We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alexis Bumpers. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alexis below.

Alexis, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

The mission of my business is to empower everyday people to grow food that they love with the space that they have. As an urban gardener that lives in Washington, DC, I’ve encountered different challenges with figuring out how to grow food with limited space in my backyard and in my house. I’ve also met people who’ve shared that they were interested in growing food, but felt discouraged to do so because they didn’t have access to a growing space outdoors. Over the years I’ve learned creative ways to grow food in small spaces outdoors and indoors, which I use to teach people how to grow their own food.

Alexis, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started a garden as an adult on our deck when my husband and I first moved into our home in 2018. I was first introduced to gardening as a little girl when I visited my grandparents’ home in southern Georgia. My grandfather grew a variety of vegetables on their acres of land, and my grandmother cooked and preserved their harvests. I always appreciated the idea of growing my own food, but never thought I’d be the one doing it; especially living in a small urban residence in Washington, DC. Eventually my husband and I transformed our backyard into a garden oasis which I’ve been able to grow new fruits and vegetables in our garden because of the way I learned to maximize our small space.

I created a garden Instagram page in 2021 as an outlet during the pandemic and after having my first daughter, which gained many followers over the years showcasing tips and inspiration to gardening in an urban spaces. From this I started a garden consultation business where I offer virtual and in person garden consultations to help people start and design the garden of their dreams. In addition to this, I created E-Books and guides for gardening in small spaces along with offering in person workshops in my local community.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

My passion for gardening ignited in 2020 when I was pregnant with my first daughter and was isolated at home because of the pandemic. I had been gardening in prior years, but this year in particular was the year that I took gardening more seriously as a hobby.

After creating my gardening Instagram page, I realized how much of a gift I had at growing food and teaching others to grow food, that I became interested in starting a gardening business, but doubted that I would be able to juggle parenthood with a new baby and having a business.

Over time I contemplated this business idea and kept having imposters syndrome because my business plan wasn’t perfect or fine tuned before launching.

It wasn’t until I was on maternity leave after having my second daughter that I had the courage to start working on my first gardening E-Book to teach people how to grow what they love in small spaces. A few short months after that, I applied for a business license and formed The Urban GardenHER LLC for garden consultations and education. Although my business plan wasn’t refined, this was the spark I needed to start my business.

Shortly after announcing my business, I received business opportunities for garden consultations to help people set up their gardens, offers to participate in local farmer’s markets, and even opportunities to facilitate gardening workshops.

This is just an example of how my resilience allowed me to pursue my passion to educate people to garden and grow their own food.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

My gardening and business Instagram page, The Urban GardenHER, has an interesting and funny introduction

In 2021, almost one year after I had my first daughter, I started my Instagram gardening page as a way to share pictures and updates from my garden, outside of my personal life.

I remember one of my friends messaging me that she would always get excited when she saw an alert that I posted an IG story on my personal page because she thought it would be pictures of my daughter, but would be disappointed whenever she saw that it was “just pictures of my garden”.

It was then that I decided to create a separate gardening social media page to share pictures and videos of my gardening journey, and to connect with other gardeners. Starting my gardening Instagram page was a pivotal moment of my life, besides starting a garden. I used my social media platform as a creative outlet to share my gardening journey through photography and videography, and met so many gardeners and creators that helped me to learn how to garden and grow my social media audience.

My Instagram audience grew quickly when I started my gardening page because of how authentic and transparent my content was at showing my garden successes and failures. I would also engage my followers as an amateur gardener learning from other gardeners instead of portraying myself as an expert gardener. A follower once commented that they appreciated my transparency of successes and failures in the garden; which made them feel like they too could garden.

As I became more experienced at gardening, I would start to share more educational content and even shared products I was using from brands that I partnered with. I also started a YouTube page with more long form content for gardeners that wanted to deep dive into my gardening content. Eventually my Instagram page became my marketing platform for my garden consultation business.

My advice for businesses starting a social media presence is to build their social media audience organically, and to engage their audience like everyday clients or peers.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://theurbangardenher.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theurbangardenher/?igsh=dG90MWh1MXUyOWpq&utm_source=qr#
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheUrbanGardenHER
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@theurbangardenher?_t=8s6wEvVhLv4&_r=1

Image Credits

I’m the photographer for all the pictures.