Louisa’s First Time Rewilding Story

Louise grew up in New York city, and recently moved with her husband and dog to Nassau county. She is passionate about sustainability and is in the business of helping people use energy more efficiently.

We live in Floral Park and have been living here for a year. Prior to rewilding we started with a barren landscape. The previous owners didn’t have anything on the property, not one tree, shrub or flower, just lots of crabgrass. 

I am a first time gardener. I grew up in the city so never really had the space to cultivate plants. I was quite inexperienced with any sort of lawn, gardening or landscaping so my expectations for rewilding were pretty low. The goal was simply to keep the plants alive. 

As someone who has been fortunate to build a career in sustainability, it was really important for me to try to do my part to address habitat loss and biodiversity. These are issues that most people don’t think about because they are not aware of it. I also thought the concept of watering a lawn with good potable water seemed like such a waste. As I was trying to figure out what to do with my lawn, I learned about ReWild Long Island’s work in the news and was so excited to find a group that offers such a wealth of resources for many of us who are doing this for the first time. 

I started with a small plot and ordered all of my plants from Spring 2021 plant sale. I roughly based my design inspiration from one of the free designs offered on rewild’s website. The garden in the front includes little blue stem, Pyrex grass, echinacea, spiderwort, blazing star (liatris), creeping thyme, and butterfly milkweed. In backyard, I have two low blueberry bushes and a small veggie garden that includes yellow bell peppers, shishito peppers, multiple heirloom cherry tomato varieties and husk cherries. 

I wish I started cardboard mulching sooner. On the day I was picking up my plants, I spoke to Raju Rajan who encouraged me to put down cardboard and mulch and delay planting for a few weeks. Best advice! It’s a lot easier to spot weeds like this. If I could redo it, I would’ve tried to make a more interesting garden shape. I didn’t know where to start and for a newbie a familiar rectangular shape was easier to work with and plan 

My future plans are to expand! I have a new little garden on the side of my house that will be filled with plants that I just purchased during the fall sale. Plan to add a small beach plum tree in the front as well. 

It’s been so much fun and so exciting to see your plants grow. I didn’t expect the little plugs to grow so quickly in one season, so don’t worry they’re going to look great even if your a first timer like me. If you’re new too, just start with one of the free Rewild landscape plans and then based on the availability of plants and your preferences, tweak it a little to make it your own.