By: Gary Winkelman | C&G Newspapers | Published June 12, 2026
METRO DETROIT — If you want a better body, get a personal trainer.
If you want a better landscape, try a garden coach.
That’s right, a garden coach — someone who can do everything from walking your property while offering advice and feedback to helping plan best locations and care for favorite flowers and plants. It’s an emerging concept aimed at guiding individuals toward successful outdoor outcomes and growing confidence in gardeners of all types.
Liz Will, a Macomb County-based garden coach, said gardening can be a challenging undertaking and she’s pleased when she can help turn more thumbs green.
“I’m glad there’s somewhere that people can go to get help so that they don’t get frustrated and think that they’re not good at gardening and they quit,” Will said. “Everyone can be a successful gardener if they have the right tools, so I feel like it’s a privilege to help people find that success. I’m passionate about it.”
Will runs Learn To Grow Gardens, which offers a variety of coaching packages ranging from virtual consultations to season-long support. Her prices include $99 for a one-time, in-person session; $275 for three sessions; and $475 for six sessions.
A certified master gardener whose website includes helpful articles and other learning opportunities, Will transitioned into full-time garden coaching this year and said that business is blooming.
“I’m pleasantly surprised,” she said about how much work has been booked in 2026. “I thought I would ease into it this year, but I think the only thing holding me back is that people don’t know that the service exists.”
Although all clients’ needs are different, Will said a typical site visit includes plenty of inquiries and input.
“I do consultations where I walk people’s yards with them, answer any questions they have, and then I create an e-book of all my recommendations for their specific yard,” she said. “That’s the biggest thing I do right now. And then a lot of people invite me back to coach where I meet them regularly to teach them how to care for their yard — how to prune things, when to fertilize. I taught someone how to dig up plants and move them around. (People) just want the confidence of knowing someone’s taking them by the hand and showing them exactly how to do it.”
Jennifer Ott, who offers one-on-one garden coaching through her business, My Thyme Gardens, said people often reach out when they’re in a landscaping lurch.
“A lot of times, many of my clients will have kind of a trouble area. They don’t like the design or something’s not working or it’s getting too weedy or something like that,” she said. “
So if we’re really trying to address a specific need, we’ll dive in a little bit deeper. But basically it’s just learning how to care for their property and care for their garden.”
Ott said her coaching services cost $250 and up, depending on mileage and travel time.
Ott and Will both trace public interest in garden coaching to the COVID-19 pandemic, when more people were stuck at home and enhancing one’s property increased in popularity.
“People were staying at home,” Ott said. “They weren’t going on their vacations and instead took that money and said, ‘I’m going to make my backyard my oasis.’ And so they invested in their landscaping.”
‘Remove the overwhelm’
Although garden classes and online tutorials are common ways people gain garden knowledge, coaching is a step beyond.
“It probably covers some of the same territory, but clearly, one is more involved,” Will said. “The classes are more broad (and) the coaching is just very personalized — somebody to come right to your home and tell you exactly how to care for your garden and find your personal gardening voice.”
Will said she finds people get excited when they hear about garden coaches and are surprised it’s a real thing. If it’s still a secret, it may not be for much longer.
“Once the word gets out that a service like that exists, it’s going to be pretty big,” she said.
Will and Ott both render service throughout Macomb County, Oakland County and elsewhere. Jobs can range from modest to massive.
“I have a client who lives in a condo and has just a little patio garden and wants to make the most of it,” Will said. “But then I’ve gone out in Bloomfield Hills to people that have a couple acres.”
Likewise, clients run the gamut from twentysomethings to retirees, and everyone has their particular needs. For example, Jenell Dombruski, of Clinton Township, is getting help from Will as she takes over landscaping duties that her late husband once handled.
“There’s just so much I don’t know,” Dombruski said while touring her front and backyard gardens with Will in early May. “You know, I could flounder around and try to figure it out, but I may not be doing the right thing. But this way I have somebody that is immersed in this life and can truly tell me what is best.”
Considering all the decisions needed to get her landscape in the shape she wants, as well as information on maintaining it, Dombruski said using a garden coach was the perfect solution.
“That’s exactly what it is, just having somebody come and answer the questions,” she said while holding the notebook she jotted in during the walk around her property. Turning to Will, she said, “I really like the ideas you gave me — filling in spots that I won’t have to redo every year with perennials coming back.”
Will said gardening should be fun rather than frustrating, and coaching helps people overcome “decision fatigue.”
“What should I keep? What should I pull? What would do well here? How do I take care of it? How do I plant it?” she said, rattling off some common questions. “All of those decisions, it gets overwhelming.”
That’s where coaching comes in to give people the confidence to embrace the process and enjoy the results.
“Gardening is just so good for people,” Will said. “Gardening is something that you can put a whole lot of work into, and then you can stand back and actually see the work that you did, and other people can admire it, too. I love that I can help people do that confidently, and not second guess themselves. … My job is to remove the overwhelm.”
Similarly, Ott believes gardening has benefits beyond the aesthetic and encourages people to find joy in the deed.
“Personally, I feel like gardening is the best thing in the world, and I just want to make sure to encourage everyone to just try and start somewhere,” she said. “I think a garden is a space where you can just show up authentically, and you can start wherever you are.”
For more information about garden coaching, visit mythymegardens.com or learntogrowgardens.com.