some warmer temps by March. We typically start planting in the ground outdoors in late March or early April. We could even plant frost-tolerant greens like spinach, some lettuces, and arugula in mid-March if we're growing under covers.

What Does Your Garden Look Like from May Through August in Ohio?

May begins our warm growing season, so this is our time to grow those quintessential vegetables like tomatoes and peppers. Those go in around mid-May, which is when a lot of people want to start everything in their garden. It's actually best to start those frost-tolerant greens earlier because they do much better with the cooler temps. 

By July, the garden is overflowing and the tomatoes are going crazy. The garden looks abundant and beautiful. My favorite thing to harvest during this time is actually garlic that was planted back in the fall. It feels like a bonus since it was planted the previous year. I also love harvesting potatoes.

By August, we're harvesting a ton from the garden—peppers, tomatoes, beans, summer squash, and zucchini. You might feel overwhelmed by your harvest at this point. Not in a bad way. But you might find yourself sharing with everyone and getting creative with your produce.

I like really simple, fresh meals for my summer harvests. My favorite garden combo is tomato basil. So I'll either have a big, yummy salad or put some tomatoes and basil on burrata, maybe with a little balsamic glaze and some arugula sprinkled on top. Get a crusty bread for dipping. That's the taste of summer right there.

What Does Your Garden Look Like from September Through December in Ohio?

In September, we start planting for our second cool season. We return to those plants that we did earlier on in the year, so peas, root veggies, and a lot of the leafy greens like spinach, lettuce, arugula, and kale. Radishes are great because they're so quick from seed to harvest.

August is still a little too hot for these cool season plants, and they're slow to grow as a result. We typically wait until September. Once we get some cooler temps overnight, those plants really start to take off. 

If you want to overwinter carrots, mid-September is a great time to plant them. That gives them enough time to get a decent amount of growth. Then they'll just stay in the ground all winter. The cold temperatures actually make them super sweet. It's almost like a refrigeration period for them. We harvest them in the spring after they're finished growing, and they're very delicious. 

We typically get our first frost in Columbus around mid-October.

Late October is when we plant our garlic for the following season. 

In November and December, I'm harvesting all the stuff I planted for the second cool season, so I'm gathering up all the arugula and kale and harvesting regularly from frost-tolerant herbs like rosemary, thyme, and oregano. If it hasn't been super cold, we can still harvest some lettuce for the holidays.

If it gets really, really cold, I might cover my garden or mulch around the overwintering carrots with straw or extra compost. I've also just let them do their thing, and they've been fine.

You Clearly Know What You're Doing. How Did you Learn to Garden?

So I actually learned how to garden in New York City, the middle of the Concrete Jungle. I moved there in my 20s to work in fashion, and I lived in Alphabet City, like the far East Village. I noticed all these little pockets of community gardens when I was walking around; some blocks even had multiple gardens. I thought, "This is so cool. What a neat little oasis in the middle of New York City."

I figured out how to join the community garden across the street from my building. I knew nothing. They'd be like, "Oh, here's your row to plant." And I'd say, "Great! How do I do that?" 

Some of them had been planting in that space for 20 years, so they were a wealth of knowledge. They taught me everything from compositing to growing brussels sprouts. It was such an incredible way to learn, without having to deep dive into Google or YouTube and figure it out on my own.

I would go to my garden during the week pretty regularly. I'd leave my crazy busy job, grab my stuff, and then go sit in the garden and have a little dinner or just be amongst the plants. I'd even have friends over there for dinner. It was amazing, a real mental health game changer for me. 

How Did You Go from Fashionista in New York to Garden Consultant in Ohio?

I moved to Columbus, Ohio, to this adorable little urban area. I didn't have a ton of space to work with, but I knew I had to have a garden. I still worked in fashion at the time, but I designed and built a little garden in my tiny backyard. And we got so much produce out of it. It was incredible and it brought me so much joy.

Then my friends and family started asking me for help designing functional garden spaces. I definitely made a lot of mistakes with my first design, but I started helping others. I had my two kids, and in 2018, when my youngest was about six months old, I thought to myself, "I think this could be a business. I'm gonna go for it." I started out just coaching people through DIY installations. I wanted to scale my business, but I wasn't sure I could take on more DIY clients.

That's when I found Gardenary on Instagram and realized, "Oh my God, this is I want to do. I want to do designs and installations like these." I did some light internet stalking and discovered you had a program for garden coaching. I signed up for it, and here we are over five years later.

Who's Your Favorite Client You've Gotten to Work with?

It's hard to pick honestly. I've really lucked out and had some amazing clients that I've connected with and wanted to be friends with beyond building their gardens.

I did one installation for a client in 2020, the height of the pandemic. We had a virtual consultation, and then I went to measure her space separately, without meeting her in person. She has triplet boys, so we connected over motherhood. She wanted a space for her to garden with them, and we designed this beautiful stone kitchen garden right in her front yard. 

She took a chance on me in the beginning and trusted me to do a larger-scale garden, which felt really good. She's still a maintenance client to this day, which I love. She's moving, and we're already planning to build and install her next kitchen garden. 

What Advice Would You Give to Yourself When You Were Just Starting to Garden?

I think I would tell her to believe in herself more, that she can do hard things and that she doesn't need to suffer from impostor syndrome or self-doubt. We're not going to have all the answers, but we will figure it out and come out on the other side. 

What Legacy Do You Want to Leave Behind Through Your Business?

Columbus is so great at supporting local small businesses, and I love the community feel there. I want to continue to support that community, support our local food system, support nature. That's what feels good to me, and I hope to keep doing it. 

I also want to make a difference to each client. We like to provide our clients with a lot of support through knowledge. We do not just want to build a garden and then say, "Okay, bye! Good luck!" We offer free coaching sessions with each installation and then an option to continue with maintenance. So we want everyone to be able to grow food at home and feel comfortable and confident. Gardening should feel accessible to them and their lives, not overwhelming. We also give them a beautiful space that they want to spend time in.

Follow Annie & Prepare to Be Inspired

Annie took me to gardening school on the Grow Your Self podcast and taught me how she grows potatoes in her raised beds. You've got to check out her tips here.

If you want that beautiful stone garden, you can find Annie at Seed and Vine or follow her on Instagram. Book her company ASAP if you live anywhere near Columbus because she's about to be real busy once everybody decides they want a beautiful but low-maintenance garden in their backyards, too. Follow her for the garden inspiration if nothing else.

Thank you for being here and bringing back the kitchen garden!