Our Story
After several years of home ownership and maintaining a traditional grass lawn, we decided that we wanted to start using our yard as a way to uphold the values that we had worked to establish in other areas of our lives. We were concerned about taking care of the planet, but we were we spending time and money to maintain a yard that didn’t support biodiversity. We wanted to build community with our neighbors, but weren’t sure where to start.
We first heard the term “ecologically-minded landscaping” several years ago and instantly fell in love with the idea of transforming our yard. To be ecologically-minded means that a landscape mimics the systems in nature to promote a healthy, balanced, and natural outdoor environment. In every thing that we have done in our yard, we have focused on the use of native plants, organic materials, and making the best use of what was already on our property.
Image from May 2019
We started our very first tiny landscape with the hope of dipping our toes into the world of gardening. With almost no experience, absolutely no confidence, and the help of a great friend, we planted our very first (mostly) edible landscape. Filled with edibles like cherries, red currants, alpine strawberries, rhubarb, and several varieties of garden herbs, this was a simple, yet beautiful way for us to gain confidence. Some of the plants were also native (strawberries and yarrow) and some were easy to grow and could take a little neglect from novice gardeners (sedum, chives, rhubarb). I still absolutely love this little taste of heaven that we created!
Image from May 2021
After gaining a bit of confidence, we decided to try a little wildflower garden. We had a pet fish that had passed away that we wanted to bury in a special place, so we created this fun little shape in her honor. We filled it with wildflower seeds (not pictured) and enjoyed watching the space fill with various flowers throughout the season!
The next summer, we were ready to “go big or go home” as they say. We decided that we wanted to take the idea of the wildflower garden from the year before and turn it into a full-blown native garden in our yard. After carefully choosing native shrubs, edibles, and flowers for our space, we sheet mulched our yard, laid down our flagstone path and sitting area (up the path to the left of the house), and planted a couple hundred plants. I love the curvature of the path following the natural slope of our hill, the way the path wraps around the small garden that was already established, and the fact that we included a space for people to walk through the yard from the street!
Image from June 2022
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