Hi, I’m Carol Brouillette.
I’m based in Tacoma, where I spend my days tending to plants and appreciating the quiet companionship they offer. Selective pruning and planting up containers are my favorite garden chores, because they rely so heavily on a mix of knowledge, intuition, and aesthetic.
Before starting Shared Breath Plant Care, I worked as a teacher, studied botany, and volunteered in environmental stewardship. I’ve always followed my curiosity, especially when it leads toward the natural world. In recent years, I’ve also been recovering from Long COVID, and plants have been part of that healing. They remind me to slow down, observe, and find joy in the living world around me. There are very few plant emergencies.
In my downtime, I knit, play DND, and reliably win at Trivia Night. I also take photomicroscopy images of plant structures.
I love working with clients who value clear communication and mutual respect. Whether you have strong aesthetic ideas or prefer to hand over creative control, I do my best work with people who understand that plants aren’t furniture or sculpture: they're living beings with needs, rhythms, and a bit of unpredictability. Good plant care makes room for that.
Why “Shared Breath”?
If plants demonstrate any miracle, it’s the Oxygen Evolving Complex which sits at the base of Photosystem II. It’s responsible for splitting water molecules apart into its component pieces. You put water and light energy in, you get protons, electrons, and free-floating oxygen out. This process is responsible for all the oxygen we breathe. Some water was present when earth formed, the rest came to our planet as ice from billions of years of meteor impacts, and when photosynthetic life forms evolved, they spent another billion years building a breathable atmosphere. They didn’t build it on purpose, but they still built it.
Humans are also interested in the process of water splitting. Like plants, we are interested in the hydrogen, rather than the oxygen, because it can be used in hydrogen fuel cells to power cars. Unlike plants, we have to use a lot of electricity to perform this process. It is difficult and expensive. Plants, however, have mastered it. A little bit of manganese and calcium, some sunshine, and a drop of water. Done and done.
It’s hard for me to be judgmental about plant-blindness. I was there too, once. Plants do not communicate in ways we can understand, they do not move in timeframes that matter to us. It is easy to let them fade into the backdrop of life. I named my business Shared Breath Plant Care as a reminder that plants are our partners in survival. The oxygen in my lungs is a byproduct of photosynthesis. The carbon I exhale is the carbon they use to build their bodies. We share each breath.