Today we’d like to introduce you to Juan Rodriguez
Hi Juan, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’ll never forget when I asked my best friend, a true native Floridian and plant and wildlife enthusiast, “how come I never see butterflies?” Which he replied to, “because you have to plant the right plant..to attract them”. Well, that sparked the most incredible journey of my life as I then was determined to attract them to my yard by planting the right plant. I started out by wanting to specifically attract the Monarch butterfly, so I needed to plant milkweed. It wasn’t long after I planted the milkweed, that the female Monarch’s showed up to lay their eggs and complete their life cycle. I was hooked! Over ten years later, I’m running and operating our very tiny local family business where we design & install several different types of pollinator gardens; butterfly gardens, bird gardens, bee gardens. This is what I like to call, adding life to the landscape using Florida native plants. Through this entire period, my passion grew stronger and deeper for these butterfly gardens. I passively used social media and word of mouth, occasionally posting pictures of installations and before to long it seemed like everybody from everywhere both family and friends as well as strangers wanted me to install a garden that brought and continues to bring life into their yard. It really did give me the opportunity to not only thrive as a tiny local business, but also to give back directly to my community with a unique passion! From there, really great projects and life opportunities kept presenting themselves to me, some of them included community parks inside private subdivisions, city parks, schools and several wonderful partnerships alongside the Girl Scouts, local churches, public and private schools and speaking engagements. Today, my son and I work side by side as representatives of our family business called ‘J Vision Butterfly Gardens’ and look forward to serving our community for many more years to come.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
In the beginning start up costs were a challenge, but I never took out any loans and used the earnings from the hard work of my other full time job to invest in a $35.00 shovel and made $1,200.00 on my very first job. I then began to invest in myself and grew the business exponentially.
The other great challenge was the constant effort to educate every potential client about the dire need to transform their dead sterile landscape into a wildlife sanctuary. You see, most yards/landscapes for the average homeowner are for aesthetics only, and include many non native and tropical plants that provide zero habitat value. It became very important to me to emphasize how pollinators are incredibly beneficial to us and our ecosystem. Driving home that concept is always a challenge, but one I’m passionate about taking on for the health of the planet we all share. No pollinators, no life on earth.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m an artist and love to paint pictures with plants, but the picture doesn’t stop with the plants, the life it attracts, the flying flowers ARE the butterflies, also all manor of beautiful bee species, beetles, moths and the magical Hummingbird are all pollinators and form an incredibly complex and intricate micro functioning ecosystem all within a small homeowners yard. What sets me apart is I work just as hard for each and every client no matter the size, scope or financial abilities. As a man of God, I work directly for Him and all the glory goes to Him.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
I never formally advertise so typically one neighbor tells the other neighbor about what we’ve done, they see the work and we’ve spread steadily by word of mouth these last several years very well. I’ve found that’s the best kind of advertising! It speaks for itself.
Pricing:
- We design gardens to fit any budget
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @jvisionbutterflies
- Facebook: J Vision Butterfly Gardens
Image Credits
Xymani Fotografia
