When my husband Adam and I purchased a home on almost an acre in Atlanta in 2018, we began building our vegetable garden and transforming our overgrown, high-maintenance landscape through lots of backbreaking work and trial and error. After many failures and many, many dead plants, we realized that just driving to the big box stores and buying whatever looks interesting is not a smart strategy. We made every mistake possible, including planting vegetables at the absolute wrong time of year, accidentally planting invasive species, and planting beautiful tropical plants that had no chance of surviving in our Georgia climate. We wasted SO much time and money. Rather than becoming discouraged, I dove deep into learning about native plants and urban foodscapes in order to engineer my own productive, beautiful, (albeit slightly chaotic) garden landscape from the ground up. I discovered the fascinating worlds of permaculture, regenerative gardening, habitat restoration, companion planting, and kitchen gardening. I became a little (very) obsessed.

After witnessing the incredible transformation of our own boring, sterile, high-maintenance landscape into a thriving, buzzing ecosystem that helps feed both our little family and native wildlife, as well as the amazing impact of working with nature on my mental and physical health, I realized I wanted to help others experience the same joy. I was inspired to help build local food systems and support native biodiversity without shaming people for also wanting nice lawns and interesting ornamental plants. I became a garden consultant because I envision a future on this planet where we can all grow our own abundant kitchen gardens and flourishing natural ecosystems— one where our children spend less time behind screens and more time in the dirt. I want to help us all to get back to our beautiful, wild, and unruly roots!