My interest in native plants and wild spaces began at a very young age. After developing an obsession with entomology around age 3, I began learning plant identification soon after, gleaning what I could from books and field guides. As a teen, this interest expanded to include foraging, gardening, hiking and bird watching. For me, there were always surprises and mysteries lurking both in wilderness and in the unruly, neglected corners of our human spaces, if one had the eye to see them. From there, I earned a bachelor’s degree in Natural Resource Ecology and Management from Oklahoma State, This gave me new tools and lenses to view and reimagine my relationship with the land and its resources. What if we stopped fighting the landscape and started cooperating with it? How could we transform the world around us into one that better enables humans and wild things to coexist and thrive? I ask myself those questions constantly, and seek out practical answers everyday. When I am not potting up grasses or asters, I am usually found working in our sprawling garden, which provides lots of food for our little family as well as hungry pollinators, birds, snakes, and many other visitors. I believe gardening helps reconnect people with ancient wisdom that modern civilization has forgotten: take only what you need, share the world with other living things, live life with gratitude, and be open to the beauty and abundance of the world around you.