Meet The Team

Owner, Farmer & Florist

Courtney Lalich

Courtney grew up in Westminster, MD and has degrees in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Tech and Chemistry from Elon University.  She is a manufacturing quality engineer by day, and a huge garden geek the rest of the time. Courtney became a certified VCE Master Gardener for Chesterfield County, Virginia in 2022, which spurred her interest in native plants, biodiversity and sustainable gardening practices.  She raises monarchs and black swallowtails from eggs found in her yard and loves using them to help teach people how (and why) to support the ecosystem in their own yards. 

If she could pick a superpower, it would be teleportation. Wiggle her nose and 'poof', she skips the travel time!  

Reluctant Accomplice

Eli Lalich

Eli is a full time firefighter for the City of Richmond, a small business owner, and Courtney's favorite husband since 2017.  From Eli's talent as a mechanic and his passion for old Jeeps grew EliFixesJeeps, and in early 2025 he took the leap from working in our home garage into leasing his own shop.  When he's not wheeling his Jeeps or fixing everyone else's, Eli loves spending time in Hatteras fishing.

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Eli also enjoys balancing checkbooks and nagging Courtney about entering her receipts.

If he could pick a superpower it would be having two sets of arms...one to work on stuff and one for the Home Alone face.  

Pure Muscle

Bradley and Benjamin Chamberlain

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Product Manager

Eleanor Chamberlain

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Head Mole Hunter

Smoosh

Brown, big ears and tons of personality!  Smoosh was Eli & Courtney's Sanctuary Rescue foster dog, but they fell in love with the low-rider Pittie mix and adopted her in 2023.  Smoosh has made it her mission to protect the yard from moles by using her short legs as an excavator and her nose as a bulldozer.  Her work is evident by the ravines she's dug throughout the Garden, but she does, indeed, catch them once in a while.  Besides digging holes and getting tangled in flower support netting, Smoosh's favorite pastime is FOOD.  Entire loaf of bread?  Yes please.  Rotisserie chicken including strings and bones?  She'll take two. 

You can usually find Smoosh patrolling the yard trying to convince anyone that will listen that she hasn't been fed in weeks.  Don't fall for those puppy dog eyes though...she's a sneaky one!     

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If she could pick a superpower, it would be to have thumbs so she could browse the pantry any time she wants.

Garden Ambassador & Dirt Warmer

Junebug

Junebug became Courtney & Eli's 2nd (of 3) "foster failures" from Sanctuary Rescue in 2017.  She is a purebred Chi-Hua-Hua Tiki-Tiki Fire-Walking Volcano Dog and a crowd favorite around the Garden.  When she's not curled up under the covers between Courtney & Eli, in cooler temps she can usually be found curled up in anything that remotely looks like a bed, or in warm temps laying flat out in the sun on the hottest pavement she can find.  She snores as bad as a full-size human but she says they don't make CPAPs for 8-lb dogs. Junie will do ANYTHING for cheese, and Eli is her favorite person.

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June would pick ... 

QA Specialist

Andrew Cole

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