Garden Design

A good garden design is complex and elegant.

I learned much at the University of Minnesota were I earned a degree in Landscape Architecture in 2006. Much I learned from Permaculture practices. Ultimately, its good old, hands on experience.

To create a solid plan many layers are considered. Spatially the size of beds, property lines, window heights and vista lines all come into play. Environmentally sunlight exposure, moisture averages, soil types and micro climates need to be considered. Visually anticipating the colors of flower and foliage, the season they bloom, texture, form and size at maturity are all thought through when choosing species and placement.

When we plant new gardens on our property we are adding to the overall ecosystem. This is why it’s exciting to us native species. These species are found here naturally, they thrive in our local conditions, they feed pollinators, butterflies and birds. They create habitat. They encourage the expansion of species that have become less common then we’d like. If you’d like native species planted on your property, reach out and we can start a conversation of doing just that.

Cut Flower Farm

For two summers I grew an all natural, cut flower farm in Independence Minnesota.

At my childhood home I tore up sod, bartered for access to a greenhouse and planted a 100’ x 40‘ bed. This exploratory venture resulted in fresh flowers and bright bouquets sold to local Coops throughout the Twin Cities. Fun fact, I mulched the garden with compost created with milfoil from Lake Minnetonka and the neighbors horse manure.

I learned the ins and outs of flower farming working for Little Boy Flowers in Northern California the year prior. It was a joy spending my days nourishing and surrounded by these beautiful blooms. I was even written up in the Lake Minnetonka magazine!

Practicing Permaculture

Permaculture is a philosophy that informs sustainable practices

Comprised of principles that reinforce a conscious effort to create a permanent culture for humans on this precious planet. It is ecological, social, economic and all things designed by human minds and human hands. To practice Permaculture one observes and studies nature. It is in mimicking nature’s patterns, nature’s laws and complex perfection that we become Permaculturists.

I had the awesome opportunity to teach Permaculture Design Courses (PDC) in Kenya and Haiti to farmers who feed and support their families with their land and their hands. I meet some of the most exuberant and hard working friends over these 6 week trips with the NGO, Mindful Generations. Blessed to experience wildly different ways of life, while remembering in the end, we’re all one big family.

Permaculture principles inform my gardening. Concepts such as “catching and storing energy” can be seen while sculpting the soil around plants to collect rain water. Mulching with plant material to reduce water evaporation, suppress weeds and promote beneficial mycorrhizal growth. Even cultivating strong professional relationships with individuals in need of healthy, gardening services.

Gardening Service

In 2019 Garden Legacy has a printed ad for gardening services in the Northern Gardener Magazine.

This beautiful and informative publication is one of the only cold hearty magazines for garden enthusiasts in the zone 3 regions. Sent to over 11,500 subscribers, I am looking forward to the new voices in the community I may encounter during the 6 months the advertisement runs.

Monica's Memorial Garden

Monica's son installed this garden, representing her loving and courageous nature.

Monica's Garden

1. Climbing Rose "Above and Beyond" - love & strength  2. Wild Lupine - happiness and a positive outlook, transplanted from her garden. 3. Echinacea - maintaining a strong sense of self, especially when challenged by stress or disease, transplanted from her garden. 4. Butterfly Weed - a bright orange, cheerful pollinator of monarchs.  5. Borage - buoyant courage & optimism. 6. Chicory & Prairie Blue Eyed Grass - selfless love given freely, honoring the individuality of others, emotional containment. 7. Plumonaria - a plant she kept in her garden.  8. Sage - growing from experience, appreciate life's lessons. 

Charles Memorial Garden

Charles' wife chose a flowering Crab Apple to honor her late husband, a tree he had greatly enjoyed. 30 Tulips were planted representing his 6 children, 17 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren.

Charles, the oldest of Charles Sr. and Lillian Hickey from Detroit, MI grew up with a brood of brothers and one little sister.  

He was a veteran, a hunter, an artist, and a businessman.  He loved fiercely and protected his kin with sharp intellect and a strong will. 

As father to 6 children, he mentored each through their education and in the subtleties of this life. Charles enjoyed a charmed marriage to his beautiful wife whom skied, danced, played cards and traveled the world alongside him.  In total he boasts 17 loving grandchildren.

Lily of the Valley - May Flower

Local flora takes on an exotic intoxication in May.  Soft spring sun illuminates an iridescent bloom. Young green leaves are as lush as ever. The joy of these first months of color enlightens a heavy heart. 

We cultivate these priceless gifts into our lives.

Lily of the Valley with it's sweet scented, dainty, bell shaped flowers.

This hearty, shade loving plant offers the most delightful smell and sight in May.  Lily of the Valley spreads by it's underground rhizome, creating a mass of green and and flashes of white. Perfect for areas all it's own, were it may thrive while remaining contained, as it doesn't play well with others. 

Scent is a strong provoker of memories. We create new memories and recall old ones with this cottage favorite, used traditionally in weddings.  Energetically, Lily of the Valley promotes healthy priorities, while encouraging us to lighten up.

Intentional Gardens

Memorial Gardens for Loved ones who’ve gone before us.

Loved ones remain in our hearts and in our minds.  Memories of their unique lives, their character and the love they shared can bring us peace, strength and reverence for the sacred nature of this life.  At times the love we feel for those who have gone before us isn't easily expressed.

Consider, the meaning of a man or woman planting a small tree with great reverence and love for future generations, or even a specific child who is expected?  What meaning does this maturing tree have to a grown person, knowing that their kin, their ancestors/family had considered them in love.  That their own well being had been a hope and prayer long before they were grown enough to understand such strength in love. 

How meaningful is it to keep a plant or a combinations of plants, each chosen with the specific intention of honoring a loved one from our lives? What happens when we plant a seed?  When we give life an opportunity to thrive? A seed is the plants greatest hope, a chance to continue on, to create progeny. 

As we navigate our unique times. In this fast paced, technological world, we can call upon the intelligence of the environment. We create sacred spaces for future generations.  We create a Garden Legacy.

Specific plant variety or even combinations of plants, uniquely chosen to honor a loved one can be quite meaningful. The symbolism we imbue onto our lives makes it richer.  If it is a place to meditate, read or have intimate conversations.  Gardens can incorporate a tribute to holy people you respect, such as Buddha, the Virgin Mary, St. Francis or Mother Nature. 

Our possibilities of co-creation with nature is endless.  

Anastasia Ringing Cedars of Russia, Inspiration

 One of my great inspirations is Anastasia Ringing Cedars of Russia. A ten book series tells of the many ancient traditions of humans working in unison with plants to create "Spaces of Love" for current and future generations.  These books tell of a time when plants and animals communed in a more conscious manner. The intentions of a person who planted an individual plant along with the consciousness of the plant itself produced gardens with deeply healing properties.