Ecological Landscape Contractor

Q. If you were a customer, what do you wish you knew about your trade? Any inside secrets to share?

A. The Willamette Valley is a nursery grower's paradise. This is one poorly kept secret in my trade. Because of our mild winters and cool summers, plant nurseries thrive in our region. As a result, growing plants here can be most rewarding. Additionally, growing healthy plants that provide humans with food to forage need not be a difficult proposition. Sure, there are many pests predating on cherries and apples, but plants with some of the wild still in their genes are far more pest resistant. Plants like seaberry, saskatoon, silverberry, quince, and elderberry provide trouble-free yields year after year. Also, cane fruit, such as raspberry and blackberry, love our climate. With the right plant in the right place, pest-free perennial yields of delicious fruit are well within reach.

Q. Why does your work stand out from others who do what you do?

A. My background in critical theory has shown me that dominate culture is not necessarily superior to underprivileged culture. It's just more frequently desired because it intends to be the only option (i.e. "the best a man can get"). I've always been willing to take the risk of being in the avant-garde (the first to be shot down on the battle field). The potential for variety and invention in ecological design goes far beyond that of the limiting impulse of formal garden design. I'm betting that there's enough local consciousness to sustain a business with the 21st century values of caring for the earth, caring for people, and returning the surplus. I can help clients shed the bad old ways and create beauty, art, utility, and ecology inspired by a revolutionary and progressive new paradigm.

Q. What do you like most about your job?

A. Some mornings when it's raining, cold, and windy, my mind yells "why are you going to labor outside all day in this weather?" This voice is always soothed as soon as I have my tools and rain gear and I set forth to change the garden. I can most easily loose track of time when I'm working in a garden. And seeing tangible results at the end of the day fills me with a sense of progress and completion. To me, there's no better workspace than the garden.

Q. What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?

A. People often ask me what plant they should put in a particular spot they have. Although I have many suggestions, this conversation is most fruitful when I can see the site they describe, and when I have a large reference book of plants in hand. So often, when I make plant recommendations, the plant is not familiar to the individual. Images and written descriptions greatly facilitate this conversation.