Meet The Team!
Heather Hendrick
Owner
I grew up in or near a garden. It wasn’t until decades later I understood the rarity and gift it was watching my grandparents, parents, and aunts make their gardens a part of everyday life.
I wish I could say growing up near a garden taught me the skill of gardening. It didn’t. However, I do believe eating from the garden as I was growing up set an expectation and precedence for how real food should taste, smell, and feel.
Today, I’ve been gardening for over 25 years.
I started growing food in pots on my patio as a college student at Texas A&M. My gardens grew as my family grew.
Although failure is a terrific teacher, failure is not free - especially when it comes to garden setups.
I wasted an incredible amount of money and time learning through constant trial and error.
Today, my passion is helping Houstonians experience the joy of the garden without all the frustration of failure. With the right setup and support, it truly is possible to eat from the garden every single week in Houston!
Monarch exists to celebrate the gifts the garden brings, to bring our community together, and to champion other females making our city a more beautiful place.
Thank you for growing with us!
Hayden Hendrick
Landscape Design
Project Manager
Growing up in gardens with my mom and brothers, I discovered the magic of nature early-on. As Heather’s son, I inherited a deep appreciation and fascination with the outdoors and spent most of my childhood outside.
At the age of 11, my brothers and I founded Botany Brothers. We learned to plant and grow heirloom varieties of most garden vegetables and sold them as transplants at the start of each fall and spring season. Eventually, we learned the art of saving seeds from most plants we grew in our home garden, so our childhood company was pretty profitable since our seed inventory was practically free!
I attended Texas A&M in the visualization program and have a background in graphic design, branding, and social media management.
At Monarch I bring my two passions, artistic design and nature, together to create landscapes that are as beautiful and inspiring as the gardens and outdoor spaces that truly shaped me as I was growing up.
Whether sketching intricate landscape designs or bringing them to life for clients, I find joy in the creative process of transforming ordinary spaces into botanical wonderlands.
Katherine Civitillo
Garden Manager
Gardening and growing food was a hobby turned obsession.
As a teen I was a person of many passions. The environment, health, food, fitness, and sports were always at the top of my mind. Looking back now, that’s really just a combination of interests that make up most people in the gardening community.
My blend of passions spilled into college where I was a collegiate athlete who earned a mechanical engineering degree.
After college I decided to slow life down a little.
In that came a lot of potted herbs and veggies, which spilled over to small raised beds here and there, and has now culminated into hundreds of feet of created garden spaces dedicated to food and native pollinators.
While I graduated from garden pots to raised bed gardens, I was constantly learning from wherever I could: books, podcasts, online courses, but most importantly from my dad, who has a master’s degree in horticulture.
Today, I have the honor of using the knowledge I’ve learned over the years to care for our client’s gardens and support the Monarch Community with ongoing education.
Whether I’m managing our gardens, coaching clients, or teaching at our monthly events, I’m thankful to be a part of the most beautiful revolution - to get Houston growing!
Jen Hansen
Administrative Assistant
As someone who has been obsessed with food and plants for as long as I can remember, joining the Monarch Garden team was a natural fit.
After graduating from Texas State with a Communication Studies degree, I spent several years organizing events and catering in the Houston area. In those years curating menus I grew more and more curious about where the food on our tables comes from. I started planting seeds in pots on my balcony to see what I could grow. Over time I learned a lot about growing herbs and flowers in a small space. As I grew more successful, I was overjoyed by not having to run to the grocery store for a few overpriced sprigs of cilantro anymore!
Since I have discovered gardening I have had the opportunity to learn so much more about growing vegetables in Houston’s climate. With Monarch Garden Company I coordinate our projects and team schedules, and you can even catch me in your garden from time to time!
When I am not working you can find me enjoying a local restaurant with friends or hanging at the park with my dogs.