Welcome to Cheeky Garden: An Online Plant Nursery Rooted in Real Gardens

Cheeky Garden Is Now an Online Plant Nursery

I can finally say it: Cheeky Garden is now an online plant nursery.

You can now shop the plants I work with every day across my two very different New York gardens: my suburban Long Island property in USDA Zone 7b and our 62-acre property in Upstate New York in Zone 5b.

Hydrangeas. Perennials. Flowering shrubs. Privacy trees. Landscape plants. These are

the plants I prune, move, divide, design with, experiment with, and learn from year after year.

These are the plants you see growing in my gardens and the plants I talk about every day. And now, you can grow them in yours.

But the story of Cheeky Garden didn’t start with an online plant store.

It started years earlier, in the backyard of a 425-square-foot apartment. 

The Tiny Backyard That Started Cheeky Garden

During the COVID lockdown, in the first year of my marriage, my husband and I were living in a 425-square-foot ground-level apartment in a mother-daughter home.

Thankfully, our landlord was my cousin, which made the space feel less like a rental and more like home. During a time when the world felt small and uncertain, our little apartment somehow felt full of possibility.

As spring arrived and the weather warmed up, we spent almost every evening outside together fixing up the yard. That outdoor space truly became our escape.

There was an old, dusty patch where a pool used to sit that we transformed into a simple fire pit area. We added edging, planted flower beds, and slowly started bringing life back into a largely ignored backyard.

Most of the plants came straight from my dad’s garden, which made everything feel even more meaningful from the start.

One of my favorite parts of that first garden was the flower bed we built around a large tree that cast the prettiest dappled shade across the yard. Hanging from the trunk was my cousin’s old childhood tire swing, and somehow the whole space felt nostalgic, peaceful, and alive all at once. That sense of whimsy—creating gardens that feel personal, a little unexpected, and full of life—is something I still bring to my own spaces and my clients’ projects today.

That little yard taught me something important: gardening isn’t about perfection. It’s about creating spaces that make people feel something. 

Spaces that make people want to gather.

A Love of Gardening Rooted in Family

Gardening has always been part of my story.

My father was born on a farm in Naples before immigrating to America when he was just six years old, and so much of my love for gardening came directly from him.

Growing up, he would take me on nature walks, teaching me the names of plants, flowers, and trees along the way.

Some of my earliest memories are tied to being outside with him—digging in the dirt, watching things bloom, and learning that gardens are something you build slowly, season after season.

• Peonies—or, as my dad calls them, “Chinese pom poms”
• Hostas
• Bearded blue irises
• Orange daylilies—that almost everyone on Long Island insists on calling tiger lilies, even though they are definitely not the same thing.

Those were the plants he brought to my first little apartment garden. He gave me the plants, and I got to work. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was growing more than a garden. I was finding my way back to something that had always been there.

Building a Long Island Garden in Zone 7b

Fast forward to 2021, when we moved into our first home in Nesconset, New York. The yard sold us on the whole thing. There was a pondless waterfall, existing flower beds, mature plants, and—most importantly—structure. And let me tell you, I’ve done nothing but build on it ever since.

The day after we moved in, we opened the front door to find my dad already outside planting tulip bulbs for the following spring between the annuals that would soon fade for the season. It was October, and that moment perfectly captures what gardening has become in my life: something deeply connected to family, tradition, creativity, and home.

Over the years, I’ve transformed nearly every corner of our suburban Long Island property.Some projects started with a plan. Others started because I saw a plant I loved and decided I would figure out where it belonged later.

I’ve planted things in the wrong place and moved them. I’ve cut things I shouldn’t have cut. I’ve bought plants because they were beautiful without having the slightest idea where I was going to put them.

I’ve also watched tiny trees become walls of green and empty spaces become some of my favorite places on our property.

The Incrediball Hydrangea Hedge Outside My Kitchen Window

One of my favorite garden projects is the Incrediball hydrangea hedge outside my kitchen window. I wanted to transform the view from inside our home and create a layered landscape that would feel intentional throughout the year.

I planted Incrediball hydrangeas alongside Emerald Green arborvitae, using the evergreens for structure and the hydrangeas for enormous white blooms and seasonal change. The result is exactly the kind of garden I love most.

Not one beautiful plant sitting by itself.

• Layers
• Evergreen structure
• Flowers
• Texture

And a garden that changes as the seasons move.

It’s also a garden I actually live with. I see these plants from my kitchen. I watch them emerge in spring, bloom through summer, change in fall, and stand through winter.

I prune them, troubleshoot them, photograph them, and learn from them year after year.

Building Raised Vegetable Garden Beds From Scratch

My edible garden has also expanded far beyond ornamental landscaping.

This year, I turned an unused stretch of side yard into a raised vegetable garden with two garden beds, obelisks, a growing arch, pathways, and space to grow vertically.

Now those raised beds are filled with tomatoes, cucumbers, squash peppers, eggplant,

beans, carrots, garlic, herbs, berries, flowers and more.

I grow Sungold, Cherokee Purple, San Marzano, Black Cherry, Red Currant, Matt’s Wild Cherry, Roma, Beefsteak, and other tomato varieties.

I grow cucumbers up obelisks, experiment with succession sowing, plant flowers among the vegetables, make plenty of mistakes, and share what happens next.

Because that’s the part of gardening I find most interesting. Not the perfect harvest photo. The process.

• What happens when you accidentally cut the main stem off a tomato plant?
• Why are your squash flowers falling off?
• When is a cucumber actually ready to pick?
• What do you do with everything after you harvest it?

My raised vegetable beds have become another place where I can learn in real time—and bring everyone following along with me.

Gardening in Two Different Climates: Zone 7b and Zone 5b

One of the things that makes Cheeky Garden different is that I garden in two completely different worlds.

Most of my home garden is located on suburban Long Island in USDA Zone 7b, where I focus on hydrangeas, ornamental perennials, pollinator gardens, privacy landscaping, edible gardening, and outdoor living spaces.

Then, in 2022, my dad and uncle purchased a hunting and leisure property in Upstate New York—a rugged 62-acre mini mountain with a barn and home built in 1890, located in USDA Zone 5b.

Since then, it has become one of my favorite creative projects. What started as raw land has slowly evolved into a peaceful outdoor retreat. We’ve created outdoor gathering spaces, added landscape plantings, and started building what I hope will eventually become a self-sustaining permaculture orchard.

Gardening in both Zone 7b and Zone 5b has completely changed the way I think about plants. The growing seasons are different. The wildlife pressure is different. The scale is different. Even the gardens tell different stories.

Raising the Next Generation of Gardeners

And now, I get to watch this love of gardening continue with my daughter.

She’s almost three years old and absolutely loves helping me water the plants every day—and honestly, the extra help is appreciated.

When she first learned to talk, I used to ask her what she wanted to be when she grew up. Without hesitation, she would say, “A planter,” or “grow plants.” And somehow, at almost three years old, she’s still sticking to her story.

Watching my dad take her on the same nature walks he once took me on feels like life coming full circle.

Real-World Gardening Tips From My Own Backyard

Somewhere along the way, I started sharing all of this. Not because I had it all figured out. Because I didn’t.

Cheeky Garden became a place to share the real process: the garden transformations, the experiments, the mistakes, the plants that surprised me, and the projects that turned out better than I ever imagined.

I show what plants look like when they’re tiny and what they become years later.

I share real-world hydrangea pruning and plant care tips, privacy hedge ideas, raised-bed vegetable gardening, landscape transformations, and the things I wish I had known before I started.

And now, Cheeky Garden is becoming something more.

Cheeky Garden: More Than an Online Plant Store

Cheeky Garden is now my own brand and online nursery, filled with the kinds of plants I work with every day in my gardens.

• Hydrangeas.
• Perennials.
• Privacy trees.
• Flowering shrubs.
• Landscape plants.

The plants I actually grow, design with, prune, move, photograph, experiment with, and genuinely love.

This isn’t a random catalog of plants.

It’s an extension of the gardens I’ve been building all along.

Shop the Plants You See Growing in My Gardens

Now, you can shop the plants I work with every day across my Zone 7b Long Island garden and Zone 5b Upstate New York property.

And when you follow Cheeky Garden on social media, the experience doesn’t end when a plant arrives at your door. You’ll see how these plants actually grow in real gardens.

I’ll show you where I plant them, why I chose them, how I use them in the landscape, when and how I prune them, what I wish I had known before planting them, and how they change from one season—and one year—to the next.

You won’t just see a plant sitting in a nursery pot. You’ll see what it can become.

That’s what I want Cheeky Garden to be: a place where you can shop plants online, see them growing in the real world, and get practical gardening tips and inspiration to help you grow them at home.

Welcome to the next chapter of Cheeky Garden. 🌿