Slow Flowers PodcastEpisode 793: Felicia Reid of Good Friend Ecological Gardens left behind her career as a New York lawyer to design gardens and arrange flowers – changing her life and others in the process
https://youtu.be/1p0Ekb4zB1w?si=PTlw6aJrCNf0q8ef
After over a decade as an attorney, Felicia Reid became a garden developer and designer. Her approach to gardens and gardening is about being a ‘good friend’— to both people and planet, so it’s fitting that her business is named Good Friend Ecological Gardens. Back in 2015, Felicia was a legislative attorney in housing, agriculture, and consumer policy. Through her work she witnessed how climate change and industrial agriculture impacted farmers – inspiring her to use her own garden as a positive response to those challenges. Since 2020, she has tended to the Good Friend Ecological Garden —home base, lab, and design studio— uphill from the Mohawk River in Niskayuna, New York, north of Albany. The Learning Garden is native-forward and combines edible and ornamental landscapes into a place where biodiversity and sustainability thrive. It includes formal and relaxed spaces, a seed lab, and an intensive, small-scale cut flower farm. As a designer, Felicia uses ecological principles to develop resilient, thoughtful, and beautiful spaces for her clients. She believes community education is critical to rethinking and enriching our relationship with the world around us. And she teaches others to develop their own observation- and evidence-based approaches to enrich the land around them, no matter how big or small. The gates open at Good Friends Ecological Gardens each season, as garden lovers and the gardening curious are invited to visit, tour, and learn from Felicia.
Good Friend Ecological Gardens
As I mention in today’s episode, I “discovered” Good Friend Ecological Gardens and owner Felicia Reid after she joined Slow Flowers as a member a few years ago. Whenever a new member signs up, I try to visit their websites, sign up for their newsletter and follow them on social media – and that’s initially how I “met” Felicia. Recently, she posted a link to a small business feature about Good Friend that appeared in the Albany, New York, publication called Metroland. I read it, bookmarked it, and though: I want to learn more about how she blends garden design with a from-the-garden floral design service. On the Good Friend website, Felicia writes: Good Friend specializes in feel-good blooms—locally grown and lushly designed. Flower arrangements are available June through September only. We honor ‘slow flowers’, which prioritizes local flowers, sustainable growing practices, and customer relationships.
Flowers and pollinators from Good Friend Ecological Gardens (c) Morgan Minear for Metroland
That certainly resonated with me, so I reached out and invited Felicia to join me on this episode. We recorded our conversation a few weeks ago to share with you today.
Felicia in Good Friend Ecological Gardens (c) Morgan Minear for Metroland
Colorful perennials in the Good Friend Ecological Gardens
Garden bouquets designed by Felicia Reid
Here’s a bit more about Felicia Reid:Aside from the wildlife that lives on site year-round and those that pass through Good Friend Ecological Gardens, she shares her world with her husband, Carl, a luthier and audio engineer; their dog Artie, and Squee, a cat who’s far too intelligent for anyone’s good.
In 2023, Felicia was accepted into the Master Gardener Program through Cornell Cooperative Extension (Schenectady County) and began speaking about ecologically-minded residential garden development. She has completed certificate programs at the New York Botanical Garden, Berkshire Botanical Garden, and the American Horticultural Society—including programs on ecological gardening, growing cannabis, and landscape design. She has written on gardening and food culture for Edible: Capital District. She says her greatest lessons come from learning to read and respond to the land, and the gardens that have grown alongside her.
This podcast is committed to shining a light and amplifying the voices of our members, celebrating the many stories of this community, stories as diverse as each of you.
Find and follow Felicia Reid of Good Friend Ecological Gardens on Instagram
Click to read about Felicia on pages 48-49
READ Metroland's feature on Good Friend here
Slow Flowers Summit 2027 -- Early Bird Tickets on Sale
SPEAKERS: Slow Flowers Summit 2027
Okay, it’s TIME! We just opened up Early Bird tickets for the 2027 Slow Flowers Summit! Early-Bird tickets come with a $100 off savings at both membership and general levels. Also, we’re offering you the chance to manage your payments through Klarna – a new feature for the Summit.
Check out the speaker lineup
Check out the fantastic program
Learn more about the venue at Filoli Historic House and Garden in the SF Bay Area.
EARLY BIRD Ticket Buyers: We also have a very special GIFT with PURCHASE for you:
If you register for an Early Bird Ticket, you will receive exclusive access to four encore video presentations from our 2026 Slow Flowers WORLDWIDE Summit, originally aired this past January. The sessions have only been viewed by attendees of that online conference, and we’re now going to share more than three hours of floral education with you as a bonus with your registration. You will learn from amazing floral educators, including sustainable design with Shane Connolly, the Royal Florist; Françoise Weeks on Botanical Couture; Max Gill on growing and designing with clematis; and a bonus floral design demonstration with Dee Hall Goodwin of Mermaid City Flowers. When you buy your Summit ticket, we will send you the private link to view these sessions. I’m so excited for you to enjoy and enhance your knowledge and skills!
Order your ticket at the Early Bird Rate - and receive 4 bonus educational videos!
Thank you to our Sponsors
This show is brought to you by slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to florists, shops, and studios who design with local, seasonal and sustainable flowers and to the farms that grow those blooms. It’s the conscious choice for buying and sending flowers.
And thank you to our lead sponsor, My Patio Tree: Expertly Grown Plants, Perfectly Designed to Elevate Your Garden. Their second-generation family tree farm has curated the best-performing, cutting-edge, multi-zone varieties to enhance your garden, patio or special event. Every tree purchased supports Plant With Purpose, a nonprofit organization that restores hope by reversing global poverty and environmental damage. Learn more at mypatiotree.com.
Thank you to the Seattle Growers Market, a farmer-owned cooperative committed to providing the very best the Pacific Northwest has to offer in cut flowers, foliage and plants. The Growers Market’s mission is to foster a vibrant marketplace that sustains local flower farms and provides top-quality products and service to the local floral industry. Visit them at seattlegrowersmarket.com.
Our next sponsor thanks goes to Longfield Gardens, which provides home gardeners with high-quality flower bulbs and perennials. Their online store offers plants for every region and every season, from tulips and daffodils to dahlias, caladiums and amaryllis. Check out the full catalog at Longfield Gardens at longfield-gardens.com.
The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 1.6 million times by listeners like you. Thank you for listening, commenting and sharing – it means so much. As our movement gains more supporters and more passionate participants who believe in the importance of our domestic cut flower industry, the momentum is contagious. I know you feel it, too. If you’re new to our weekly Show and our long-running Podcast, check out all of our resources at SlowFlowersSociety.com.
Thank you for listening! Sending love, from my cutting garden to you! (c) Missy Palacol Photography
I’m Debra Prinzing, host and producer of the Slow Flowers Show & Podcast. The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one stem, one vase at a time. Thanks so much for joining us today and I’ll see you next week!
Music credits:
Drone Pine; Gaena; Over the Fenceby Blue Dot Sessionshttp://www.sessions.blue
Lovelyby Tryad http://tryad.bandcamp.com/album/instrumentalshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
In The Fieldaudionautix.com
Gartenzeit mit Flora Boost
