{"id":196353,"date":"2026-04-29T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/?p=196353"},"modified":"2026-04-23T09:51:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:51:28","slug":"learning-as-you-grow-with-the-easter-gardener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/community\/learning-as-you-grow-with-the-easter-gardener\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning As You Grow With The Easter Gardener"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Rebecca
Promoting homegrown ingredients and self-sustainability, Rebecca Easter is “growing” quite a following. Photo: Carly Duke<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Whether it\u2019s the preservatives and pesticides found in mass-marketed produce or the genetic mutilation of strawberries the size of your hand, visiting a grocery store in 2026 can feel as though you\u2019re sacrificing money to prioritize nutrition. While the desire to grow your own vegetables may seem unrealistic \u2014 especially for those living in a city \u2014 local gardener Rebecca Easter<\/strong> is burying that narrative underneath mounds of nutrient-dense soil nestled neatly in sustainably-sourced planter boxes. With the aid of social media, community resources and the guidance of other gardeners, Easter has transformed her rental home\u2019s backyard into a lively space decorated fruitfully with wildflowers, pollinators and fresh produce.<\/p>\n

One would never suspect that a quaint Salt Lake City home conveniently located to the immediate south of a Smith\u2019s parking lot would actually be the perfect location to nurture a small greenhouse, eclectic rows of colorful pots and whimsical makeshift beds and planters growing veggies, flowers and herbs. Easter, known through her social media as The Easter Gardener, has been practicing self-sufficiency through gardening ever since reading the literary classic The Secret Garden<\/em><\/a>. \u201cIt changed my life,\u201d Easter says. \u201cI closed the book, went to Walmart, bought two little pots and filled them with one flower each. I was just done after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rebecca
Immediately after reading The Secret Garden, Rebecca Easter started her gardening journey. Photo: Carly Duke<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What began as a patio filled with flowers at her home in Tucson, Arizona led to Easter continuing to plant as she and her husband moved to Utah in 2020. At the height of COVID-19, Easter recalls feeling, \u201cdesperate for a community. I thought, \u2018I should start an Instagram that is just plants.\u2019 I didn\u2019t want all of the negativity. I just wanted plants and gardens and loveliness.\u201d That same evening, Easter remembers her husband finding an old bookshelf in the trash, which he repurposed to become Easter\u2019s first raised garden bed planted with tomatoes and herbs.<\/p>\n

“I didn\u2019t want all of the negativity. I just wanted plants and gardens and loveliness.\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been able to learn through my Instagram,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s what I wanted. I wanted to learn from other people because we don\u2019t have this ancestral knowledge passed down from generation to generation anymore.\u201d Easter notes that she\u2019s found a community of gardeners online that have answered questions, offered support, lent out tools and helped her feel less alone as she continues to build her garden through trial and error. \u201cFail fast,\u201d she advises. \u201cThe quicker you know something\u2019s not working then you can fix it and redirect. Every time you fail, you learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rebecca
Easter has transformed her rental home\u2019s backyard into a lively space decorated fruitfully with wildflowers, pollinators and fresh produce. Photo: Carly Duke<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Beyond social platforms, Easter also credits community gardens as being a great resource for those interested in learning to grow. She first rented a plot at Wasatch Community Gardens<\/a> as a way to \u2014 both literally and metaphorically \u2014 get her hands dirty. If newcomers prefer to learn at home, however, Easter emphasizes using what you already have to get started, motioning around her yard toward the number of repurposed buckets and older pots with sprouts already visible. While you may need to drill a drainage hole yourself, the only other items you really need are dirt and seeds (which you may also be able to grab for free through local seed libraries found at any public library near you!).<\/p>\n

“The quicker you know something\u2019s not working then you can fix it and redirect. Every time you fail, you learn.\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

From a quick scroll through Easter\u2019s current gardening journey, viewers can find plenty of handy tips and tricks including recycling old cardboard and bundles of sticks as weed barriers under soil, utilizing fabric grow bags to produce potatoes, collecting dandelion heads to steep your own dandelion tea and plenty of candid shorts that capture her badass determination to continue failing upward \u2014 all while likely wearing a heat-protectant hat and flowy sundress.<\/p>\n

Currently, Easter is working on her certification to become a Master Gardener from Utah State. As she prepares for the spring-to-summer transition, her backyard is littered with pots, planters and seed trays containing strawberries, tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, peppers, watermelons, lettuce, peas, cilantro, dill as well as many flowers and wildflowers to support pollinators. Follow her Instagram and TikTok @theeastergardene<\/em>r<\/a> for gardening tips and updates following a fruitful harvest!<\/p>\n

Read more about local educators and activists:
\nThe Educated Tree Hugger: Content Creation With Justin Davies<\/em><\/a>
\n<\/strong>The Borderlands Conference: The Divide Where We Come Together<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While the desire to grow your own vegetables may seem unrealistic, local gardener Rebecca Easter buries that narrative underneath mounds of nutrient-dense soil. … read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":196431,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[],"_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[16988,340,374],"tags":[32369,32370,15696,23843,5820],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196353"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}