>>I used to have this yard that was full of grass, like everybody else.

And, you know, everybody seems to to want that.

But a few years ago I planted some passion flower, which is like my show plant here, and it started spreading.

But, you know, the first year, it was just like around the mailbox.

And then next year, it was all over here, and there's just the beautiful purple flowers that everybody loves.

I started digging up sprouts as they came up and put 'em out on the table and sign: "Free passion flower."

And every day people were just taking 'em, taking 'em, taking 'em.

And, you know, that's my hope is kind of just trying to spread these native plants to people's yards and maybe make a small dent in the green desert that some of these lawns are.

>>When I was youngin of 20 something, I randomly started college, and I took an ecology class.

And then I found out what was wrong, and I realized that we deserve better.

>>Yes, we do deserve better.

So when you walk onto a landscape, what do you see that I may not see?

What do we see differently?

>>Well, you're special, Peggy.

>>Aw, thank you.

>>But most people just see something that they have to maintain.

What I see is energetic potential.

And what I see is abundance.

And what I see is one bird that wishes that there were five more birds nearby.

>>And so what are the steps you take?

What's usually your first step when you're approaching a landscape?

>>So as I approach a landscape, I take a look at the plant composition.

Is it grass?

Is it all invasive species?

Does it look like somebody has a thing for blueberries?

>>Yes.

(Peggy laughing) What's their favorite color?

>>Exactly.

And I start to map out the energetic flows on the land.

You know, the wind, the sun, the people, the kids, all of those are energetic flows.

And my goal is to find a way to stick my foot in the way to get some of that potential energy and put it into action.

>>That's excellent.

Kind of trip people up with new thinking.

>>That's right.

>>Yes.

What are your top five plants?

I mean, when you look at a landscape and see what's missing, what are your choices to immediately go to?

>>Okay, now, I hope this doesn't ruin the business model because yikes.

All right, let's see.

My top favorite plants I guess would be, and they're right here, elderberry, Sambucus canadensis, Aronia, Aronia arbutifolio.

The berries hang on longer.

>>They do.

>>Rudbeckia laciniata, mountain mint.

How many are those?

Four, five.

>>That's good enough.

>>Yeah.

>>Yeah.

And you had mentioned the Rudbeckia, but you also love passion flower too.

>>Oh, I love passion flower.

>>Yeah.

>>Okay, so I have this cool trick.

>>Okay.

>>Those who know Rudbeckia laciniata knows that it can be very tall and unwieldy, but it's also like one of the most delicious greens you're ever gonna eat.

So you take passion vine and you pair it with Rudbeckia laciniata, the Rudbeckia laciniata gets some height on it before the passion vine wakes up.

And then as it wakes up, it finds the trellis in the Rudbeckia.

It wraps up the Rudbeckia into a tight little clump rather than a big sprawling mess.

>>Nice.

>>And they bloom together and it's just a big mass of delicious plants that are medicinal.

And they suck carbon right out of the sky, and they cover the ground, they create habitat, et cetera.

It's one of those things that's stackable.

>>Yes.

And they're beautiful.

>>Yes.

Beautiful to boot.

>>Beautiful to boot.

And speaking of beautiful, in the backyard, there's a landscape that I'll say is a little bit more traditional, but it's beautiful and it's all native plants.

>>Okay, so diversity of tactics.

What can we get away with?

Where can we push boundaries?

And what's going to start offering rewards?

Which gets me the in for the edible or native plant.

And then I just stack the design, just like any other standard antiquated landscaping design might do, except they're just native, simple.

>>Very simple.

But what about the tree element?

What are your thoughts on how do you approach food forests if somebody wanted one?

>>First of all, I put the attractive things up front so that the neighbors can see them.

I try and mimic suburban architecture by creating lines, which we're all used to now of plants.

And plants that are really good for that are thickening species like pawpaws and plums.

And boom, you have a fence that you don't have to paint that is offering food to you and the neighbor.

Then you plant the colorful things that someone wants to ask about.

And then you get to tell them, "Guess what?

I don't have to buy that berry because that berry just happens to be growing here native."

>>Yes.

(Peggy laughing) I noticed you have a lot of strawberries around and other edibles.

I think it's great.

I love your approach to that.

>>Thanks.

>>Yes.

So how does a conservation landscaper get around an HOA?

>>Oh, you undermine the system.

You go in there, you just take the native plant that kind of looks like the non-native invasive species.

And then you just put that there.

Make sure it's not one of the kinds that escapes.

We don't put Rudbeckia laciniata at the HOA.

>>Right.

>>But we can put like little patches of mints and then we outline it.

Or we plant a tree that just kind of looks like a tree but in 20 years, that's gonna be like the protein for the entire neighborhood, you know?

Bringing back in hazelnuts.

You could have like a gigantic shrub and that's okay, right?

A hazelnut now everyone's eating.

>>Yes.

>>Chestnuts, right?

And so most of them died on the American landscape because they're so useful and then they got chestnut blight.

But a lot of work's being done right now to incorporate blight-resistant genes into the few remaining sets of genes that we have here in the States for chestnuts.

And we're pushing those because that is a stately looking tree.

And in 20 years, your HOA is gonna be donezo.

You guys, it's the apocalypse and you're gonna have all this nut meat coming out of the sky.

So it really is just doing what looks boring that is actually super exciting.

>>Oh, that's exciting.

Well, you have definitely made this landscape super exciting.

>>Oh yeah.

It was all grass.

>>Yeah, when people walk by and really take a look at it, there are hundreds of plants here.

This is not just 20 plants on a list that you put in.

When you really slow down and start looking, it really does mimic our ecosystem because our ecosystem, you know, I'm sitting here going, many of these are meadow species, but in the back you've made it more of a tamed landscape in the backyard.

And be able to show people, yes, this can be very tame, but you're still 100% native back there.

>>That's right.

>>And that to me is undoing ruin.

I hope it is to you.

(Peggy laughing) >>Ts, ts.

Cool.

>>So thank you Jessy for your energy and for leading the way and pushing that envelope.

>>Oh, stop.

Appreciate you, Peggy.

>>Yeah, teaching us to push it out there so that we can all learn and find where we're comfortable, but still moving toward more sustainability.

>>Absolutely.

>>Working with Jessy has been great.

Having him come and just landscaping and showing me what was possible, not only working in my yard, but also trying to work in the greater ecosystem around here, and being kind of cognizant of the landscape that we all occupy.

I have a lot of different kinds of birds and bees that show up to my yard now.

I got binoculars, I'm sitting, you know, the back of my house looking at these birds coming in.

And it brings me immense joy.

Just so many different butterflies and bees and birds.

I love it.

And possums, I love the possums.