Lane Changer - Valerie Groves, when the lane is bordered by perennials and pollinators
with the Empire apple
KIC Gardening Services appears as regularly in my Facebook feed now as its work does in the parks and yards of my Weston Neighbourhood. Its founder, Valerie Groves, is a neighbour too and so it was a no-brainer when I asked her to create a new garden in my backyard. Although I’ve known Val a bit for a couple of years, it was only during a consult about my garden did I realize she’s one of us — another lane changer!
Valerie began her adult life with a chemical engineering degree doing R&D for a company in Colorado where she’s from. She’d chosen engineering because she’d always favoured math and science over the humanities as a kid. Her dad had a successful career as an engineer too. When it came to selecting her speciality within the field, she chose chemical because, well, they said it was the toughest! She admits even during her degree she knew it wasn’t likely her forever-career, but she stuck it out and has no regrets. It was very theoretical though and she’d always loved more practical pursuits.
A few years into her work-life, her new husband got into the one-year Piano Technology program at Western University in London, Ontario. He’s now a piano tuner, by the way, which I think we can agree is way-cool. Unknown to me, Western’s one of the only places in North America to have offered this program. AI tells me the program was discontinued; I’m sure AI would like all things involving non-digital tech to be discontinued, but I digress. The couple planned to return home to Denver but Val’s husband got a Toronto job offer so after a short while back home, they migrated to Toronto.
Valerie looked for jobs that would use her qualifications but came up empty. One day, while reading the now-discontinued York Guardian weekly paper, she came across an ad for a Horticultural Technology Pre-Apprenticeship program for women at Humber College. The idea appealed, and wow, it hits all the high notes for Val. Horticulture combines her science background with something hands on — literally. And better yet, she can be outside. For more than a decade she worked for a family-run gardening company in Etobicoke called Landscape Plus. It was a great experience. The Mosher family quickly saw potential in Valerie, making her a maintenance crew leader and eventually moved her into management.
When the Mosher family discontinued the maintenance side of their business, they treated their staff, including Valerie, very well. With management experience and the confidence she’d gained from their support, as well as some of the big clients from Landscape Plus, Valerie Groves moved into a new lane entirely — entrepreneur. She launched KIC Gardening two years ago and hasn’t looked back.
I had to ask — what does KIC mean? I love the response. It’s from a quote from an entomologist, Douglas Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants. The quote is: Knowledge generates interest, and interest generates compassion. Nice eh? Valerie embodies this in her approach to gardening. She hopes by sharing information about how we can better use our green space for beauty and for the planet, she can hook people on the idea and they in turn will treat the world and their space more kindly.
Valerie’s timing is perfect. In recent summers, goldenrod and milkweed stand proudly in my garden; 14 years ago their presence would have been a sign of my laziness. I’m not the only one either. Companies like KIC help us understand we’re doing good and making the world more beautiful but incorporating plants that help with the natural ecology. Lawns are out of fashion. Beds brimming with native pollinators are very much in style.
I asked Valerie what happens if she comes across a client who’s more old-school — who appreciates the beauty of an uncluttered garden where plants stand like islands in seas of pristine soil. She acknowledges she’s not yet at a place where she can turn down business because of a philosophical difference. But she does find subtle ways to sell those clients on her approach by focusing on the beauty of the plants she recommends, rather than the good they do for the environment. By selecting things that hide the dirt below, she can allow leaf litter to help replenish the soil and create habitat for creatures, as nature intended, instead of spending needless sweat-energy removing all the debris. KIC is all manual labour, by the way. Val quite rightly won’t use leaf blowers. She’s also troubled by the anti-environmental practices of an industry which is supposed to be about improving the environment, like plastic plant pots which are mostly black and therefore unrecyclable, and landscape fabric, also plastic, and just a disruptor to natural processes.
When I asked Valerie what in her past has given her the guts to make such big life changes — engineering to gardening and then gardening to entrepreneurship — she talked about the support of her parents. They were a bit worried when she first immigrated to Canada but they are thrilled she’s found her lane. Her mother even has milkweed growing in their Florida yard! Val also credits her husband who’s always there for her and the Mosher family, who even now, three years after she worked with them, continue to help out by offering her discounted rates on second hand equipment as well as support, referrals, and advice.
Valerie’s proud of how she’s tackling the business side of KIC Gardening, including bookkeeping, client relations, and marketing. She’s building on her online Facebook presence by getting her website up and running. In keeping with her community-based philosophy though, Val’s not planning to build her company into something big. No, she’s content to keep it small, relying mostly on referrals from happy clients.
I know I’m going to be one of those. This fall KIC will convert a large area of mulch in my backyard into a new pollinator bed, a tribute to my parents’ love of gardening. The sketches she’s shown me include, among other things, a small asparagus patch reflecting my own spring passion, and a border of sedum, the plant my mother put on the grave where her ashes will join Dad’s later this fall.
Valerie loves the balance her new work gives her, allowing her time to be with her husband, her sons, and her aging parents down south. Reflecting back on the lanes that got her here, she has not one regret. At only age 44 now, future lanes seem entirely possible for Val. When I asked about that, she agreed, although her ideas all relate to the work she’s doing now — consulting for the school system to help them use the land they’ve got in more ecologically sound ways. Or maybe doing more community stuff, including a children’s garden?
No question — Valerie Groves has landed in the lane she belongs, and right now, it’s flanked by coneflowers and black-eyed Susans.
Missed previous Lane Changer profiles?
Peter Chandler, how it all began for me
Cathy Crowe, her lane is the street
Marissa Bastidas, same lane, new direction
Pam Hudak, living on a multi-lane highway
Jennifer, crossing lanes from Phuket to pup-minder
Emma Simpson, from taxiway to writing terminal
Jessica Waraich, changing lanes on the career on-ramp
Michelle Simmons, straddling two lanes in her mid-40s
Sybil Chandler (1928-2025), proud to find life’s off-ramp
Faiv Noelle, solo on a global highway
Karly Wilson, waiting aside life’s highway for the next lane
Marya Williams, when life’s lanes bring you full circle
Carolyn Whitzman, lanes inspired by mother and grandmother
Judy Holm, from runways to red carpets to the halls of academe
If you like what you’re reading, there is no greater compliment than to become a subscriber. Sign up below with your email address to receive an email with my weekly blog.