Your guide to beautiful, abundant & ecologically-wise gardens

LET’s create an oasis 

with native plants.

NATURAL GARDENS nourish your soul and a healthy ecosystem

Whether your garden is a patio or several acres, every inch of ground has a sacred role to play to support a thriving planet. Together we can help support native pollinators and find joy in our connection with/as nature in our gardens.

I offer natural garden consultations in regions where I have gardening experience and relationship with wild plant communities, including Southern Appalachia and the Piedmont regions of the Southeast, the Mid-Atlantic, New England and Southern California.

Concerned about our planet AND WANT TO SOMETHing TANGIBLe, MEANINGFUL & JOYFUL

Ecologically-wise gardens not only deepen our connection with home by inviting in the wider web of life but very practically help to stem the tide of species extinctions by fostering biodiverse communities in place of ecologically impoverished lawns or stale ornamentals. Natural gardens are part of a path to re-finding a positive ecological role for people.

What People Are Saying

It was such a joy to work with Rose on a native garden design for my backyard! She has such deep knowledge, yet made this whole process straight forward and clear to me, someone who is very much a beginner learner. The customized design - planned remotely, might I add, but completely tailored to my area - we received is absolutely remarkable and has so much information and resources included. I absolutely cannot wait to make my yard a pollinator paradise.

Rose is warm, friendly, professional, and her love and passion for native plants and healthy ecosystems is contagious. I feel so inspired and ready to transform my backyard! 

— Kelly P.

TELL ME ABOUT
YOUR VISION

I look forward to hearing what’s important to you, and offering guidance to create beauty and habitat.

Wherever you live, there are plants that are a love match between your dream garden and a thriving earth. Let me introduce you…

I love considering what the land needs to thrive and choosing plants that are not only uniquely suited to your garden, but engage your sense of beauty and meaning (I firmly believe you don’t have to compromise on beauty to create ecological gardens.)

You, too, are part of the ecosystem. Drawing on decades of experience gathering wild foods and working with herbal medicine, I make suggestions that engage you in the landscape.

I look forward to collaborating to create an oasis for you and the wider community of life to which we belong!

- Rose Fairley, Ecological Horticulturalist & Native Plant Garden Designer

For Kelly’s backyard in the Hudson Valley, I know she loves to make vegan treats, so we chose native trees and shrubs with edible fruits as well as high ecological value as anchors for her backyard.

One measure of native plants ecological power is their “Butterfly Index” identified by the “ꕤ ” symbol and the number of butterfly and moth species supported by plants in that genus in Kelly’s zip code (according to the National Wildlife Federation). Plants with a high Butterfly Index provide nesting birds with food in the Spring (caterpillars= baby bird food)

We had food native bees in mind in this design, too! In addition to supporting birds and butterflies, High Bush Blueberry, Vaccinium corymbosum, is recognized by pollination ecologists at the Xerces Society as attracting large numbers of native bees.*

We also had seasonal delight and beauty in mind when we chose these plants as well. Crabapples are laden with blossoms in early Spring, Blueberries shine mid-summer and again in fall with russet foliage. Finally, fall-ripening persimmons make the first winter freezes sweeter, quite literally, by transforming astringency to sugar.