Getting Sticky With: Natalie Benson

Natalie Benson is known for her “gardening” content—a not-so-subtle euphemism for weed, and a clever one that keeps her from getting flagged on social. Pregnancy, though, presented a real shift. After building a platform and business around cannabis, she suddenly wouldn’t be smoking anymore.

She’s been refreshingly open about that transition, continuing to abstain while breastfeeding, and just as open about breastfeeding itself—doing it in public, without shame (even if that wasn’t always her perspective before becoming a mom).

Below, we spoke with Natalie about getting pregnant almost immediately after removing her IUD, the sweet relief of an epidural, and what she hopes her daughter understands one day: “That everything we’ve done for her has come from so much love and a real desire for her to be the best possible human.”

Words by AnaMaria Glavan / Photos by Sofi Perazzo

It’s okay to feel miserable while pregnant! 

I always knew I wanted kids one day, but when you’re in your early 20s, it feels like something that’s a million years away. I never had a set number or timeline. I married my husband two years ago—we’ve been together for seven years—and around September 2024, I decided to get my IUD taken out. I’d heard it can take a while for your cycle to regulate again, so I wasn’t expecting to get pregnant right away… but three months later, I was pregnant.

They’re not kidding when they say you get really fertile after taking it out. It was what doctors would call a “welcomed surprise.” Looking back now, it couldn’t have happened at a better time. I’m so happy it happened when it did and I truly can’t imagine my life without her now. 

I was pretty miserable throughout my whole pregnancy, though. I hated being pregnant, which I think a lot of people can relate to. You’re so excited to meet this new person, but at the same time, you’re sick, uncomfortable, exhausted, nauseous, and all of that lasts for ten months. And then the second the baby comes, you immediately think, I would do that all over again just to have this moment.

Let’s talk “gardening” 

I went to acting school after college for a semester, which got me out of my comfort zone. Then COVID hit, and at that point a couple of friends and I decided to work on creating a short film. I liked the idea of acting, but when it came down to it, I didn’t think I could commit to moving to California—I wanted to stay in Massachusetts. My boyfriend, now husband, was here, my family was here, and it just wasn’t realistic for me to make that move. And at that point, I had to reevaluate what I wanted to do. I got involved in influencer marketing on the agency side, and I learned how to navigate brand deals and see things from the other perspective. I also got into smoking weed more. My husband was working on a cannabis business in Massachusetts, so he definitely had a role in that. I had always thought people smoked to relax or wind down, but I found it really helped me focus and be creative.

I started sharing a bit on social media again and launched a rolling paper business geared toward women, building a small community around it. It wasn’t super lucrative, and I couldn’t sustain it for more than a year or two, so I went back to the drawing board.

At that point, I was working with my husband and his company, and after a couple of months of not really posting, I decided to try TikTok again. I started with lifestyle content, then opened up about smoking weed and how much it helped me. That’s when it really started to click because people were like, “Oh, I relate to that.”

I grew my TikTok to around 40,000 followers, and then it got taken down because you’re not allowed to smoke on TikTok. I didn’t really know how to hide it, so I kept getting flagged until the account was just gone. I got back on the horse and decided to approach it differently. I needed a way to talk about weed without actually talking about weed, which is how I came up with the term “gardening.”

That really blew up, and once that happened, I just ran with it—posting a lot of gardening content, creating merch, and building a really tight-knit community of people who shared this common love of cannabis. From there, Garden Mother came out of it pretty naturally—now it’s a line of gummies, flower, and pre-rolls rooted in that same blend of wellness, femininity, and cannabis culture, based in Massachusetts. It’s taken a lot of different paths to get here.

While building the brand, I found out I was pregnant, which was definitely a little scary. I was like, how am I going to post “gardening” content if I’m not smoking?

But it’s been really interesting to see the evolution. A lot of women who are part of this community get pregnant, and some choose to continue smoking while others don’t. I chose not to. Sharing that transition—from smoking all day, every day to stopping—has been really impactful. A lot of women have said, “If she can do it, I can do it too,” which has been amazing.

And I’m still not smoking because I’m breastfeeding. There’s so much conflicting information out there—you ask the Internet and you’ll get a million different answers—so for now I’m choosing not to until I’m done.

I do think it’s such a complicated topic, though. The Internet can be really intense about what you share, especially during pregnancy. But I also think the plant is incredible, and hearing stories from women who’ve used it in really serious medical situations just shows how nuanced it all is.

Breastfeeding in public? Yeah, no biggie. 

We’re already thinking about where we want to raise our child and what that looks like. It’s becoming more real that this baby will turn into a child, and then an older child. I want them to be respectful, to see the world in a way that isn’t spoiled, and to have the values that I grew up with and that my husband grew up with. 

I try to learn from the people around me, whether it’s things I like or things I don’t like. And I try not to judge, because it’s so easy to say, “Our kid would never do that.” We were at dinner the other night and my husband goes, “Our kid’s not going to scream at dinner,” and I was like, yeah, I think that might change when we’re in the thick of it with two or three kids and we’re just trying to get through the meal.

I’m learning from my surroundings, taking what aligns with me, and not being shy to ask people, “How did you do this? What worked for you? What didn’t?” I’m just being open, because my idea of how I want to raise my daughter will probably change a hundred times between now and when she’s five.

And in terms of other preconceived notions, one thing that’s definitely changed for me is breastfeeding in public. Not that I ever judged anyone for it, but now I just don’t care at all. I’m feeding someone—if you have a problem, that’s on you.

Good news: there’s no trophy either way when it comes to an epidural

I was really worried about the postpartum period. I’ve dealt with depression and anxiety and I take an SSRI, so I was like, okay, I need to have a therapist lined up, make sure I’m talking, and be really proactive. I was honestly very nervous going into it.

But my postpartum experience has actually been very easy and very peaceful. I haven’t felt overwhelmed, I haven’t felt depressed, I haven’t felt super anxious. I feel really lucky. And I know it can be tricky to say that because I don’t want it to come across like everything is perfect, but I do think it’s important to share that it’s not always negative or scary.

For me, pregnancy was actually harder than postpartum, and my delivery was amazing. I had this whole plan—I was going to go the natural route, not get induced, labor at home as long as possible, have a doula, not get an epidural—and literally everything changed because my baby was very past due.

That’s actually where my anxiety kicked in. I was like, this baby is never coming and I’m going to be the first person pregnant forever. So I got induced, and I ended up loving laboring in the hospital. I labored for 14 hours without an epidural and then I was like, what am I doing? I’m fighting for my life right now. I’m not going to have energy to push.

I told the nurse, “I heard they stopped giving out trophies for not getting an epidural, so let’s just do it.” And it was the best decision I made. As soon as I got it, everything just felt calm and peaceful. When it was time to push, I pushed for about an hour and a half, and then she came. It was intense but her arrival was magical. 

I had such a clear idea of what I thought I wanted, and everything changed. I tell everyone to be open to your plan completely flipping, because you really just have to roll with it.

If my daughter were to read this one day… 

When it comes to how we’ll eventually explain what we do, especially around cannabis, I think we’re lucky that it’s so much more accepted now than it was even five years ago. I’d like to explain it in a way that feels honest: this is our job, this is the business we’ve built, but it’s something that’s meant for when you’re older.

I’d also want to be really thoughtful about education. It’s not about hiding it or making it feel forbidden, it’s more about helping her understand it so she can make decisions that are right for her health and well-being. Because the reality is, she’ll be around it at some point—whether that’s in her teens or in college. So it becomes about teaching her how to approach it responsibly: understanding what it is, how it affects you, being mindful about when and how you consume it, and where it’s coming from.

If my daughter were to read this in 20 years, I would want her to know that everything we’ve done for her has come from so much love and a real desire for her to be the best possible human. I’m sure we will have made a million mistakes along the way, but the intention has always been to give her the best life, the most opportunities, and to help her grow into the best version of herself.

I would also want her to never put a ceiling on what she wants to accomplish. This is something I’ve really learned from my husband—don’t sell yourself short because of perceived limitations. Go for the biggest, best possible scenario and trust that you’ll figure it out. When you start from a place of limitation, you’re only holding yourself back. There are so many opportunities in the world, and I’d want her to go after them fully.

That mindset has been a big shift for me. I think I grew up a little more like, “Oh, that’s expensive,” or “We don’t have time for that,” or “You have to do things a certain way.” But it’s like, no, you have one life. Try.