In this episode, Dr. Amy Sapola interviews “plantrepreneur” Nick Cutsumpus, who demonstrates how to turn your passion into a full-time living. Nick is a plant coach, urban gardener, and landscape designer. His passion for plants began in his parents’ backyard oasis. Nick, being an athlete who enjoyed the outdoors, took his mother’s suggestion to start a garden since he loved being outside and had a love for food.
Then, as a young adult, Nick moved to New York City to pursue a corporate life. Residing in what he calls a 600-square-foot concrete box, he lost—and greatly missed—his green oasis. So, he did the only reasonable thing: he bought 120 houseplants!
Not only did this surround Nick with the greenery he longed for, but it also caused plenty of people to ask him a lot of questions. He soon began to offer consulting services: how to choose and care for plants in an apartment, on a terrace, on a rooftop. Before long, he left the corporate world to become a full-time plant coach.
His mission is to leave the Earth greener than how he found it, empowering people to confidently create their own green spaces in pursuit of environmental action and social justice. His 150-plus clients are in New York and California, and his work has been featured in top publications and shows: The New York Times, Vogue, Food Network, Business Insider, and Goop.
Nick is the author of Plant Coach: The Beginner’s Guide to Caring for Plants and the Planet and the host of Netflix’s Instant Dream Home—and there’s Netflix’s The Big Flower Flight. In the show, participants create giant plant sculptures using foliage and plants. By doing so, Nick says, you find creative muscles you never knew you had. Instead of putting plants into pots and containers, you find yourself creating a ten-foot lion out of grass.
It’s important to do so in an eco-conscious way, he notes, honoring the plant being used and the planet.
Now, here’s what he has to say in our Farming for Health podcast, Plants, Happiness, and Mindful Neglect.
Past Episodes of our Farming for Health Podcast
If you’ve missed any of our previous episodes, you can find them here:
- Episode One: Keto, Cruciferous Vegetables, Salt and Your Mindset
- Episode Two: Cooking, Conviviality, and Preserving the Harvest
- Episode Three: Ferments, Food Insecurity, and Wasted Food.
- Episode Four: Anti-Cancer Diet, Food as Medicine, and Vegetables.
Stay tuned for more!