From speech-language pathologist to one of Canada's fastest-growing gardening and lifestyle creators, Erin Berkyto celebrates one million followers across social media.
Well, this is something I never saw growing!
One million followers.
If you had told me five years ago that my little suburban backyard garden would someday connect me with more than a million people around the world, I would have had a hard time believing you.
Yet here we are!
In less than five years, The Knotty Garden has grown into a community of more than one million followers across Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. What began as a creative outlet to share my lifelong love of gardening has grown into an entirely new career, with opportunities I never could have anticipated.
And although I've been gardening for nearly 20 years, I'm still relatively new to this whole social media thing.
So, in celebration of this milestone, I thought I'd share a little more about the person behind The Knotty Garden, how this all came to be, and what I've learned along the way.
From Speech-Language Pathologist to Content Creator
As it turns out, my career path hasn't been quite as winding as it might appear.
Long before I was making gardening videos, I was immersed in the world of communication.
I earned my bachelor's degree in English Language and Linguistics, followed by a Master of Science degree through the University of British Columbia's Faculty of Medicine. I went on to build a career as a speech-language pathologist, including working as a clinical faculty member.
I'm a self-professed word nerd. I've always been fascinated by language, how we use it, and the power it has to connect us.
Communication is about so much more than the words we choose. It's about how we share ideas, build relationships, teach, inspire, and make other people feel.
Those principles were central to my work in healthcare, and they're every bit as relevant to what I do today.
My background in communication has been one of my greatest assets as a content creator. Whether I'm speaking to a live audience, appearing on television, writing a blog post, or explaining a gardening technique in a 30-second Instagram Reel, the challenge is much the same: how do I take an idea and communicate it in a way that connects with someone?
And more importantly, how do I leave them feeling something?
I want people who encounter my content to feel encouraged, empowered, curious, and a little more joyful. I want them to feel that they can try something new, even if they've never done it before.
My career has changed considerably, but at its heart, I'm still doing something I've always loved: helping people.
I just traded my clinical office for a greenhouse.
A Lifelong Love of Gardening
Although my career in social media is relatively new, my relationship with gardening is anything but.
I've had my hands in the soil since childhood and have been cultivating my own gardens for nearly 20 years.
Today, I garden in a suburban backyard in the Fraser Valley, just outside Vancouver, British Columbia.
And I want to emphasize the word suburban.
This isn't a sprawling homestead, a hobby farm, or an expansive country estate. It's an ordinary residential property where I've spent years figuring out how to make the most of a modest amount of space.
I grow a substantial amount of fresh produce for my family of four, cultivate flowers, create habitat for pollinators and wildlife, and experiment with all sorts of ways to make gardening more productive, affordable, and enjoyable.
My garden is also a Certified Wildlife Habitat, reflecting my commitment to gardening in a way that supports the natural world around us.
But perhaps my favourite thing about gardening is that there's always something new to learn.
I've been doing this for decades and I still make mistakes. I still have failures. I still discover new techniques that make me wonder why on earth I hadn't tried them sooner.
And sometimes those discoveries become videos watched by millions of people.
You don't need acres of land, an unlimited budget, or 20 years of experience to grow something amazing.
What's in a Name? The Story Behind The Knotty Garden
As a former speech-language pathologist with a double major bachelor's degree in linguistics and English, I'm a bit of a word nerd. So naturally, when it came time to name my garden, I couldn't resist a little wordplay.
The Knotty Garden is a play on knot gardens, the traditional, highly formal gardens characterized by carefully clipped hedges, intricate geometric patterns, and meticulous attention to detail.
My garden? Well, let's just say it can have a mind of its own.
It's a little wild, occasionally unruly, and not particularly interested in following the rules. A bit naughty, you might say. Not entirely unlike the head gardener herself!
And that's precisely the point.
I believe gardening should be fun, messy, experimental, and full of discovery. There should be room for happy accidents, unexpected visitors, questionable ideas, and the occasional spectacular failure.
Nature isn't particularly interested in being controlled, and I've learned that some of the most wonderful things happen when we stop trying to make everything behave.
Of course, there's a place for structure and planning in a garden. But I prefer to work with nature rather than constantly trying to tame it.
Building The Knotty Garden: From Instagram to One Million Followers
I started sharing my garden on Instagram in 2022. At the time, I wasn't setting out to become a Canadian influencer, build a media business, or develop a personal brand.
I just had a lot of enthusiasm for gardening and a lot of things I wanted to share. In fact, I started sharing my content anonymously; no face and no name. Let's just say that things escalated quickly.
What began with photographs, little garden tours, and growing tips gradually evolved into educational videos, DIY projects, gardening hacks, seasonal inspiration, and a whole lot of experimenting.
I quickly discovered that people weren't necessarily looking for picture-perfect gardens. They wanted ideas they could actually use.
How can I grow more food in less space? Can I make this myself? Is there a less expensive way? Can I repurpose something I already own? Why does this technique actually work?
Those are my favourite kinds of questions, and I've never been particularly good at keeping the answers to myself.
Some of my most popular content has been surprisingly simple. Ordinary household objects repurposed into clever gardening tools, unconventional ways to compost, and little tricks that save time, money, or effort have attracted millions of views.
As my Instagram community grew, The Knotty Garden expanded to Facebook, followed more recently by YouTube and TikTok.
Today, I've built an international audience of more than one million followers across these platforms, with a community spanning Canada, the United States, and far beyond.
All in less than five years.
Not bad for a girl playing in the dirt.
Recognized as Canada's #1 Gardening Influencer in 2026
This year brought some particularly exciting milestones and recognition, and I'm going to take a moment to celebrate it because, quite frankly, I'm still wrapping my head around it!
In September 2026, Feedspot ranked me (@theknottygarden) as the #1 Canadian gardening influencer on Instagram!
The ranking also reported an extraordinary 73% follower growth rate over three months, which is particularly remarkable for an account that already had hundreds of thousands of followers.
And in both June and July 2026, The Knotty Garden was recognized by Net Influencer as one of Canada's 10 fastest-growing Instagram accounts, based on HypeAuditor data.
In July alone, my account gained approximately 113,000 followers!
To put that into perspective, the July ranking included Canadian musicians (hello, Tate McRae?!) , entertainers, and some of the country's most prominent social media personalities. And there I was, a gardening enthusiast from suburban British Columbia, keeping company with them.
There's something mind boggling about that. But there's also something encouraging about it. I think we sometimes underestimate the reach and relevance of gardening.
Gardening connects to food, health, home improvement, interior and exterior design, sustainability, family life, and our relationship with the environment.
It's practical. It's creative. It's nostalgic. It's good for us.
And importantly, it doesn't have to be complicated or expensive.
I believe people are hungry for information that makes their lives a little easier, more beautiful, and more fulfilling.
If the growth of The Knotty Garden is any indication, that interest is alive and well.
From the Garden to the Stage and Television
One of the most unexpected parts of this journey has been watching my work move beyond the screen.
I've had opportunities to speak and present at major home and garden events, including the BC Home + Garden Show in Vancouver and the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival in Seattle, connecting with fellow gardeners and gardening enthusiasts in person.
I've also become a repeat guest on CTV News Vancouver, sharing seasonal gardening advice and practical tips with television audiences.
These opportunities have been particularly meaningful because they bring together so many different aspects of my background.
I love teaching. I love public speaking. And after years of studying communication and working in a profession devoted to helping people communicate, it feels like a natural extension of everything I've done before.
I've also had the pleasure of interviewing and speaking with influential figures in the home and garden industry, including Sarah Baeumler, exchanging ideas and learning from people who have built remarkable careers of their own.
There's something special about these face-to-face experiences.
Social media can make the world feel remarkably small, but meeting people in person reminds me just how far these connections reach.
And while I still feel most at home with my hands in the soil, I have to admit that I've developed quite a fondness for the stage, too.
I look forward to continuing to explore opportunities in television, hosting, public speaking, interviews, live events, and educational programming.
Beyond Gardening: Growing into a Canadian Lifestyle Brand
Gardening will always be at the heart of The Knotty Garden, but I've never been interested in keeping it confined to the garden gate.
For me, gardening is part of a much broader way of life.
It's about growing food and knowing what to do with it. It's about celebrating the seasons, making our homes welcoming, finding creative uses for things we already own, and being a little more thoughtful about how we live.
Over time, my content has naturally expanded to include home and garden DIY, seasonal recipes, food preservation, sustainable living, travel, hospitality, and lifestyle inspiration.
And I've loved every minute of that expansion.
As a Canadian content creator based in Greater Vancouver, I'm also particularly enthusiastic about celebrating Canadian businesses, destinations, and experiences.
I've been fortunate to work with leading national and international brands across gardening, outdoor living, tools, home, kitchen, and hospitality.
These partnerships have allowed me to explore new ideas, experiment with products, and create content that feels like a natural extension of my everyday life.
I love a clever tool. I love a beautiful hotel. I love a good kitchen gadget. And I'm probably a little too enthusiastic about finding a practical use for something that most people would throw away.
The common thread is curiosity, creativity, and finding joy in the things that surround us.
That's also what I look for in brand partnerships.
I want to work with businesses and organizations that understand the value of useful, engaging, and thoughtful content. I want to introduce my audience to things I genuinely enjoy, while giving brands an opportunity to connect with people in a meaningful way.
With a rapidly growing international community, The Knotty Garden has become a platform for reaching audiences interested in far more than gardening alone.
And I think there's a lot of fertile ground still to explore.
An Educator at Heart
Despite the career change, there is one thing that has remained constant: I love teaching. My background in science, healthcare, linguistics, and education continues to influence the way I approach my content. I'm naturally inquisitive. I like to understand not just how something works, but why.
And if I'm going to explain something to hundreds of thousands of people, I want to make sure I'm giving them information they can trust.
I'm particularly fond of challenging conventional gardening wisdom, investigating popular gardening hacks, and finding practical ways to apply scientific principles. Sometimes that means explaining soil biology. Sometimes it's demonstrating a better way to grow tomatoes. And sometimes it's discovering that an ordinary kitchen colander has a surprising second career in the garden.
But education doesn't need to be dry or complicated. In fact, I think some of the best learning happens when we don't even realize we're being taught.
You shouldn't need a degree in horticulture to understand your soil, grow a tomato, or create a pollinator-friendly backyard. Nor should you feel discouraged because your garden doesn't look like something out of a magazine.
I want people to feel capable. I want them to be willing to experiment, make mistakes, laugh about the failures, and celebrate the successes.
Because the goal has never been to grow a perfect garden. It's to grow a garden that works for you.
What One Million Followers Really Means
Numbers are funny things. One million followers is an extraordinary professional milestone, and I'm immensely proud of what I've accomplished in such a short time.
But the number itself only tells part of the story. Behind every follow, comment, save, and share is a person.
Maybe it's someone who just planted their first tomato. Someone who wants to make better use of a small backyard. Someone looking for a creative project to tackle this weekend. Or someone who doesn't garden at all but enjoys watching someone else potter around in theirs.
There are people who've been gardening longer than I've been alive, and there are people who have never planted a seed.
Some are here for the gardening advice. Others are here for the flowers, the DIY projects, the occasional questionable experiment, or perhaps just a few peaceful moments in the greenhouse. And I love that.
One of the things that has surprised me most about social media is its ability to create genuine connections between people who might otherwise never have crossed paths. It's also a responsibility I don't take lightly.
Having a platform of this size means having the opportunity to influence how people think, what they try, what they purchase, and perhaps even how they see the world around them.
I hope that influence is a positive one. If someone leaves my page feeling a little more confident, a little more curious, or simply a little happier than when they arrived, I consider that a success.
And to everyone who has been part of this journey, whether you've been here since the early days or arrived sometime last week, thank you.
Thank you for sharing my videos, asking questions, trying my gardening tips, supporting my partnerships, and occasionally indulging my enthusiasm for things like compost and oddly shaped pumpkins.
You've helped turn something I love into something I get to call a career. And that is a pretty remarkable gift.
One Million Followers. And Still Growing.
I have absolutely no intention of putting down my trowel anytime soon. There are still so many things I want to grow, experiments I want to try, places I want to visit, people I want to meet, and stories I want to tell.
I'm excited to continue expanding The Knotty Garden as a source of gardening education and lifestyle inspiration, while pursuing new opportunities in television, public speaking, hosting, publishing, and partnerships with brands I admire.
But no matter how far this journey takes me, I hope to stay rooted in the things that brought me here in the first place: curiosity, creativity, a love of learning, and a genuine desire to help others.
After all, The Knotty Garden was never really just about gardening. It was about growing something meaningful and sharing it with others.
One million followers. Who would have thought?!
See you in the garden!
🌸 Erin
About Erin Berkyto | The Knotty Garden
Erin Berkyto is an award-recognized Canadian gardening and lifestyle content creator, educator, speaker, and founder of The Knotty Garden. Based in Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, she holds a bachelor's degree in English Language and Linguistics and a Master of Science degree from the University of British Columbia. Before launching her social media career in 2022, she worked as a speech-language pathologist and clinical faculty member.
In 2026, Feedspot ranked The Knotty Garden as the #1 Canadian gardening influencer on Instagram, reporting 73% follower growth over three months. Net Influencer also recognized Erin among Canada's 10 fastest-growing Instagram accounts in both June and July 2026.
With more than one million followers across Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok, Erin shares evidence-informed gardening advice, DIY projects, sustainable living ideas, and lifestyle content with an international audience. She is a repeat guest on CTV News Vancouver and has appeared at major gardening events including the BC Home + Garden Show and the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival.
For brand partnerships, media appearances, television, speaking engagements, and other collaborations, please get in touch via INF Agency at erin[@]infagency.com
