Our Vision
An environment restored to its original beauty and a healthier community of people committed to ecological gardening, conservation, and sustainability.
An ecologically diverse region full of lush native plant gardens and meadows where songbirds, bees, butterflies, and other beneficial wildlife thrive.
A world where kids can still chase fireflies on summer nights and pesticide warning flags no longer decorate the lawns of neighbors.
Let’s make it happen.
Who We Are
National Park lovers. Conservation enthusiasts. Habitat gardeners. We’re Lindsay and Tim Ifill, and we live with our kids, and our dog in Collingswood, New Jersey.
We’ve spent the last five years learning and experimenting with native plants at home, turning what was a mix of invasive plants and turf grass into a habitat for butterflies, bees, moths, birds, chipmunks, and other beneficial wildlife.
Because it was challenging for us to find a good selection of native plants around here, we started organizing native plant sale pop-ups in South Jersey and selling pollinator garden kits for home gardeners beginning in 2017. With interest in native plants and sustainable living growing, we now offer a menu of services to help homeowners and communities.
Why We Do What We Do
Ninety-five percent. That’s the percentage of natural land we’ve made unnatural here in the United States. How exactly this happened would be more appropriate for a dissertation than this little page, but
- Americans developed 54 percent of the lower 48 was developed into a suburban/urban matrix, and 41 percent more into various forms of agriculture.
- Americans have planted over 40 million acres of lawn (non-native turf grass), which means thousands of square miles of a non-native monoculture that many pour chemicals on just to keep it looking… well, unnatural.
- Development continues at rate of 2 million acres every year, connected by 4 million miles of roads, leaving an impermeable surface five times the size of New Jersey.
We can turn this ship around. Conservationists, scientists, and environmentalists continue to fight the good and important fight for national and state parks and forests. Organizations like the New Jersey Conservation Foundation work with landowners to preserve open space and farmland here in our state, and have successfully preserved over 125,000 acres of land.
And then there are people like us: Landowners of a different variety.
Every piece of property is an opportunity to push this movement to restore and reconnect with nature forward, whether it’s a fire escape with pollinator-friendly container plants, a 10-acre piece of land, or anything in between. Habitat gardens come in endless varieties. In our own backyard, we replaced half our lawn with a seeded micro-meadow that has brought life to our small piece of land. But if that’s not the kind of beauty you’re looking for, that’s cool too. Formal gardens designed with native plants and other eco-friendly plants can be stunning too.
So come on, Suburbia, get on board.