The Breakout Star Of 'The Golden Bachelor' Is A Garden Shed

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When 72-year-old widower Gerry Turner, aka The Golden Bachelor, kicked off his quest to find love last Thursday night, I couldn’t help but tune in.

While Gerry seems perfectly pleasant, I found myself enamored with another breakout star of the season: The stunning backyard featured in contestant Theresa Nist's intro video.

In the early part of the first episode (at 13 minutes and 14 seconds in, more specifically), we’re allowed a brief glimpse into the world of the financial services professional from Shrewsbury, New Jersey—who also cites gardening as a hobby in her official Golden Bachelor bio—and although we’re allowed just a snippet of footage in this first episode, we’ve rewound it a time or two and thus far have spotted:

1.) Thriving boxwood plants

2.) Lush limelight hydrangea bushes

3.) A sweet wooden tree swing

4.) A beautifully weathered fence

5.) Custom raised cedar garden beds

6.) A shingled birdhouse

7.) A fire pit surrounded by Adirondack chairs

8.) An absolute dream of a garden shed with a cedar shake roof

After some internet sleuthing, it turns out that the gorgeous backyard actually belongs to Theresa's daughter, Jen Woolston, which makes sense seeing that Theresa is shown playing with her grandkids in the footage.

Jen also lives in Shrewsbury, and she documents a lot of her garden and home on her beautifully curated Instagram feed, @meadowsmithhouse. Jen says she gets her love of gardening from her mother—fingers crossed we get to Theresa's own garden in a future episode!—and is also inspired by fellow Instagrammers including @juliaberolzheimer, @kristinellenhockman, @pantry.hill, @thegritandpolish, and @adoredhouse.

So...About That Garden Shed

"Our home had a shed that was completely run down," says Jen, who used it as the opportunity to design a new shed behind her circa-1930s property. "But then it became more than a shed—so we started calling it the gardenhouse!"

The structure, which features white James Hardie siding and a cedar shake roof, was built by a former neighbor, Brian Schweers, who also built Theresa's garden shed. "My mom came with me to pick out vintage windows because I had my heart set on the diamond-paned style," says Jen, adding that her mother also helped her reglaze them and paint them. (We're seeing a mother-daughter DIY column in their future.)

The structure also features a vintage door, a lean-to on the back side for storage, and a pretty potting station from Pottery Barn (not shown). While Jen says she's still experimenting with what works and what doesn't, this year's garden beds included kale, romaine, tomatoes, eggplant, mint, asparagus, marigolds, lavender, and strawberries. "I still feel a bit of pinch me—is this really mine—when I look at it all." (Jen, we would too!)

Let's take a quick tour, shall we? (There's also so much more to see on Instagram, including—wait a minute—a pool to boot?! Honestly, we'd take all of this over the Bachelor Mansion.)

We don’t know a lot more about Theresa, but we’re hoping there’s a Hometown date that gives us a more extensive look into her own dreamy garden. (Fingers crossed there’s a romantic dinner for two set up amidst the blooms.) However, if Gerry doesn’t hand out the multiple roses that it’ll take to make it to the end, we’re pretty confident that Theresa and her daughter can just grow them on their own.

Garden Shed

Birdhouse

Tree Swing

Country Living Adirondack Chair

Provence Scalloped Edge Outdoor Planters

Fermob Bistro Chair Set of 2

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