At Epic Gardening, our mission is simple:
We want to help 10,000,000 people around the world learn how to grow plants.
Since founding this website as a hobby in 2013, Epic Gardening has grown to reach millions of aspiring gardeners in over 100 countries around the world.
This website is for you if:
- You want to grow your own food
- You want to stop killing your houseplants
- You want to prevent garden pests, diseases, and problems
- You want to learn creative gardening techniques like hydroponics, aquaponics, etc.
Here at Epic Gardening, we blend science and nature and put that knowledge in the palm of your hand.
The Team
Kevin Espiritu, Founder
Hi there – I’m Kevin. I got into gardening in early 2011 with my first hydroponics setup. I lived in a condo back then, so I didn’t have space for a big backyard soil garden.
I had to get creative.
Learning about urban gardening was eye-opening for me. As a self-admitted geek and someone with an obsessive personality, I got hooked. I started to build all sorts of bizarre hydroponic systems and eventually, my friends and family started to comment and ask how they could make some of these on their own.
They were amazed that plants could grow in these contraptions and wished there was a place to learn more about it.
When I started learning how to grow plants — both edible and ornamental — I was frustrated with the quality of information out there.
It’s no wonder people don’t think they can grow plants…the information was just terrible!
So I started this site to change that. I do my best to put out the absolute highest quality and most in-depth gardening content on the internet.
Q. What’s your favorite plant?
A. I’m cheating here, but I’m a huge fan of both beans and peas. Both for their soil-building properties and the fact that they’re so darn versatile both in the garden and the kitchen.
Q. What is your “spirit vegetable”?
A. I’m probably a Chinese long bean. I’m of half-asian heritage and oddly tall for my genetics, which reminds me of the super-long beans grown in many parts of China (though we grow them over here in the USA too)!
Q. What’s the most unusual plant you’ve grown?
A. I grew a Miracle Berry plant, the berry that turns sour things sweet. It was WILD!
Lorin Nielsen, Editor in Chief
Hi! I’m Lorin. As a kid, I planted my first plant under the careful tutelage of my mom. However, the neighbor’s cherry tomatoes were what really had my attention.
The tastiest food is always the stuff you grow yourself… or maybe it’s the stuff you raid from the neighbor’s garden as a kid. Either way, I was hooked from that moment.
For years, I’ve had my hands buried deep in the soil no matter where I was.
While living in an apartment, my balcony was a green spot in an urban landscape. I’ve rented plots at community gardens to grow insanely-tall tomato plants and other food crops. Currently, I’m in the process of reclaiming a weed-filled yard from invasives and turning it into a family food garden.
Since I also happen to be a writer, when I had the chance to dive in and contribute to Epic Gardening, how could I resist?
I’m absolutely thrilled to be able to share all of the great information I’ve accumulated over the years with everyone. No matter if you have a foot of space or an acre, you can grow in it!
Q. What’s your favorite plant?
A. If I absolutely have to pick a favorite plant (and it’s hard!), it’s going to be the tomato plant. They’re the one plant I absolutely must grow every single year. But I love edible gardening in general, because edible plants can produce a gorgeous bed!
Q. What is your “spirit vegetable”?
A. Recently, it’d have to be a potato because I just spent too much of the winter months on my couch. But at least I’m a sweet potato!
Q. What’s the most unusual plant you’ve grown?
A. There’s been quite a few weird ones, but I’ll have to go with a tiny redwood tree in a jar. It was developed from genetic material from a California redwood and was reproduced through splicing in a sterile lab environment.
The sealed jar was its own miniature ecosystem, creating “rain” through moisture evaporation and condensation, and the tree was planted in a nutrient gel. The tree eventually got too large for its jar, and the acclimation to the outside world didn’t go so well. But for nearly a year, I had a tree in a jar!
Writing Team
Rachel Garcia
Rachel here! Even though my dad’s an avid gardener, I didn’t discover my love for it until I went to college. I took a landscape design course for an elective and was hooked – plants are amazing!
In no time, my windowsill was cramped with potted plants from the grocery store. My roommates joked that I would wake up one morning tangled in leaves. Unfortunately, they also teased me about how many of my plants died.
Luckily, I was able to cure my black thumb with lots of practice and horticulture classes. My absolute favorite was a Special Projects course where I conducted a semester-long study on succulent propagation.
During that course, I really came to appreciate how beautiful the science behind each plant is. Even now, the first thing I do when I get a new plant is research it.
Epic Gardening is a fantastic source for all gardeners and I love being part of it. Through learning and teaching, we can work to turn all black thumbs green!
Q. What’s your favorite plant?
Succulents! That includes thousands of species though, so I’ll go with Portulaca grandiflora (Moss Rose). It’s a great little ground cover that doesn’t ask for much. Not to mention, it has gorgeous flowers.
Q. What is your “spirit vegetable”?
I’ll go with a beetroot. I’m a homebody, so I metaphorically live underground. Plus, dark reddish-purple is one of my favorite colors!
Q. What’s the most unusual plant you’ve grown?
One time, as a broke college student, I scraped some moss off the sidewalk so I could watch how it grows. I kept it alive in a plastic bag until it accidentally got thrown away (oops!). Someday I’ll give it another try and be more careful.
Erin Matas
Hi, I’m Erin! I got hooked on growing food because of Mrs. Brenkman, my third-grade teacher in the 80s.
That corn seed that I started in our classroom window turned into an enormous stalk way taller than me after transplanting it at home. It first produced several incredible ears of corn and then what my parents called a “bumper crop” of a few more ears.
I only found out in my 30s that my parents had created this second crop by attaching store-bought corn to the stalk, making me believe that I was an amazing little Wisconsin farmer.
You know what? I’ve been chasing that magical feeling ever since, growing veggies wherever I could – in the middle of a San Francisco backyard, in a community garden in Ann Arbor, in pots on a patio in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, and most recently in the northernmost reaches of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
I am a Michigan State University Extension Advanced Master Gardener. I am also a librarian at a STEM-focused university with twin toddlers and a mathematician spouse. Growing food for my family and experimenting with unique vegetable varieties started as a hobby but has become an energizing part of my life that I love sharing with others.
Connect With Epic Gardening
Along with the blog, we also run a weekly gardening newsletter and am on a few different social networks.
- Follow me on Instagram, where I share gardening tips and photos from Epic Gardening community members who use the #epicgardening hashtag.
- Listen to the Epic Gardening podcast, a daily 3-5 minute show featuring one juicy piece of gardening info.
- Subscribe to my YouTube channel, where I release gardening videos as often as possible.
- Subscribe to the Epic Gardening newsletter for weekly updates, giveaways, and more.
- Join the Epic Gardening Facebook group, with hundreds of gardeners from all around the world.
- Follow me on Pinterest, Twitter, and TikTok for more gardening inspiration.