Jamison, who had previously made videos for fashion and beauty brands, started filming her successes and failures by making short reels on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, and soon, what had started as a way to stay active during the pandemic turned into a community online.

She began receiving messages from folks eager to share their own gardening experiences, and she soon found a new subset of followers on social media who also were beginner gardeners. Gardening tool brands like Little Burros took notice and signed her on for product campaigns. She’d happened on something surprising: Audiences captivated by her adventures in gardening.

Jamison shares her trials, tribulations and tricks with her viewers. She started out small, planting tomato, cucumber and bell pepper in a 4-by-8 raised garden bed in her backyard and suggests beginners and city-dwellers do the same (or in pots for things like tomatoes and cucumbers for example). “It’s easier to control as far as fertilizer and nutrition of the soil is concerned,” she said. “It also helps cut back on the amount of weeding I have to do which can be a real pain.”

Once her first harvest proved bountiful, she enlisted the help of family, friends and neighbors to take hundreds of pieces of produce off of her hands — even after making, and documenting, salsas and homemade pasta sauce with the kids.

Jamison says the most ideal time to start planting in Chicago is around Mother’s Day to avoid any chance of frosty weather. However, she acknowledges that may not provide an ideal timeline for those who want to yield a specific plant at a specific time.

“Looking at the cycle of a plant and vegetable will help you have a better understanding of when you can expect a crop and whether you should do a seed or seedling,” Jamison said. “Veggies like tomatoes can take around 50 days to go from seed to plant, while produce like strawberries can take nearly 100 days.”

Jamison also gets candid about parts of gardening she doesn’t particularly enjoy, like pests and weeding. After sharing in a blog about her experience and frustration with garden pests, Jamison secured a brand partnership with Pestie, a pesticide brand.

With the pest problem in check — and another brand partnership to boost her business — Jamison said gardening is still a practice that requires patience. Whether it’s waiting for a seed to sprout or carefully tending to pests and weeds, being patient throughout the process will result in a successful harvest.