5 Minutes With … Bonita Weinstein
Bonita Weinstein runs Reston Farm Garden Market in Reston, Virginia, with her husband Lowell and their two sons.
What brought you to the green industry?
My husband [Lowell], actually. I worked for Black+Decker, but my husband started working for a small garden center as a loader and a few other things when he was about 16 years old, and he got the itch. As we grew up he said, ‘I think we should [have a garden center].’ I said, ‘no, I don’t think so’ — but this is what we ended up doing. We took over Reston Farm Garden Market in 2017.
What is the best part of your job?
The best part of my job is the customers; I enjoy that part. I enjoy talking to people, meeting people, laughing. And I love it when people come in and say, ‘Hey, we’ve seen you on [the local news].’ That gets me going.
As a family business, what measures do you take to separate the family part from the business part?
I’ll be very transparent: that is a very difficult thing because we are family and we love each other, and sometimes taking those steps can be hard. Sometimes I’ll have to personally step back and just not respond to anything for a day and give myself time to think it through and give the right response.
We’re still working on that. We’re still a family learning, we’re still trying to grow. And I think a part of what makes us so special is that [Reston Farm is] a mother, a father and sons, and even when we’re mad at each other, we are very close.
What surprised you about running the business?
I didn’t realize it was so much work. I thought that, because of what I had already done in sales and in an industry that I had to talk to people, it would be super easy for me.
I found out that you have to be so consistent in this business. … I went on vacation two years ago — just for two weeks — and I came back and there was so much work for me to do.
What’s something few people know about you?
I really like to sing gospel music and I really love to write. It’s usually [writing] about myself. … I have this feeling I need to write a book about menopause because women don’t talk about it. They don’t. It’s almost embarrassing to women, and it really shouldn’t be — it’s a change that’s coming in your life. I have been talking with a friend of mine who’s an author, and she says she thinks I can write a couple books [about it].
What’s your favorite plant to grow?
I love hydrangeas, but I have a little rabbit in the yard that ate all my hydrangeas. So I cut them all the way down and I kept on feeding them and feeding them and feeding them. [The rabbit] literally ate them down to nothing. But I went out there the other day, and they’re huge! It literally ate all my hydrangeas but they’re all coming back.
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