Meet Christina
Christina Reder was born and raised in Newfoundland. The second youngest in a family of two sisters and seven brothers. With having such a big family, everyone helped in the garden, growing potatoes, carrots, onions, and lots of other hearty vegetables. While her father tended to the garden, Christina could be found picking berries, she fondly remembers her dad giving her his hat to use as a container.
At the age of l7, Christina relocated to Thunder Bay, Ontario. She was hired as a cashier at Canada Safeway, where she remained employed over the next seventeen years. She attributes her training and vast understanding of excellent customer service to this position, which included numerous seminars on customer service. It was there that she saw the value of having a place where customers could go and know that they would find everything on their shopping list. Perhaps that is where the idea for the "one call does it all" mentality she has for Christina's Home and Garden was seeded!
In 1994, Christina and her husband, Frank, made the decision to move their family, which included two daughters Elizabeth and Victoria, and a son, Michael, to British Columbia, Christina says living in the small community of New Denver where she owned and ran a small corner store was the highlight of her life. She loved that everyone knew each other.
Life in B.C. was wonderful, but the city of Thunder Bay is where Christina truly wanted to be. In 2001, they returned to what was always considered home. Christina was working at Canadian Tire. Working as a manager in the seasonal department, she learned endlessly about gardening. She would take home damaged supplies at discounted prices and turned her plain yard into a stunning garden. The feeling of taking a blank canvas and seeing it transform daily brought her great joy. Neighbours, friends and family all saw what an incredible talent she had with gardens and would often suggest that she become a professional gardener.
She saw the opportunity to make a job for herself and tenaciously went through all the steps to be self-employed. During the winter of 2013 she put together her business plan and in the spring, Christina's Home and Garden, was open for business. Her goal was to help seniors (a rapidly growing demographic in Thunder Bay) to maintain their beautiful gardens that brought them such joy and pride while building a relationship of trust and friendship. She kept herself employed full time that year!
The business grew organically for the next three years, and gardeners were hired to keep up with the demand. Repeatedly clients would ask for help with repairs inside their homes. Seeing the benefit of being a general contractor to her clients, Christina makes the decision to hire a full time certified carpenter/plumber.
In 2016 the business was incorporated as Christina's Home and Garden Ltd. Equipment was purchased and more staff was hired, including a professional landscaper, an outdoor manager and a marketing expert, Currently, Christina employees’ fourteen staff! She says the greatest part of being the owner of Christina's Home and Garden is the relationships she has developed with her employees and clients. She still takes the time to meet with each new client and greets each of her staff every morning.
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