Meet Cara De Jong | YouTuber & Gardener

We had the good fortune of connecting with Cara De Jong and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Cara, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My business is called Power to the Flower and my company is a Zone 9 Gardening YouTube Channel as well as a container consulting service for patios, porches and gardens. Power to the Flower started as an admiration and respect for entrepreneurs that followed their dreams encouraged by friends and family members who thought I could follow mine and became a small business.

When I first moved back to the United States from England in 2018 I spent a lot of time in the garden learning about my new environment. My California yard is very different in temperature and soil type then my Cambridge, England yard. I also had a much bigger space in CA and more to care for and landscape, therefore I had a big learning curve. In my first year back I watched a lot of garden YouTube channels which were the most helpful resource for me. I also read a lot of books, met a lot of gardeners at the nursery and learned as much as I could about flowers in general as well as CA dry landscaping, succulents and irrigation. During this year I realized that there wasn’t a YouTube niche for Zone 9 gardeners; most of the YouTubers I could find were in much colder climates then mine. When it comes to gardening we talk a lot about zones because temperature has a huge effect on plant growth. The United States Department of Agriculture has helpfully divided the United States into planting zones which are based on how cold an area gets on average. Most garden YouTubers are from much colder climates, where it snows! Here in the bay area of California we barely frost! I found myself learning so much about gardening from YouTube and trying out new things, but left wondering what would happen to the plant over the winter. Not only is there the winter to contest with, but also dry heat and hot summers. All of these factors affect plant choice, plant growth and where to put a plant. Noting that there was a huge void on YouTube for our area, this got me thinking about the possibility of starting Zone 9 Gardening YouTube Channel. Simultaneously I had friends asking me to help them with their containers and encouraging me to go into business for myself.

If you know me then you know I appear confident but also am afraid to take financial risks. So the idea of starting a container consulting business and YouTube channel felt somewhat doable because essentially there were no start up costs. Or at least that is what I thought at the time. With YouTube one can start with a smart phone and with the containers, people are going to pay for the materials. I may lose time but at least I wasn’t going to go into debt having had to make a huge initial investment. And the main reason I liked the idea of starting this business was because I had learned so much from YouTubers, women in particular, who had just gone for it! Trying new things, digging holes, building structures, painting, working with tools, laying irrigation….all essentially on their own. Their ‘can do’ attitude inspired me to take the same approach in my own garden. I liked the idea of inspiring folk that might otherwise think they can’t do it on their own go ahead and make their garden a little more beautiful. With the combination of consulting I was also able to broaden my own learning curve as I went into other people’s gardens and planted in new and different environments. So the two parts have worked together really nicely.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My career is quite varied…because I chose to follow my husbands career and therefore my career had to flex and change. That in itself has been a challenge, to stay engaged, active and happy in different states, countries and stages of life. I am very proud of how I have been able to flex and change and keep an optimistic attitude despite at times wondering…what in the world am I doing? But no matter what I have done, my goal has been to choose to be happy doing it.

I graduated from college as a nutrition major from UC Davis and went on to get my teaching credential Sacramento State. During that year I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and found my nutrition background quite helpful. At the end of that year my husband and I left California to Cambridge, MA where he pursued a six year PhD. My California teaching license did not switch over to Massachusetts and so I took a job as a nanny for a well established Boston family. During this time I learned to cook and care for children which bored me but helped a lot when I decided to go back to school to become a Registered Dietitian. Suddenly I had a lot more experience and know how then my 20-somethng-single-colleagues which helped very much when working with clients.

After six years in MA my husband took a job at Cambridge University in England and we moved abroad. I was pregnant with our first child and living as expats had many challenges. My husband was called to his work and therefore I decided to stay at home to manage our life and growing family. This ten year period was probably the most difficult because it felt like my career was over and all the education I had had was a waste of time and money. Those doubts plagued me and learning to live into my present was, and continues to be, my pressing goal. As one America’s Got Talent contestant said…”you can’t wait for life to not be hard anymore to decide to be happy”. During those years abroad and at home I filled my brain with roles on boards, at my children’s school, at church and in the community. I also spent a lot of time at the nearby Botanical Garden in Cambridge where my appreciation for flowers, plants, natural spaces and the curated outdoors began. Moving back to California in 2018 to follow my husbands job change led me to our home in Walnut Creek, CA where my garden space grew and so too have all of my entrepreneurial opportunities.

A year after starting Power to the Flower I was diagnosed with colon cancer and had my sigmoid colon removed. After being diagnosed at Stage 1 and being able to return to Power to the Flower, the process helped to narrow down the goals of my business and focus in on what exactly I wanted to do rather then what I previously thought I should be doing. The surgery also limited my strength and there were natural limitations put on my business in terms of what I now am able to do physically. These things have been helpful and I can see how my focus benefited from my cancer experience despite the negative ramifications.

The main lesson I have learned along my journey to being a small business owner is that everything, even the things that aren’t part of it, ARE part of the journey. Failure, maturity, wisdom and experience are what I carry forward into my future career and what I hope to pass on to my clients and subscribers…my most precious lessons.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Man, if someone was coming to Walnut Creek…I do not know what I would tell them to do because we moved her a year before covid and never really engaged! But if a European friend was coming to California and staying with us for a visit, I do know what I would recommend for them to get the NorCal feeling! A day trip to San Francisco with a visit to Alcatraz and a cable car ride. Or if you are feeling a bit traveled out, just go to Crissy Field and hang out at the beach with beautiful views of the Golden Gate bridge. The next day we’d hang out at my house drinking coffee in my rose garden and playing Viking Clash on the front lawn with appetizers. Chill. Later in the week visiting Davis, California would be a top tip! The land of milk and honey…agriculture abundance. See the nut orchards, sunflower fields and growing tomatoes going on as far as the eyes can see. Visit the best restaurant in the area: The Buckhorn in Winters, CA where you get the full small town farmer feel with the locals while eating the best steak in the region! Not to mention the town I grew up in. I guess we should throw a day trip to Napa in there! It’s important to visit…but kind of cliché and actually not somewhere I have been often despite it’s nearby location.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My shoutout goes to Garden Answer, the biggest garden YouTube channel that exists at the moment. Their channel started out as a hobby, like mine, and taught me so much about plants, gardening, persistence, failure, trying, as well as being incredibly enjoyable to watch. If they lived in Zone 9 I wouldn’t have needed to start my own channel.

I’d also like to shoutout Elaine Bartke who was the live and personal friend who inspired me to start my own business as she had a few years before, following in her footsteps she told me to just GO FOR IT, so I did! Along with my mom, who gave me a couple thousand dollars to start the company when I realized it was actually going to cost money to buy microphones, get editing equipment, and have gardening equipment! And to my husband who initiated the business idea before I ever dare say it out loud because he saw my passion. I couldn’t have started Power to the Flower without you!

Instagram: @powertotheflower

Facebook: @powertotheflowerwc

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/powertotheflower

Image Credits
All photos taken by me!