Between the
Wildflowers & the Weeds
ABOUT
Hi, I'm Jenny, but most people call me Gan.
I've spent much of my adult life working in Higher Education Administration supervising departments within universities and facilitating undergraduate classes. For years, I guided students, programs, and departments while navigating a world of structure, schedules, and responsibilities. Yet even during those seasons, something quieter was moving beneath the surface within me — a tug toward simplicity, wholeness, and the wisdom of Creation.
Through a series of unexpected and seemingly unrelated events, I stepped away from the professional world I had known and began
discovering a more grounded way of living. What began as curiosity grew into calling. I studied herbalism, earned certifications, and became both an herbalist and a naturalist, reconnecting with the rhythms woven into the land.
A key influencer on my journey was my grandmother — a farm woman of deep wisdom who lived close to the soil. She grew her own food, tended livestock and chickens, canned what she harvested, and cared for her family with practical herbal knowledge passed down through generations. She never called it “herbalism.” She simply lived it.
Another major event that shaped my calling was when my mother came to live with me. Mom was very ill, though I didn't know it, because she was able to hide it really well. She was having seizures, sometimes multiple, daily. This was causing all kind of memory problems, anxiety, and other health related issues. It was only by God's design and leading that we ended up living together. Once with me, I finally realized the extent of her condition. She was in such a fragile state that I really didn't think she would live out the year. So I set to creating a beautiful homeplace and garden yard where she could find peace, try to heal, and enjoy whatever time we had left. I also began researching seizures, epilepsy, dementia, and related total health issues. As I worked to help her, she began to get better little by little. My mom was 87 when we began living together. As of this writing in 2026, she will be 94 in 2 months and has not had a seizure in two years. While she still has memory issues, they are not nearly as severe as in the beginning of our journey together. During those first days and years, I was beginning to put together and see how the use of nutritional adjustments, exercise, sleep, bouts in nature, and herbal support was making such a difference that I began to pursue it with everything in me. I remember thinking so many times, "Man, I wish I had paid more attention to Granny." And as result, my daughter, a health and family coach, and I have put together a 90 Day Path that looks at Whole Health Transformation. You can find it here.
Though I didn’t understand or appreciate the fullness of my grandmother’s wisdom and ways while growing up, the memory of her love, steadiness, and gentle strength has lingered. In time, those memories became seeds that sprouted, drawing me back to the kind of life my grandmother lived, and her mother before her, and her mother before her. It was one shaped by Scottish heritage, gratitude, observation, responsibility, and relationship with Creation. Today, I am a practicing herbalist who teaches and writes to help others rediscover the same timeless wisdom. Through my work at Between the Wildflowers & the Weeds, I encourage readers to step into a life that is slower, simpler, more nourishing, and grounded in both Scripture and soil. My passion is to help people overcome dis-ease and regain health by returning to the ancient paths, reconnecting through our own gardens and kitchens, and finding joy in the small, sacred things that sustain us.
When I'm not writing or teaching or creating, I can be found tending herbs, studying natural healing, observing the quiet conversations happening in the garden, or walking among the plants that continue to shape my life somewhere Between the Wildflowers & the Weeds. I hope you'll join me.
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