DIG IT Urban Gardens + Nursery is so Downtown Phoenix. The boutique nursery on 16th Street, just north of Thomas, sits on a small lot with lots of desert flora framed by a cement box of a shop covered in a bright mural of a skeleton with a saguaro growing out of its head. Co-founder Ryan Jerrell says when he and his business partner Tim Bishop launched in the fall of 2015, they wanted to offer Phoenix urbanites a break from the big box stores where they usually buy their trendy succulents. “A garden center should be a place where people can come on their lunch break” and have a more “hang-out vibe,” Jerrell says.

Celebrating DIG IT's one year anniversary this weekend with a birthday party, Jerrell hopped on the phone with me to answer some questions about the growth of urban gardening (and give me a tip or two on my pesky habit of killing every green thing I come in contact with).