#23 Someone Else: Genevieve Layman

A monthly feature of Some Sundays! Today, the Gather & Make author shares two mind-expanding podcasts, three must-have gardening tools, and kid-friendly campsites near Portland.

Feb 23, 2025

Someone Else is a feature of Some Sundays: Once a month, I ask people I really like and am inspired by some questions about what they like and are inspired by. 🙂

Genevieve Layman — author of Gather & Make: Plant-Based Projects for All Seasons, horticultural therapist, and owner of Planted garden design — understands the language of both people and plants. And she’s incredibly generous in sharing the depth of her understanding.

I’ve been lucky to know Genevieve as a friend, fellow parent, excellent campsite-picker, and a go-to garden expert for the past decade. She creates the most magical spaces, indoors and out, with her husband, Sean (and their son, Julian) here in Portland. No matter the project at hand, her work is rooted in connection — and you can feel it.

The gardens she helps clients create aren’t just beautiful; they’re spaces that invite interaction, reflection, and a deeper relationship with nature. Whether working with first-time homeowners eager to get their hands in the soil or designing climate-adapted landscapes for seasoned plant lovers, she approaches each project with sustainability, purpose, and flow in mind.

In addition to offering garden design services, Genevieve is currently in graduate school studying for a masters in clinical counseling (read on for the counseling theories that are resonating most with her right now).

Today, she shares three tools all gardeners need, advice for sustaining adult friendships while parenting a young child, and what’s been on her mind lately (as well as how she’s been working to think less). Let’s dig in. ;)

On mornings:

I had such a lovely routine of meditating, journaling, and reading tarot in the mornings before the day got going, but the winter has kept me in bed longer, so there’s less spaciousness for that.

My parents live across the street from us, and my son likes to have breakfast over there with them. I usually drink coffee and start on grad school pretty quickly after I wake up. Then I go to a yoga class mid-morning after dropping Julian at school.

On bedtime:

My folks got a hot tub last year and my son and I love to take a soak after dinner, before bed. It’s been my favorite thing this winter.

The nice thing about a hot tub is you get to spend a lot more time looking up at the night sky. Even though there are so few stars in the city, it’s still meaningful to look up at the moon, planets, and stars and remember how big it all is — and how little (and lucky) we all are.

An all-time favorite book:

Oh boy, how could someone choose just one? It’s like trying to pick a favorite plant. So much diversity! So many gifts they give! I don’t know, maybe the most accurate answer would be “the one I’m reading right now”?

Okay, if I had to choose just one, it would be Tales of a Dalai Lama by Pierre Delattre. I’ve loved it since I was a young adolescent, and still do to this day. It’s a collection of short stories published in the early 1970s, and I think hard to find. The art is amazing.

Current listens:

The Emerald is a podcast that speaks to the soul about cosmologies and mythologies of the world. If you consider yourself to be a spiritual person, there is so much here. It brings discourse to the unseen, poetic, animate heart of the human experience over thousands of years. There are so many good episodes, but check out two of my favorites: Guardians & Protectors and Why Mindfulness Isn’t Enough to get started.

The Telepathy Tapes is one that is important to listen to in order and all the way through. It will expand your idea of reality and consciousness. I’ll let it speak for itself — and encourage you to listen! It’s sparked a lot of interesting reflection and conversations.

I’m also listening to Pale Jay, Thee Sacred Souls, and Trevor Hall — but also Taylor Swift because my 6-year old is into her right now.

Top 3 hand tools for gardening:

Easy: Pruners (doesn’t matter what kind, as long as they’re sharp); a Hori Hori (Japanese gardening knife) is great for cutting, hand-weeding, digging, planting, and anything else you do close to the ground; and a long-handled winged weeder — which is hard to find and comes in large head and small headed styles. The small headed one is where it’s at. Best standing weeding tool I’ve found.

And really, being a good gardener just means you’re willing to weed, and often.

I always recommend supporting your neighborhood nursery! Pruners and Hori Horis are gardener favorites, so they’ll be there. The winged weeder is a personal fave that the rest of the world has not yet embraced, so it may be harder to find. You can order online, but it will be $$.

Favorite spot in the house:

Wherever the sun is shining through. Since it’s winter, I’ve been spending a lot of time doing grad school or reading to my kid on the couch. It’s cozy and I like looking at the art and my things in the living room.

On living in Montavilla:

Stark Street meets so many needs for us and it feels like a little downtown (for my small town heart). There is a movie theater, coffee shops, a hardware store, yoga studio, restaurants, pet store, international grocery store, etc. I really love the sense of community.

Best thing you’ve cooked recently:

A neighbor of mine makes the best tasting harissa and he recently dropped a jar on my porch. I made Ottolenghi’s pappardelle with harissa, black olives, and capers and it blew me away. 10/10.

Thoughts on sustaining adult friendships while parenting a young child:

Fold the relationships that are important into your life. Make it easy and often vs. special and infrequent. Meet-ups at playgrounds, or walking the dog together, or doing life together in ways that help connections happen more often.

I have a friend I do yoga with and even though there isn’t a lot of time to connect deeply, I really value the consistency and rhythm of relationships.

Something that surprised you about being a parent:

I’m pretty amazed at how much energy these little child bodies hold and generate! Geez! The other surprise is how I have changed physiologically. How now I’m afraid of bridges for some reason, how I feel a jolt of electricity in my body (like a warning) if I see a kid almost get hurt. How I cry so much more easily.

Favorite kid-friendly camp spots near Portland:

Closest: Oxbow
In the summer there are millions of plump black tadpoles in the side stream. It’s safe for the kids to swim, and it isn’t as popular as the other beaches in the park. One time when I was camping there, I woke up and heard the trees harmonizing a song of protection. Magical place.

Semi-close: Toll Bridge Campground by Hood River
It’s first-come, first-served, so great for last minute planners like me — and the group site is amazing.

A bit of a drive: Forlorn Lakes
Each lake only has 3 or so campsites. Small, sleepy mountain lakes with not a lot of people!

Best and worst parts of self-publishing your book:

I loved everything about creating my book: writing it, designing it, editing it, self-publishing it. The only thing I did not love (and still don’t) is selling it. Turns out that is a very important part of self-publishing! If you don’t like selling your book, then you won’t sell it. That might be okay, but good to know from the get-go.

And if that is the case for you and you still want to self-publish, I would say print on-demand vs. offset printing. And enter your book into book award competitions — awards help!

Maybe find someone who does love selling your book, and pay them to do that part?

Advice for starting a small business:

There are so many aspects to running a small business, but I didn’t think of any of them before starting my own. So my advice would be to try it out! You can learn as you go.

If you have the money, I would say hire a business coach to help. I never have, but want to. You can’t be good at all the things. Finding out what you are and aren’t good at is important.

I think a common problem with women who own their own businesses is around how much you ask for your services/goods. It’s probably worth more than you think it is. I’m still learning that lesson.

Currently thinking about:

I’m in grad school for counseling, and I’m in the process of exploration and identity creation as a counselor. There are many theories that resonate with me, but I’ve been a student of nonviolent communication for 10 years and it will for sure be a part of my approach.

I’m also interested in studying Hakomi (experiential psychotherapy), internal family systems, feminist theory, and solution-focused brief therapy. Mindfulness has been really supportive for my own self awareness and connection, so I’ll likely incorporate that as well.

Right now I’m really enjoying being a student and absorbing new information.

I’ve also been trying to quiet the external and listen more closely to my inner experience. There is so much to worry about, so much concern alive right now. Trying not to think as much!

Meditating is so helpful for this. The hardest part about meditation is just doing it; it’s easy not to. But becoming still, tuning inward and being a witness to your internal world is hugely supportive in becoming intimate with your experience.

Getting curious about how emotions show up in your body and really tracking the sensations can allow you to access your wise self when experiencing them outside of meditation. I find I have great access to peace when I accompany myself in this way.

There is so much available right now around meditation and mindfulness, so many apps. Try out a few, commit for a few months, and see what you notice.

Although she’s in school, Genevieve is still offering garden design services through Planted! She’s been in the horticultural world for more than 15 years and specializes in helping people create outdoor spaces where they feel connected to all the life around them. Her designs tend to have a Mediterranean/Northern California/PNW native feel — they’re the kind of gardens that make you pause when you’re walking by to take it all in (and take notes for your own).

She’s currently scheduling new clients in June and is pretty consistently booked 3-4 months out (so reach out soon if you’re interested!).

If you aren’t in Portland, Gather & Make is a great way to experience some of her creative insight (you can take a peek inside her book here).

Thank you for sharing so much of your time and yourself, Genevieve!

⭕️ The large American family is becoming a luxury good If you’re a parent, you’re probably not surprised to hear that in the U.S. today it costs around $300,000 to raise one child from birth to age 17 — and this doesn’t include higher education, which adds, on average, another $150,000. But the “big family” image conjured in the popular imagination even just a few years ago (religious, hand-me-down clothes, etc.) has shifted dramatically to a glossy, high income version in American popular culture today (think Kardashians, Elon Musk, B-team Real Housewives).

⭕️ You can’t post your way out of fascism Spending a lot of time online posting about what people in power are saying and doing is not going to accomplish anything. If anything, it’s exactly what they want.

⭕️ A Black family now owns the site of America’s largest slave revolt Twin Black sisters are transforming Woodland, the former plantation in LaPlace, Louisiana, into a museum and community space where visitors can learn about the revolt that happened there in 1811, its connection to present-day activism, and how to respond to the climate threats that continue to destroy Black livelihoods and landmarks across the south.

⭕️ What I listened to while writing this: Flow State.