“We might summarize our present human situation by the simple statement: In the 20th century the glory of the human has become the desolation of the Earth, and now the desolation of the Earth has become the destiny of the human. From here on, the primary judgment of all human institutions, professions, programs and activities will be determined by the extent to which they inhibit, ignore, or foster a mutually-enhancing human-Earth relationship.”
“Who do we serve? How do we survive our grief in the midst of so many losses in the living world? How do we hold ourselves to account over our inescapable complicity in a fossil fuel economy that drives the climate crisis? What are the necessary actions we can take in order to realize justice for all? And how do we find the strength not to look away from all that is breaking our hearts?”
Welcome to my gardening business.
I'm a professional gardener based out of Oakland, specializing in ecological native and edible gardens. I've been gardening and farming for over 20 years. This is the moment— there’s never been a more urgent need— to align our living spaces with what our ecosystems require for their— and subsequently our— survival.
I specialize in creating native and edible ecosystems that provide much-needed habitat for local flora and fauna, collaborating with my clients to envision and create a living, evolving space that provides for their lifestyle needs while inspiring their hearts and minds.
Each garden is a unique expression of the client's interests and preferences, the site's existing vegetation, its climate potentials and limitations, and the principle of creative ecological emergence: the process by which we all, as living things, grow in ways undreamed of and unimagined, given time, attention and care.
Environmentalist and cultural historian Thomas Berry once wrote that our common future relies upon "humanity's capacity for intimacy in our human-earth relations." It's no secret that humans are suffering from a lack of intimacy, with each other and with the natural world. One way that I have found to make space for the gradual reclamation of this intimacy is through creating and spending time in gardens that exist, not simply as objects of beauty, but also as sources of sustenance, both physical, psychological and philosophical.
I first put my hands in the soil as a young child, tending to my yard in Minnesota, and grew my first vegetable on a farm in Alaska in 2006. Since then, I've dedicated my time to caring for green spaces, a skill I enjoy sharing with my clients and find to be both a source of personal wellbeing and a way to support diversity and connectedness in my community while addressing the climate crisis directly. (Check out this and this for more information about the importance of native habitat gardens in preventing ecosystem collapse.)
My background includes work as a farmer, habitat restoration technician, landscaper, and garden educator at various nonprofits, including Tilth Alliance Youth Garden Works and the Cascade Land Conservancy. I currently design, install and maintain private gardens in the Bay Area; did so previously in Seattle and Bellingham, WA; taught gardening classes at Chabot Space and Science Center and a women's shelter in SF; ran an ecological design firm with architect friend Felipe Santander; and have stewarded several public garden projects in San Francisco. I am a certified permaculture designer, and feel honored to have received foundational mentorship from award-winning landscape architect Robert Edson Swain and beloved permaculturalist Toby Hemenway. I am also an LMFT psychotherapist with a private practice based in Oakland, and I’m very interested in ecopyschology and horticultural therapy. I’m a current member of the Climate Psychology Alliance.
Not sure where to start? I can help to visualize your thoughts and garden dreams, and will contribute my own insights and ideas. Together we can come up with a plan for your green spaces--- one that inspires you and meets your lifestyle needs. I collaborate with my clients to create beautiful, ecological designs that support local habitat, produce food, and serve as sanctuaries for rest, reflection and inspiration.
As an ecological gardener, I recognize that I am but a part of the whole. It seems to me that an insidious part of colonization has been the erasure of our relationship with plants and soil and earth; coming back to gardening is a crucial way to decolonize our bodies and minds.
And because I value ecological and social justice highly, I also employ another decolonization tactic: I build giving back to community into my business model. A healthy human community, like a healthy garden, is an interconnected web of support. At this moment I am able to donate 3% of my total annual earnings to the following organizations:
