Brian Brigantti was a lifelong city guy, raised in Chicago and living in New York City, when he found himself moving to a farm in rural Tennessee.
Brian Brigantti was a lifelong city guy, raised in Chicago and living in New York City, when he found himself moving to a farm in rural Tennessee. He followed his boyfriend Domonick Gravine, who had moved there shortly after they started dating. Fast forward a couple years, Brian has fully embraced country living and vegetable gardening in particular – with 2.3 million followers on Tik Tok to prove it. And Domonick has created a niche – drawing clients from around the world – for his exotic plants. We’ll talk to Brian and Domonick about the adjustment to farm life and the unexpected pleasure of getting close to your neighbors.
For even more HGTV content, head to discovery+. Go to discoveryplus.com/townsizing to start your 7-day free trial today. Terms apply.
Find episode transcripts here: https://townsizing.simplecast.com/episodes/manifesting-abundance-with-redleaf-ranchs-brian-brigantti-and-domonick-gravine
Harvest adventure Tik Tok clip:
The Garden is looking gorgeous and doing really well considering the heat this time of year.
That’s a TikTok video from Redleaf Ranch. And the farmer you hear is Brian Brigantti (BRIG-AUNTIE) — he has over 2 million followers.
Harvest adventure Tik Tok clip:
These snake gourds are huge. I definitely think it’s time to harvest them.
That’s a lottttt of gourd.
THEME IN
No one really understands how Tiktok popularity works but I understand why these videos regularly get over a million views: it’s all about the abundance.
Abundance CLIP TIKTOK
Abundance! What a sweet little harvest
It’s a catch phrase. But also a way of life. This way of appreciating the bounty that greets him every morning.
I mean, you can’t see it, but trust me when I say it, these snake gourds are huge. I don’t even want to talk about his loofahs — which, yes, you can grow loofahs – like shower loofahs-- in the vegetable garden — or then there’s his beans or peppers or any number of other plants that there’s just no way I could ever grow in my garden here on the island.
SHOW ID
This is Townsizing, a podcast from HGTV all about small town living. And I’m your host, Anne Helen Petersen.
EP INTRO
The other day I started watching Redleaf Ranch TikToks and thought I’d spend a few minutes distracting myself. Then I woke up from a trance an hour later. There’s an infectious enthusiasm that’s hard to describe — the farm includes disco balls in chicken coops, which apparently adds to the stimulation for the chickens – I don’t know – and then there’s the trademark expression of abundance every time Brian highlights whatever the garden has gifted him with that particular day.
Tik Tok: Woah. These are so cool. They smell like loofah.
In one video, Brian rattles a loofah squash that’s been drying in the shed, cuts into it, then pours out enough seeds to plant an entire field of loofahs. AGAIN. ABUNDANCE.
I’m also very emotionally invested in Brian’s journey with his chicken Olive, who he’s sort of hand-raised after the hens rejected it. Just listen to what happens when he finally moved Olive out of the house and into the coop:
Olive Moving Out Clip Tik Tok Clip [00:35-00:45] Welcome to your new crib. I know this will take some getting used to. It’s ok. Don’t make this harder than it already is.
Brian lives on Redleaf Ranch with his boyfriend Domonick Gravine (GRAVEEN). And although Domonick is more of a supporting actor on TikTok, there would be no RedLeaf Ranch TikTok, no abundance, without him. Before the pandemic, the two moved from Brooklyn to a spread outside the tiny town of Morrison, Tennessee — and even their neighbors kind of doubted they would last longer than three months. But their lives have changed in pretty wonderful and compelling ways, which I think you’ll not only hear but feel in this episode, where we get into that huge transition, what it means to “work from home” when you’re a farmer, and what it’s like to be queer in rural America. Plus, they tell me all about what it was like to exchange a $25,000 plant at the airport, which I didn’t even know was a thing that you could do.
INTERVIEW
[00:00:00] Anne: Brian and Domonick, just so listeners know who is who, do you mind introducing yourself?
[00:00:04] Domonick: my name is Domonick Ravine and my main work here is Growing Tropical Pitcher Plants. It's my business and it's called Red Leaf Exotics,
[00:00:12] Brian: and my name is Brian Brigantti. My main work here on the farm is growing our food – all the vegetables – raising our chickens, and maintaining the homestead.
[00:00:22] Anne: and creating content for
[00:00:23] Brian: media and creating content. Just sprinkle that in there.
[00:00:26] Anne: we are so happy to have you on the show [CUT] [00:22:29] can you tell me just about your daily life on the farm? like what are your chores when you wake up? Like what does it look like?
[watering ambi]
[00:22:35] Domonick: I usually go right to the greenhouse. I have to water all my plants. usually the animals are fed first or dog Chloe and the three cats, which we love so much.
[cat and rooster ambi]
[00:22:56] Domonick: Every day could be a little different depending on the season and just the day. but usually I'll go down the greenhouse water, my plants on Monday and Tuesday we pack a ton of orders and Brian helps me do. that. and you go to the garden and do your thing. Every day's a little different.
Brian: Here is the vegetable garden. Basically start, get your cup of coffee, go out to the greenhouse or gardens, see what really needs to be attended to, and go from there.
[brian bite ambi]
[00:23:36] Brian: And what's really exciting, I guess with my career path and what I'm doing on TikTok, like there's like this world of people who have to like script and and conceptualize things and then create the content. Me, I just like go out to the garden. I'm like, Oh my God, this is blooming. Oh my God, look at this massive fruit. Oh my gosh, I can harvest this. The content just kind of makes itself, which is fun, and it's, it, it keeps the content exciting because it's genuinely happening. Like the surprise is really there, Like this just happened, you know? So it's a really unique space to be creating the way that that I am.
[00:24:08] Anne: You have such a great ability to capture the joy that I feel whenever I go into my garden and I see something like a new, but especially something that you haven't grown before or that hasn't bloomed yet, and like you wanna tell everyone about it but maybe the other people in your life aren't that excited that you're like, Listen, I just wanna talk to you about my Dahlia and no one else is that interested. But there are other people out there and they've found one another through, through your account.
[00:24:34] Brian: it's beautiful. TikTok has like a really great way of building that community and like sharing it organically with the right audience. Something I've never experienced on any other platform that has just made me fall in love with TikTok. Um, especially pursuing a career in photography, like, and trying to make a name for myself on social media there. Oh my gosh, the ambiance was so different. So different. And like every, especially being a photographer and the perfectionist that I am, everything had to be so polished and so curated. TikTok feels so much more authentic and, and, and raw, and I guess unpolished. Like. You're capturing the moment and sharing it, and people get to feel that, that excitement that you felt in that moment. And it's, it's awesome. love it [CUT]
Anne: Like if we were to put your address into Google Maps and come over, like what would we see on the drive over?
[00:00:38] Brian: Not much. We lived deep in the country of Tennessee in this small town called Morrison. We're about an hour and a half southeast of Nashville, so once you start getting out here, you're gonna find a lot of farmland, a few mountains.
[00:00:56] Domonick: A lot of pastures. We're kind of right in between Nashville and Chattanooga.
[00:01:00] Brian: Personally, I really love the drive to Chattanooga. It's just so beautiful, so scenic, so mountainous. it's, it's gorgeous.
[00:01:06] Anne: And then you don't have ridiculous traffic once you get into town the way that you would [mumble].
[00:01:09] Domonick: Not at all.
[00:01:10] Brian: I haven't experienced traffic once since moving here…It's definitely been a humbling experience moving from New York City especially where everything is like right there. Um, everything's about like a 15, 20 minute drive. there's a small town called McMinnville, that that's the main town that we go to. we actually don't spend much time in Morrison cuz it doesn't have. Anything that McMinville does, there is a cute little like strip main street, with like coffee shops and like boutiques and restaurants. that that's really cute. but yeah, even then we don't go into town too much cuz everything we need to do is right here.
[00:02:03] Anne: I used to live in Brooklyn too, and sometimes I think about the fact that. to get to a hardware store, like to get to the lows that I would go to. The one like place that you could get any sort of. stuff that you would get at Lowe's. You had to schlep on the subway for at least 15 minutes, and then you had to schlep it back and it was so uncomfortable. You have like this awkward parcel. you're trying to get through the turnstile. like everything that was harder in New York, is a little bit easier when you're in the country and then everything that was easy in New York, like, oh, I can get amazing food from any cuisine that I want down the street, basically. That's a little harder.
[00:02:37] Domonick: Yeah, it's when I lived, in Brooklyn and I built my first greenhouse there in the backyard to go to Home Depot, the stuff that I brought on the subway was probably illegal, like 12 foot boards and like just the building materials like cramming people. It was always a show. But yeah, it's definitely a lot easier to just get to Home Depot or Lowe's here and drive right back. Yeah.
[00:02:58] Brian: and spending time at Lowe's and Home Depot. It's like, That doesn't even feel like it makes sense in a city. knowing what we have to get at Lowe's and like how are you maneuvering that through a city? Like what are you even doing? Cuz everyone's renting there. Like.
[00:03:10] Anne: Right. You're like, No, That's the job of my landlord to do Whatever things that they need to get it. How did you two meet in New York?
[00:03:23] Domonick: Through Instagram. I, at that point was still doing photography and I was just starting, I just built my greenhouse in Brooklyn. and I used to do fashion and portraiture, but it was very, they wanted a certain thing from you. And as I grew into my plants and started like, I'm gonna do this, I got a little more. I just want people with no clothes on and I used to put plants on their heads and make them like a floral arrangement kind of.
Anne: Yeah.
Domonick: It was just my thing and Brian popped up on my Instagram and I thought he was in New York, and I'm like, Hey, would you wanna do a shoot? And he's like, Sure, it's actually I'm gonna be there like it was Saturday or something, and I was the first person he met there, so he came over. My greenhouse looked really good then. it was probably within its second year, so everything was really filled in in lush. Just shoved him in some plants, photographed them, and apparently they were the best pictures he’s ever had of himself.
[00:04:14] Brian: They are the best pictures anyone has ever taken of me. They were incredible. He is so talented. Literally, I had just moved to New York, not even a week, and he was the first person I met to collaborate on that shoot. You know, I was also pursuing photography there. And modeling as well. So just to get my name out there, you know, you gotta collaborate and create with other creators. and yeah, like the last thing I expected to find in Brooklyn was a greenhouse in someone's backyard, let alone these amazing, crazy luscious plants. it was an amazing experience. And we stayed really great friends for like two, three years. Yeah. And then one thing led to another and here we and we started dating.
[00:04:54] Anne: So during this time you start looking for property cuz you're like I can't just do what I wanna do.
[00:04:59] Domonick: Once I went to see my friends in Australia and I decided this is the life I want to sell these pitcher plants because I, am, I had this realization, it was literally like something hit me in the head when I was there, like a life changing moment and I'm like, if I want these plants, cuz nothing in life, like I'm obsessed with them. I'm like, if I do photography, I'm gonna get drug all over the world. I'm not gonna be able to have a nice plant collection. And I just knew that I needed to become a business to stay next to my plants. so that's how I started building that. Um, What was the question exactly? I'm like thinking of my plants and getting all excited now.
[00:05:37] Anne: How long had you been dating when you first started looking at this property and thinking, I'm gonna actually buy this property?
[00:05:45] Domonick: Oh, okay. So not long it –
[00:05:48] Brian: I think it was like we were in the relation, we had started the relationship and I knew he was gonna be leaving. things were just going so well, like I didn't wanna stop it just because of that.
[00:05:56] Domonick: Yeah.
[00:05:56] Brian: And then, yeah, six months into the relationship is when he actually moved and I was still very attached to the life I had built in New York, you know, pursuing photography and like my careers here. I had my network of friends and, and, and colleagues. he was like, Don't worry, I, I'll, fly you down to Tennessee. like we'll still see each other. and the first time I came down to Tennessee and I got a taste of country life, I was like, wait. This is really nice.
[00:06:22] Domonick: I didn't think… I didn't think he was gonna like, it. I was like, Do you really? Because he loved it. and I'm like, Do you really like it out here in the country? and I'm like the country is like a different, It's so… I grew up in the country, so I know what it's like being, I'm like someone that grew up in the city their whole life, are they really gonna like the country? But we weren't really then at that point planning like, Oh, you're gonna move here. Even when we were dating in Brooklyn, it was very like, we would go out…to breakfast every morning, sleep over.
Brian: We were flowing.
Domonick: We were flowing.
[00:06:45] Brian: It wasn't like so set in stone. But then, when I came to visit, I was like, We're gonna do this. We're gonna move forward with our relationship. Yeah. and we started the long distance and started traveling back and forth. Like, I would go to Tennessee every month or he would actually come up to New York. and, you know, growing up I actually had such a deep love for nature and wildlife, but I could never really pursue it or like immerse myself cuz city. so when I came down to Tennessee, it was like my inner child just kind of unlocked again. and I was just like so dumbfounded by everything. It was, it was really, it was like magic. I really loved it.
[00:07:19] Anne: and you grew up in Chicago, right?
[00:07:21] Brian: Yeah. I was born and raised in Chicago.
[00:07:22] Anne: So a very different experience than growing up in a space like this. Like what? What specifically about the property did you love when you came to visit.
[Gravel road ambi]
[00:07:30] Brian: Oh my God. Like the moment you pull in, you're just Like Where am i?
Domonick: the driveway
Brian: Cuz we have this beautiful driveway that's lined with all these trees and it's like this whimsical tunnel that you have to drive through before you get into the proper. That right there.
[backyard ambi]
Brian contd: I was like, Okay, we're not playing around here. This is serious business. and then we pull up to the property and the property itself is just gorgeous. way back when this used to be part of a tree nursery. So there's a lot of like really old and established trees here. literally we have a front field that's like full of wildflowers. there's a grove of cherry blossom trees. So every spring they're just like blooming. Where did I just pull up to? This is amazing. I thought I I felt like I was getting a really unique, experience in the countryside too. Like I feel like people around here don't even get that kind of experience in it.
[00:08:21] Anne: Well, and isn't it like the nursery capital of the world, and you didn't know that until you Came
[00:08:26] Brian: We had no clue or he had no clue.
[00:08:28] Domonick: People. will, you know, call me and stuff, Hey, do you have sell red maples? Or they'll even make a joke like Oh, well you have a lot of competition around here. I'm like, No, it's not the same. We're growing something way different. We’re not that kind of nursery. But yeah, it's it's like the climate here, you can plant, an iris in the fall. a little scrappy bulb in the next, literally by spring. It's a huge clump that looks like it's 12 years old. At least from living in Pennsylvania, it would take so long to get an iris to even bloom like the second year. They're huge And just, just by spring. Things like, grow over winter here, it's crazy. We're always, even the trees. three year old trees we have, they're huge already. It's always just very surprising how fast things grow.
[00:09:09] Anne: I really think that this is part of why like our generation-ish loves gardening is there's so few things that we do that you can see like a tangible result within months, right? But when you plant something and it grows…
[00:09:24] Domonick: It's, there's like nothing like that reward. [--] And there's something about the reward and the reflection of your care. And it's not like a human where there's like hidden emotions or you can't tell, like if a plant is unhappy, it's unhappy if you're growing it and it gives you that there's a pureness to it, and that's like my connection to gardening.
[00:10:11] Brian: Plants are very very honest. and especially when it comes to like him, it's like the reward of the flower. But for growing food, it's like I have never tasted tomatoes fresh off the vine. That blew my mind.
Domonick: so good.
Brian: Like just so citrusy, so juicy. And also on top of that, like the hundreds of different varieties of like every single fruit and veggie you can possibly grow. It is endless. Like why are we all just going to the grocery store? Like we all need to be growing our own food. And yeah, getting that diversity of, of food and, and ingredients. It's really magical.
[00:10:43] Anne: Well, and I see people, you know, in urban spaces who are really trying to make it work great with like, stuff on their, balconies. you know, like I, when I, lived in Austin, I tried to grow tomatoes on my balcony and I think it would've worked if I had any understanding of the growing season, which is completely different from any growing sea-, like, Oh, you grow things in winter, essentially. but just that desire that, you know, the house plant craze, which, you know, is, is part of like fueling your business too. Like, I really think part of this affection, adoration for having plants in the home is, is that desire to have some sort of, that lushness?
[00:11:20] Brian: yeah, I feel like the pandemic, especially that really supercharged, that entire movement, like, there was like massive surge of people either leaving the city, moving to the countryside or just like filling their home with house plants, cuz I mean everyone was –
[00:11:34] Anne: What else are you gonna do besides like track the growth of your house plant everyday …
AD BREAK CUE
MIDROLL
AD BREAK CUE
Anne: [00:12:10] So when did, when did you move full time? Cause in my mind it's like around the pandemic. So you're, you're in this space, right?
[00:12:18] Brian: like we said, Dominic moved here first, and I moved here about a year later, eight months before the pandemic. Wow. So the timing was just like, Oh my gosh. Like, I really feel like the universe had bigger plans for us, like him moving here without knowing it was the nursery capital then. Right. We're in the nursery capital. Like that was just so serendipitous. like that felt like fate.
[00:12:40] Domonick: life kind of always has been. I trust it.
[00:12:41] Brian: Yeah. And then moving here and the pandemic happens. And given, then I was, uh, I moved here, with the plan of like still pursuing photography, like traveling back to New York and then coming here to rest my soul. and having my money like expand a lot further here than it ever would in New York City.
Anne: Yeah.
Brian: But then the pandemic happened and I wasn't really able to do that anymore. So it was a great time to start gardening, especially growing food with how uncertain the food supply was gonna be in the next few months. You know, it was like we need some kind of security here. so yeah. And now it's my fast forward, what, like two, three years later, it's my full-time job. I live it now.
[00:13:18] Domonick: we're both the kind of people though that make the best of what we have and like even when we were uncertain of what was happening and who was moving here,it's like Brian always pushed toward. Doing something or something better,creating. And when it was like, Oh, you can't go back to New York cause of covid and photography. And he he was dabbling in all kind of stuff, like, he made soap. I told him
Brian: Yeah. I went through soap and candle making phase. That was fun.
Domonick: I'm like making soap. Everybody loves soap. And he became like amazing at making soap. And a lot of people bought soap. But then he out–, he .and candles Amazing. And then he outgrew that. And was doing the gardening with it and then it just, he flew into that and that just was really the thing. It's not like a physical product either in a business sense. He just has his content. You're not making and shipping soap and candles, which was so great. But like it was the step to like now where he is now and it's just amazing to see like how things can work out.
[00:14:13] Brian: out. Yeah. I feel like as tragic and stressful as the pandemic was. I feel like it was a really rare opportunity too, cuz like, when in our lifetime is the world ever gonna stop like that again? For us to like really reflect on what we're doing. Like, do we wanna go back to what normal was? You know it was a really rare opportunity to pivot, explore something new and see where life took you with that. And I'm so, so grateful I found gardening. Like, I can't imagine my life without a garden. Now I'm, I'm grate–. With TikTok too, like I'm, I'm really grateful what's enabled me to make it my, my full-time endeavor, really.
[00:14:49] Anne: Yeah. And it's a really, like, it's a hybrid of your, of your interest in terms of like photography, creation, all these sorts of things. Yeah.
[00:14:57] Brian: I still feel like one, I'm a beginner gardener and like two, this is like just the beginning, like I'm so excited to see where this even leads.
[00:15:05] Anne: so. It's kind of hard to untangle, you know, that period of, of moving to Tennessee from also the, the isolation and the difference of the pandemic. But it, I'm wondering what you were nervous about with, both of you, with making this jump. Like what were you thinking? Like, Oh, is this gonna be hard? What am I gonna miss? That sort of thing.
[00:15:25] Domonick: I think that personally for me, when the business was growing, it, was a matter… All about my plants. like where is it possible to move? Cuz I had a lot of plants in Brooklyn. Where's the best weather for me? What makes sense? Because I love mountains and I like cold growing plants. So that was a basis of where to move. There was a little bit of a time crunch and it was just kind of like, Ooh, Tennessee's like… I lived in Florida. Tennessee seemed like a good middle part, but never been here. Kind of bought the house without looking at it. It was a lot of acreage. I'm like, whatever, A lot of acres. I feel like a lot of moments in my life where I was afraid to do something and I just do it, it always turns out good. and it, I feel like, well, this is like how people get held back – They listen to their fear and they don't move on it. but like it's always uncomfortable and a little scary when you're doing something big and new. But I've never kind of let it held me back and I was like, I don't know anybody there. And I don't know the area. And there was a lot of fear, but it was just kind of, like jump.
[00:16:26] Brian: Oh,we jumped. for me, on more of like a, a social cultural aspect, you know, growing up in a city and being in New York, like one of the most progressive cities in the world, moving to the very stigmatized south and being like the complete polar opposite of what New York is. I, I had my concerns of being judged and discriminated against. But I didn't let that hold, hold me back from like coming out here and, there is like an undercurrent of progressive mindsets here and they want that change, they want that shift. there just needs to be more of like a movement here to help that actually happen. at least from what I've observed here, it's like a lot of people have just grown up in the same families, the same area, like their entire life, for generations. Like how are they ever gonna the influence or the exposure to other kinds of mindsets if they're surrounded by the same people all the time. And what they're getting from the media is not at all what the reality is. So there was this like strange sense of responsibility of like being what was different down there. starting conversations, having open conversations with people and like letting them know like, Hey, we're human beings too, like we're not out here trying to take anything away from you. We're just trying to live a a really wonderful life too.
[00:17:43] Domonick: When people are like, Oh, the south and this and that. Our area, it's like a little bubble. Everyone is so sweet and kind and helpful and I never see or sense racism or anything like that. Everyone's just so kind. It's not the south, at least where we live, that everybody like, you know, depicts or whatever. Everyone's super nice.
[00:18:05] Anne: there's also, I, think this like real stereotype that like there's no gay people in rural America.
Brian And there are
Domonick: are there
Anne which is really false
Brian We out here
Anne: Right? but like even people who grew up there that like none of those people statistically are gay. Right?
Domonick So untrue
Anne Like it's just not possible. And so sometimes they might not look like how queer people that you encounter in a city might look Like right? But like having more people, makes it so that it's more visible and also I think more visible for kids to see too, that there are ways of, of growing up and finding a partner and being happy and living your life, right, that aren't always super visible for kids in those smaller places.
[00:18:46] Brian: And that's where that like sense of responsibility came especially for the younger generation. Like, I am not like anyone here. Even in the way I talk, the way I walk, the way I present myself, the moment I walk into a room, they know like he is not from here. So like, just being, I'm not one to like hide that, at all. like I'm still gonna be 100% myself. so in a way it kind of gives people, even if like a younger gay kid or someone queer, like even a straight person who's afraid to like show who they are, like it kind of in a weird way, gives them permission to do it because there's someone else doing it and doing it so authentically without any criticism or anything like that. Like yeah, I get stares and looked at and I can sense judgment. That's not anything I'm not used to. Like growing up in a city too, like you get lots of stares, you get lots of looks, especially in New York, the kind of lifestyle I was living in New York, like I'm, I was very used to being stared at and looked at. so I came down here to just continue that, I guess.
[00:19:41] Anne: Yeah. I know that when you moved, your neighbors were kind of dubious that you would last that long. Can you tell that story?
[00:19:47] Brian: Oh yeah. Well.
[00:19:49] Domonick: Cindy and Tony? I love Cindy and Tony.
Brian They're actually amazing human beings. I love them so much.
Domonick When we first moved here, they were the, they are the sweetest, kindest people They're like, Hey, our keys are under the floorboard of the truck. If you need it, just go use it to get wood or everything. I'm like, you imagine if I had to rent a truck for every trip. I had to go back like 30 minutes to get lumber. Like, so sweet. But I didn't really feel like they didn't think we would survive here, but they were just like, they're always so surprised that like, you guys like it here and like, I feel like they just sit on their porch and watch our TV show. Like what are they building today? Or what are they doing? Or like, what Or like,
[00:20:27] Brian: God, y'all, You guys are funnest neighbors we have ever had.
[00:20:29] Domonick: They're like, You make us tired just watching you. And I'm like, we love garden, we love doing stuff.
[00:20:35] Brian: Well I feel like Domonick, you give off more of like a... You've in a sense, kind of feel like, you came home to this, Like this is more of your natural setting than it ever was Mine. like I, I remember it was about a year into like everything that we were doing, me being here, my neighbor Cindy comes up to me and she's like, Brian, I need to be honest with you. The moment you stepped out of that truck at… when moving here…. I didn't think you'd last three months and I was like, Oh, okay. And she's like, Brian, you have proved me wrong. I am so proud of you and everything that you guys have accomplished. And I'm like, Aw, Cindy. Thank you so much. And we've just built this like beautiful relationship with them. Something that I've never really got to experience growing up in a city either like this, like neighborly energy.
[00:21:19] Domonick: and not a neighbor that's like, Get outta my face. I don't wanna look at you today. It's more like Hey, do you need anything? Like they're the sweetest, kindest people.
[00:21:26] Brian: Yeah. They come over from time to time, we show 'em the property, see what's going on. We share food with them.
[00:21:30] Anne: Yep.
[00:21:31] Brian: It's so sweet and so wholesome.
[00:21:33] Anne: I mean you have to offload zucchini on someone. like where do… like who do you give your zucchini to?
[00:21:36] Brian: oh my god. what am I gonna do with all this food? Like we just share it. We share it.
[00:21:39] Domonick: Make us bread. Yeah. Love zucchini bread.
[00:21:41] Brian: It's definitely given me, given me a different perspective of just like what it means to be a neighbor, but also I mean, you drive up to the property and right next to them, they had like this big Trump sign. [--] and I feel like our relationship is a beautiful example of like what we can really do and accomplish if you just sit down and have a conversation with them, like they said it themselves, we are the most fun neighbors they have ever had. And like we hang out with them, we share food with them. Like difference of mindset hasn't gotten the in the way of us, like building a beautiful relationship.
Domonick: Yeah.
[00:25:19] Anne: there's a there's a phrase that you say in your videos and that, you know, you sell merch with this, but like, it doesn't feel, it doesn't feel like a brand. It just feels like a vibe that's associated with the farm. And that's Abundance.
[00:25:31] Brian: Abundance.
Domonick: Abundance.
Brian: It's a way of life. It is a way of life.
[00:25:35] Anne: talk more about why it, like the entire experience of being where you are feels like abundance.
[00:25:42] Brian: the way things have played out since moving here And just like how everything has like fallen into place, the abundance of nature that is around us, like the abundance of our bounties and all the wildlife we're able to attract because of what we've done. all of this has happened and played out because of our own hand. And it really is more than just like what You, physically see. It's, it's like the abundance from within. literally It's a mindset, It's a mentality, it's a way of life. You know, speaking it into existence. You, you into existence, you manifest it back into your life in so many different ways.
[00:26:24] Anne: Yeah.
[00:26:24] Brian: I feel like something that deters a lot of people from growing or starting a garden or having a nursery or growing plants is like the fear of failing and killing something, you know? And, and that mentality is absolutely only going to attract exactly what you're thinking. So when you go out into the garden, you're like, Abundance. I'm gonna plant this, it is gonna grow so well. Even if things don't necessarily go as planned, like having that positive mindset will make the experience so much more enjoyable. Um, it'll keep you more motivated and you'll feel so much more reward and fulfillment when you get your abundance, like you did that.
[00:27:09] Domonick: Even with money wise abundance which you know, even with my business, I'm so passionate about the plants and like Brian's so passionate about what, he does, We're not like, Let's do this for money. The money just kind of comes behind it. Yeah. Um, I, I bred this within our abundance. I bred this really rare plant in the greenhouse. It's called the Philodendron Spiritus Sancti. And I was the first person in the world to do it. Everybody told me I couldn't do it. It's been tried before, all this stuff. And I'm like, My basic feeling of plants is like, there's no reason why this shouldn't work. Um, the plant bloomed, it had seven flowers, and out of all the flowers, the first one happened. Made thousands of seedlings. and out of this…So we were selling little seedlings, like two inches for $1,200 a piece. People were eating them off the shelf and. then, So out of all them, I got a bunch of variegated ones and they sell for $25,000 and people buy them, They come, people fly here to pick them up. I'm like, I'm, I go to the airport and hand over a little plant and they're like, Thank you. I'm like, What is going on? This is like a movie or something, like a drug deal, like handing over a little plant, getting 25 thousand-. Like what? You just, I never. You just don't think that stuff.
[00:28:40] Anne: Right. And It's because you weren't afraid of like… maybe that that experiment would fail. Right. As a gardener myself, like a lot of gardening is failing and being like, I learned something from that.
[00:28:51] Domonick: Exactly.
[00:28:52] Brian: Absolutely… being white abundance of knowledge. See, it's just like perspective, perspective. When he came back from that trip to like hand off that plant at the airport, I'm just like, babe, Abundance, abundance, abundance. Yeah. It's, it's insane to see, you know, how things have played out.
[00:29:08] Anne: so I, I've done a lot of work on, , the history of people working from home. and if you look at the numbers in like the 1970s and eighties, there actually always has been a lot of people who work from home. It's just that that number has statistically included farmers, right? Cuz farmers are literally working from home. And so you two are working from home, But in a different way than I think a lot of people conceive of like, you know, the person who's working in tech, who's been able to move. How has the fact that like you are making your own business made being in this place sustainable? You know, we've talked about the economics a little bit, but Like, you are in control of your own industry. you are not dependent on an industry that is outside of this space.
[00:29:48] Brian: I feel like our experience is very unique in what we're doing as well. Like, Mine being all digital, his being like exotic and rare plants, like even compared to the local community. Like when you think of the nursery capital of Tennessee here, it's a lot of people selling like perennials And trees and shrubs.
[00:30:06] Domonick: My market's a very niche market And even with getting into pitcher plants and stuff, I mean, since I was a kid, Kind of now I'm like at the top of the market because it was so small when I was doing it, and like the hybrids that were being made were like, Okay then. But just even my friends in Australia, they're the biggest in the world. Like knowing them growing up and kind of forming that relationship and becoming… We're the sole distributor for their plants in the United States. It's an account that any plant grower would want. So that's been a dream come true. We're just very unique [--].
[00:30:54] Brian: Yeah. Yeah. We're, and we're in a very unique space and time, you know, with the digital age, like exploding, like there is a lot of potential to create whatever kind of life that you want, no matter where you are.
[00:31:08] Anne: Yeah, you guys are proof of that. As an ending question, I wanna know how moving and your life on the farm has impacted your relationship? You spend a lot of time together and a lot of time with other spaces on the farm, but like it's, it's a lot of intimacy and I, I know I experience that in living in a small town too.
[00:31:28] Brian: The key to success in any relationship is balance. You know, that there was a time, especially when I first moved here, where things felt very dependent on Domonick and his business, and I never wanted to be like I guess feel like a burden or like, I'm just like taking too much away from that. Cuz that is his life, that is his love, that is his passion. If anything, I wanted to add to it, not put extra pressure, like, oh, here's another human I have to care for. taking the time and, and taking my own space to figure out what I was gonna do was so important to me. And now both of us are very independent in what we're doing and we're able to like, bring it together and build something so out of this world, like I feel like we're just really getting started with everything that we're doing. and yeah, it's like having our independence, having our, our, our freedom, um, to be who we are and then come together and, and build something really great.
[00:32:20] Domonick: Yeah. Just
Brian: we even have separate bedrooms.
Domonick: Yeah. Just realizing we're different people and having that like, I mean, even on our relationship, like Brian will go on trips somewhere far by himself or whatever and me too, and he'll like watch stuff here and then I have to watch it. It's very like a team effort in that way. It's really like understanding that everyone's individual and it's not like, Oh, you can't go on a trip with me or I can't, you know, kind of breaking… And especially in, four years in you, in the earlier times, it's like you don't want your partner going off to New York and you're just like stuck home and you're like, I wanna go to and, but like, it's learning that that's not healthy to try to control or want. And I think that's a downfall in a lot of relationships. And they're not perfect. And not everything's always rainbows and butterflies. I mean, when me and Brian have our little like, I don't, we don't even call it an argument. It's like a little, like a little bicker, like, but that's normal. that's in friendships, That's in every relationship. But that's like to this extent of it. But yeah, it Yeah, And having our own space, like, Brian will go do his thing and I'll go do mine and some nights he'll sleep in a different bedroom and I'll sleep in a different one just so we get good sleep. and it's just, yeah, not trying to put any pressure on what our relationship really is or needs to be according to society.
[00:33:35] Brian: We decide, we decide what our relationship is, what feels good to us, what feels healthy, what feels sustainable, and not letting any pressures of like what an ideal relationship is, you know, impact ours. Cuz at the… where we know what we want, we know what we like, we know what we're able to control. Going from there really. Like. And communication is so important. Like yeah, you can't just expect your partner to like read your mind. And know what you're feeling. I mean, sometimes my face says it all, um, But you can't expect your partner to just know everything.
[00:34:45] Anne: and you need to communicate exactly how, like something needs to be watered. So that if something doesn't die and then you're mad about that, like that's good communication too.
[00:34:53] Brian: Yeah. With like when he leaves me alone with his nursery,
[00:34:56] Domonick: I know I get, I get
[00:34:57] Brian: Stress!
[00:34:58] Domonick: I get nervous no matter what, But I'm at the point now, like, before I would go away and, and not just Brian, if someone watched it and they did something wrong, you know, I'd get angry with them. But now it's like if I'm leaving, that's my responsibility and I completely accept if I come back and it's not the way I want it.
[00:35:15] Domonick: when you have a greenhouse full of thousands of plants that are really rare and they're all spread out with care, you can't communicate it to anybody the exact way. You just do the best you can. Hope they do what you said. and that's it.
[00:35:26] Anne: Yeah.
[00:35:26] Domonick: Brian’s gotten really good at it. Yeah, he's gotten really good at.
[00:35:28] Brian: it. Like when he first, there was a moment. When I first moved here, I literally, it was like my, in my first three months of being here, not even two months, him and his friend went to Australia for two weeks. I love me alone with this greenhouse, and he is like, You have to watch the sphagnum if that dries out. Water it. So I'm like over here looking at every single top of the pot. All this sphagnum has been drying, so I'm like over here watering everything Every single day. It comes back from Australia. everything's over watered,
[00:35:58] Domonick: and I'm like, Last on my pictures.
[00:36:00] Brian: I did what you said. Yeah.
[00:36:02] Domonick: But we're better
[00:36:03] Anne: We have
[00:36:04] Brian: But I've definitely
[00:36:05] Anne: I.
[00:36:05] Brian: the language of these plants too, and, and got an eye for, for what they need and when.
[00:36:09] Anne: Well, it has been Such a pleasure to talk to both of you today. Thank you so much for coming on the show.
[00:36:15] Domonick: too. Thank you for having us. Thank you so much
OUTRO
You just heard from some people who made the small town leap. In our next episode, we’re hearing from city folks contemplating that move. What’s propelling them? A house they can actually afford? Finding a real community? And what’s potentially holding them back? Next week, we’ll break down the pros and the cons.
END CREDITS
Townsizing is produced by Neon Hum Media for HGTV. You can follow our show wherever you get your podcasts. And we'd love if you could take a second to leave us a five-star review on Apple podcasts.