Ep # 153 Growing Food At Home, Made Simple

Think you need a big backyard to grow real food? Think smaller. We sit down with Erin Hostetler, the founder of The Patio Farmer in Charlotte, to show how a balcony, a sunny stoop, or a simple raised bed can turn into a steady, confidence-building harvest. Erin’s journey from studying the human right to food to managing urban farms and teaching new growers shaped a service model that removes guesswork and makes each season easier than the last.

We walk through a clear path to success: start with a 45-minute consultation to assess sun, water, goals, and layout; add installations when needed, from building raised beds to sourcing soil, seedlings, and trellises; then choose maintenance support that fits your life. Erin breaks down written maintenance plans, routine check-ins, out-of-town care so midsummer crops don’t crash, and her Premier Practice option that includes weekly visits and supplies from March through September. For learners who want deeper guidance, Plant Club offers two levels of membership focused on education and crop-by-crop know-how, plus optional visits.

Expect hard-won truths that save time and money. Beginners are often shocked by how much space vegetables need and how quickly plants like summer squash take over a bed. We dig into why tomatoes are beloved yet finicky, how smart spacing improves airflow and reduces disease, and what simple routines keep pests like hornworms from stealing your season. Erin also shares why small-scale gardening changes behavior: people who grow a little often start composting and buy more from farmers markets, connecting their homes to a healthier local food system. She now supports restaurants, rooftops, and apartment community gardens, coordinating harvests so residents can enjoy fresh produce with minimal hassle.

If you’re ready to grow without the overwhelm, this conversation gives you the roadmap and the motivation to begin. Subscribe for more stories with local makers and builders, share this episode with a neighbor who wants a garden, and leave a quick review to help others find the show.

The Patio Farmer
Erin Hostetler
Charlotte, NC
thepatiofarmer.com

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

Intro/Close 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Regina Lee.

Regina League 0:10

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm Regina, the host, and I'm in the Charlotte area. And my favorite thing to do is talk to local business owners. Today I'm excited to introduce you to Erin Hostetler. She is the owner of the patio farmer, which I'm just super curious, everything she does, but she's based here in Charlotte. Welcome, Erin.

Erin Hostetler 0:35

Hi, thank you, Regina. It's great to be here.

Regina League 0:37

Wonderful. So what do you do? What is the patio farmer?

Erin Hostetler 0:43

Yeah, so the patio farmer is a business that I started almost nine years ago. And I help people all across the Charlotte area who are interested in growing food at home be successful at learning something new and trying something new. So I offer education and one-on-one services to help support people in their growing journey, whether they're just starting out as a beginner or they have a couple of seasons under their belt, but are just looking for some more insights.

Regina League 1:14

How fun. So tell us, I mean, a little bit about yourself. I'm super curious because this is such a niche business. So tell us a little bit about your background and the journey forward to where you are today owning this business.

Erin Hostetler 1:29

Sure. Yeah. So I grew up in South Charlotte. Um, I remember Stone Crest being built and Valentine going up and all of that. Um, and my parents still live in South Charlotte. It's great. Um, so obviously I grew up in the suburbs not working on a farm. Um, I actually ironically despised yard work as a child. It was always uh a chore. Yeah, right, exactly. Yeah, mom and dad were like, okay, we've got, you know, five flats of flowers to plant and some mulch to put out, and you get to weed too. And I'm like, oh no.

Regina League 2:09

Yeah.

Founding The Patio Farmer

Erin Hostetler 2:10

Um, so I grew up not enjoying the things that I now thoroughly enjoy. Um, and I went to App State, I have my undergrad uh bachelor's from App State, and then I also have a master's. I lived in London to earn my master's degree. Um, I went to King's College London, and that's what really led me down the food path. Um, my degree is in global ethics and human values, and I wrote about uh the human right to food for my dissertation and wanted to go into international food policy, but then quickly realized that I needed some more grounding, some more solid understanding of the food system before, you know, wanting to roll up my sleeves and jump into policy work. So um I spent several years working on farms of all sizes. Um, I did an apprenticeship on a farm in Pennsylvania, and I managed an urban farm here in Charlotte, in East Charlotte, um, for a couple of seasons, which is where I started the business, the patio farmer, because the farm, it was it was a nonprofit farm, an educational uh farm that served a mission within the community. Um, and we had tons of volunteers that would come out to the farm. And for a lot of people, you know, if you've never grown broccoli yourself or I don't know, fresh herbs or tomatoes, like maybe you you don't have um a vision of what this looks like. And then you come out and you see an eggplant growing from this like super cool looking plant. And you're like, wow, that's where it comes from. Like people were having these light bulb moments, um, you know, almost every time we had volunteers out. And then of course we're working alongside of each other and people have questions, and so I'm answering questions for people. And one of my friends uh opened a garden center in NOTA, which has since closed. But when he opened the center, he asked if I would come teach some classes just to help, you know, get people in the door and raise awareness for his business. And I said, sure, you know, happy to help. And I taught four classes that summer. This was like early summer 2017, and they all sold out. And my friend was super encouraging. He said, Aaron, I think you've got something here, and I think, you know, if you wanted to, you could really build a business around this. And I was I was a little dismissive at first, but I promised him that I would give it some thought. And I did, I put together like the bear, you know, a bear kind of structure of offerings, and I, you know, tried it out on a couple of friends, and then it just, you know, steadily grew from there. And here we are.

Regina League 5:06

Wow, that's very smart. And you know, I when you're actually passionate about your business, that's where I think true success really happens. So what do you know? Tell us your services. How does it work? You now I'm intrigued. Uh, what's the first step and walk us through it?

Erin Hostetler 5:24

Sure. So um I have three main services that I offer to individuals um consultations, installations, and then maintenance. So consultations are the best place to start. Um, they're 45-minute conversations in your space. So I come to you, I also do them virtually, but I think it's best if you know we have them in person. We can walk around and talk about things, answer all your questions, and put together a plan. Um, consultations also include a set of follow-up notes and next steps. Then um I have my installations, which, you know, usually look two different ways. One, it could be setting up a new space. So building raised beds. Um, that's a service that I provide. I can build raised beds for clients, um, bring soil, get everything set up for those. Um, and then also with installations is planting for a season. So once you have your space set up and you think it would be helpful to have me come out, I can provide all of our supplies, our soil, plant food, um, seedlings, seeds, trellising, um, and then we can plant for a season. And then there's maintenance. So I offer uh written maintenance plants, which are, you know, per season and specific to what you're growing and kind of have high-level um maintenance points, everything from feeding to watering, harvesting, uh, things to look out for for pests, disease, et cetera. And then I also do maintenance visits, which are similar to a consultation, but more specific to maintenance. Um, I do out-of-town visits. So if you're traveling in the summertime and you don't want to go away for two weeks and come back to, you know, maybe brown crispy tomatoes.

Regina League 7:16

I water my neighbors' uh plants when they're gone because I'm a master gardener and they know I know what I'm doing. So they come along sometimes and things are staked and I've sprayed and done this or that. That's awesome. You can do that.

Services: Consults, Installs, Maintenance

Erin Hostetler 7:28

Yeah. Yeah. So if you don't have a master gardener who's a neighbor, um, that's something that that I support my clients with. Um, and then I do have different maintenance packages as well. So, you know, if if you know that you're gonna need maybe like every other week visits from me throughout the season, we can set that up. Um, and my top-tier service is um it's called Premier Practice. And from March through September, um, there are weekly visits from me included with that, as well as uh supplies. So it's kind of an all-in-one, you can rest assured, I'll be there every week. And yeah, and then I also have a monthly subscription service. It's called Plant Club, super fun. And um there's two different levels that you can join at um with different benefits, and that's that's really uh the basis of Plant Club is education and information. If you want to learn more um about a specific vegetable or herb, uh fruit throughout the season. Um, and then there's the the second level of plant club membership includes visits and services from me.

Regina League 8:48

So yeah, on the website, I see that um it's laid out for you if you have questions. That's super cool. What are some of the funny things you've had, you know, situations where uh maybe someone thought this was going to be this and it really turned out to be that, they just had no clue, like with growing plants and things.

Erin Hostetler 9:09

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, several several things come to mind. Um, but the one that I think is most common or the most surprising for people is how much space I guess two parts to this, how much space vegetables need to grow and two how quickly they grow. You know, planting like planting summer squash, for example, with with somebody who's brand new to growing their own food in the summer. Um, I like to use seed for those because they grow so fast. And it's, you know, there's always this uh component of coaching where you have an entire maybe like four foot by four foot raised bed, let's say, and you put two seeds in one little hole, and then about two feet away you put two more little seeds, and then you cover them up and you water, and you know, usually my clients are like, wait, that's that's it, that's it, and like, yes, trust me, that is it because they grow so fast, and then summer squash plants are massive, they take a lot of room.

Regina League 10:28

That vine just goes and goes.

Erin Hostetler 10:30

It does, and then you know, a month or two later, when I come for a visit, they're like, Boy, I sure am glad that we didn't plant more here because now look at it like there's no there's no room. I had no idea that these plants take this much room.

Regina League 10:47

Are tomatoes one of the things you get the most um requests from? Because they can be hard.

Erin Hostetler 10:54

Everybody, everybody wants to grow a tomato, you know. I mean, that's like that's definitely, I would say, the most uh popular, most desired um fruit, at least in the summertime, to grow. Uh yeah, so I get a lot of questions about tomatoes, uh, even though they are delicious and highly desired, they are uh some of the more tricky, finicky vegetables to grow at home because they're prone to disease and pest issues. We're not the only ones that love tomatoes, you know.

Regina League 11:33

So those big green juicy worms that you get on tomatoes.

Erin Hostetler 11:37

Oh my gosh. Yeah.

Regina League 11:38

My nemesis. Yeah, yeah, it's it's terrifying. That is super cool. Um, so looking at this journey, boy, you have really done so, so much thinking over this. What are you most proud of?

Plant Club And Education Focus

Erin Hostetler 11:54

Honestly, there's nothing that makes me smile more than when I'm working with a client, and you know, maybe it's like their second or third season working with me, or sometimes it's just the first time, first season we're working together, and they have this moment where you know, they make the connection between what they're experiencing at home, trying to learn how to grow their own food with the experience of how we get our food, you know, kind of at the large scale or even the small community scale. You know, there's something really impactful about sitting down, planting seeds, watching them grow, tending to them. It gives you a deeper respect, I think, for our food, where it comes from. Um, you know, even if people after a season or two decide maybe growing their own food isn't, you know, the best hobby for them. It it inspires them to want to shop at farmers markets or local businesses more because the appreciation is there. There's, you know, a lot of people will start by growing their own food and then quickly want to take on composting because they see the impact of food waste and how, you know, how something that we just throw away can actually be repurposed and transformed into something that's beneficial. So I think that personal change, mindset change, behavioral change, and just awareness that is that can come from just planting, planting a garden, you know, trying to grow some of your own food. I think it's really beautiful and it's life-changing for a lot of people.

Regina League 13:51

Do you have a minimum space requirement in order to bring someone on as a client?

Erin Hostetler 13:58

Not at all. Nope. I work with all sizes. If you have a balcony, I would love to work with you. If you have a big backyard, small backyard, a deck, five acres. Oh, wow.

Regina League 14:10

I'm happy. Yeah. How about restaurants? Commercial. Do you do can you do that kind of thing?

Erin Hostetler 14:16

I do, yes. So I have five commercial clients currently. Um, one of them is a restaurant, uh, culinary space. I tend to their rooftop raised beds. It's really fun. Um, yeah, it's great. It's great. Um, and then I also work with a lot of apartment communities, um, a lot in in South Charlotte and um Union County, actually. Um, so there are apartment communities who want to have community gardens for their residents, and they want the garden to be supported by someone like me who can come out and tend to the spaces every week, um, and then coordinate with the leasing office and leasing team to share what's ready to harvest so that residents can enjoy all of the veggies.

Common Surprises: Space And Growth

Regina League 15:12

That is super cool. What a selling point for the apartment complex. I love that. Well, you um you do something that to me just sounds wonderful. Uh, it would feed my soul for sure. And I can tell by your face that you love what you do. How do our listeners find you and get in touch?

Erin Hostetler 15:31

Yeah, so my website is really the best place to start. It's thepatiofarmer.com. That's where you can schedule a consultation. There's a button in the top right corner. Um, you're welcome to reach out via email. That's also a great way to get a hold of me, is the patio farmer at gmail. Um, and then I'm on social media too: Instagram, Facebook, uh primarily. Yeah. And it's all the patio farmer. So my handles are just the patio farmer.

Regina League 16:00

It's a great name. I think you did you've done a marvelous job from uh everything you've shared. Well, Erin, it has been a pleasure. Thank you so much for being on the show today.

Erin Hostetler 16:10

Absolutely. Thanks for having me, Regina.

Intro/Close 16:14

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpsouthcharlotte.com. That's gnpsouthcharlotte.com or call 980 351 5719.