My approach
I am passionate about stewarding the land and all it’s living creatures from plants to protozoan. That means understanding the big picture(ecology) of how nature wants to behave. Then working in partnership with it (permaculture) to cultivate living spaces that are conducive for both wild life and domestic life. This requires education, experience and on going learning. Sometimes it’s going against the norm and coming up with alternative solutions for landscape maintenance or design requests and I do this by drawing from ecology and science for best practices. Sometimes respectfully having to decline tasks or jobs or simply refraining from a specific task until its time appropriate(ex. delayed Spring clean up).The goal is to create a well manicured habitat without hurting or destroying the important ecosystem that is your property. Preserving the balance of pests and predators will create robust and resilient gardens, it’s not about perfection but a dance of reciprocity. I believe we certainly should interact and guide our gardens along and that means we have to be intentional about creating food and habitat for our beneficial bacteria, fungi, insects, wild life and native plants. These are all things that make the garden healthy, attractive, and life giving. This will serve you well in the long run reducing the potential for major pest and pathogen infections and reduce your maintenance needs. These are preventative and regenerative gardening practices.
aubrie’s Experience
Gardening for me started here in Hendersonville when I was 16 years old, I was naturally very interested in the idea of growing food and being self sustainable. My mom and I would haphazardly throw a garden together and fight our free roaming chickens for the harvest. Right before graduating Highschool I discovered that my passion was growing food and flowers. I worked internships on six different organic/sustainable farms ranging from animal husbandry for meat & dairy/eggs to vegetable/fruit/flower production, and even agritourism. I learned so many invaluable skills from sow seeds in ground and indoors, growing in a greenhouses, transplanting , trellising, bed maintenance, harvesting, pest scouting ,pruning and how to operate CSA’s and farmers markets, the list goes on… After I completed my last internship I worked for myself as an ornamental garden assistant, stable hand and farmstead sitter while I went to school for my horticulture diploma and took Agricultural classes. I worked at Fifth Season Gardening Company assisting folks with their gardening questions and directing them to products. I then found myself drawn to garden designing when I worked for Gardens by Mardi in Asheville. I worked on the crew installing new designs and being meticulous about best practices maintaining the perennial and container gardens. Then I enrolled with NC state with their year started an online year long gardening certificate. My husband and I bought a home in Hendersonville and I began working for a garden maintenance company where I initiated offing my services as a designer. Then I realized I realized I wanted to start my own business. Now I hire a couple part time folks to help me as I manage being a mom and keeping my dream business going. I currently do all consultations and designs for the company and then act as the foreman for our maintenance services: directing and supervising as necessary. I feel grateful to be able to offer my expertise to the community !