About

Monica Juhas has worked professionally in horticulture for over two decades. Garden Understories has been serving the West Kootenays since 2016.

Monica has also lead workshops and created school activities to engage adults and kids with the outdoors through simple herbalism, cookery, gardening and (wild)crafting. Her motive is to remind us that “We don’t visit nature, we are nature.”  Monica has enjoyed volunteering/working with (and learning from) local schools, youth centres, horticultural masters, the Kootenay Native Plant Society and Kinseed Ecologies.

 

Other experiences include greenhouse production in Niagara on the Lake; urban gardening in Montreal; organic fruit, vegetable and flower farming around southwest BC, and estate/residential landscaping in Vancouver. Horticultural Technician Certificate from the CLNA. SOUL Organic Master Gardener.  

 

 

Monica Juhas is a plant person with 

no formal degree, 

a smattering of classroom education, 

several incredible mentors, 

lots of field experience, and 

endless passion.

She endeavors to support local gardens so that the plants can permeate our lives.

 

A note on the name Garden Understories

   In a forest, the understory is the lower layer of plant life (the canopy/overstory being the higher layer).

illustration source 

     We spend most of our time in this understory layer, tending everything from tiny-leaved ground covers to small trees. And... gardens are full of stories! The cycle of the seasons, changes as the garden matures, plus little gems only discovered when you spend real time playing and working in the garden... neon orange Flicker and dark blue Stellar Jay feathers, preserved slugs, miniature hellebore seedling forests, hidden wasp and bushtit nests, a tenacious bluebell growing through a discarded and long buried cupboard fixture.... these "under stories" seem to tell tales through surpise, delight and inspiration.
So... Garden Understories