From New York City to Tennessee

My name is Brian Brigantti and my partner is Domonick Gravine. I’m an artist who was pursuing a photography career in New York City. Domonick and I met through our artistic journeys, but Domonick’s greatest love in life has always been plants. He’s been growing them for as long as he could remember! He decided to start a tropical pitcher plant business in Brooklyn after decades of passionate collecting. His love for these plants is renowned in the plant community, so it was no surprise when his business began to flourish. With his collection and business growing, it was time to expand. Fast forward two years and here we are in deep countryside of Tennessee!

I grew up in Chicago, one of the largest cities in the nation, studied in San Francisco, and moved to the Big Apple in June of 2016. All I’ve ever known is city living, so when Domonick first mentioned Tennessee, I felt an incredible opportunity surface. With the world descending deeper and deeper into imbalance, I felt it was time for me to truly do something about it. Having only lived in major cities, I witnessed just how disconnected humanity is from the natural world. When I was younger I found myself deeply drawn to wildlife, but could never pursue it as much as I wanted in the urban jungle. I felt that Tennessee was the chance for my inner child to reawaken, so we left the bustling life in the city to reconnect with Mother Nature.

In March of 2020, we began our journey back to soil and built the foundation for our garden & homestead. With years of gardening and landscaping experience, building the foundation for our homestead came naturally to Domonick.

I was a bit intimidated at first, but things came to me naturally. It almost felt like I had done this before. Mind you, I have never gardened a day in my life! The way nature was guiding me through it all made me feel like I was on the right path. Getting my hands in the soil felt like coming home.

“Start small,” they said. The calling was far too strong. Our drive and passion led us to developing quite a large scale beginner vegetable garden, where we are free to learn, explore, and live out our wildest gardening fantasies. The more I studied and dug into the soil, they deeper my connection to the natural world became. My inner child was running has been set free. Its been only four months since I’ve began this journey and now I can’t see my life any other way. I’m now utilizing all of my creative passions to share my love for it with the world, hoping to awaken others to nature’s call.