The outdoor learning environment at ECS Highland Headstart was transformed from grass to a thriving habitat garden. This collaboration was facilitated by the Grow Outside! campaign, led by Empahty in Nature. Empathy in Nature is on a mission to make nature-based preschool learning accessible and inclusive for every kid. This includes transforming underutilized outdoor spaces at preschools into thriving environments for nature and child.

TreeLine is a one day community engagement art event and temporary art installation among the trees within John P. Baca park in Linda Vista. This project is intended to foster a sense of play, connection, and awareness of place through the formal and metaphorical qualities of line within this neighborhood park. A one day event, held on July 16, 2022, will include inclusive activities that connect participants through three different series of line explorations and engagements. These activities area a free-parts play activity, community weaving reflection activity, and dance activity that will reflect and honor the resident populations based on conversation with community partners.

Mt. Hope's community garden model was shifting from 40 raised beds to a more cooperative model, including integrating a food forest, an apothecary garden, a covered classroom and post-harvest space, artistic signage and art panels mounted to the chainlink fence that created a linear gallery for passersby.

Rema Halal Foods is another market that participated in the Live Well Community Market Program, led by UCSD Center for Community Health. For over a year, they worked together to improve and promote access to healthy food at the market. Studio Nectary’s role was to support their efforts as a community facilitator support, designer and project coordinator (while a contracted designer and project manager for Rooted In Place).

Center City Market in City Heights, San Diego is located right across from the East African Gathering Place. UC San Diego Center for Community Health has been working with local markets for the past several years through their Live Well Community Market program which is a project funded by the County of San Diego, Health and Human Services Agency. The main goal of the Live Well Community Market is to improve and promote access to healthy foods by working with small community neighborhood markets.

The East African Gathering Place is well known to the East African and Somali residents and newly arrived refugees in San Diego living and working in and around City Heights. It is located at the busy intersection of University Avenue and 50th Street, set between two mosques and several businesses, apartment complexes and a pocket park.Over the years, the community has advocated for major changes in the urban landscape of this intersection such as a much-needed crosswalk and pedestrian refuge, with flashing lights. For years, community members have been activating this underutilized piece of city land at this intersection to gather, exchange news, from local and abroad, drink tea and play the traditional Somali game of Ludo.

The Paradise Creek Educational Gathering Place was part of the Creating Vibrant Neighborhoods Initiative spearheaded by A Reason to Survive and the Pomegranate Center. This initiative focused on a community engaged process where local stakeholders that live, play and work in National City were invited to share the values, elements and activities they would like to see implemented in the park design. The gathering place lies within Kimball Park, which is a high-use park in National City. Paradise Creek runs along its edge and receives an intertidal flow at high tide. This portion of the creek was restored with native plantings as we were developing the gathering place, creating even more opportunity to highlight the natural ecosystem that runs through the city.

The design concept for CDA Parks Child Development Center was to soften the mostly concrete site and bring in more natural elements through materials and by replacing sections of concrete with planting areas.

Eat Here Now is an investigation into how we can re-imagine our cities to be near food. In collaboration with landscape architect Leslie Ryan, we curated an art show looking at the entire landscape of North Park, and re-imagining it to be one that was food-focused The streets are wide, the yards are large, and the existing enthusiasm behind urban agriculture is very present in North Park. NewSchool of Architecture and Design students helped us to show this vision, through photoshop renderings that spotlighted everyday, urban neighborhood landscapes into productive foodscapes.

UCSD Center for Community Health worked with the market owners at African Caribbean Market for over a year to improve and promote access to healthy foods as part of their Live Well Community Market Program. Part of this program includes market redesign, renovations and reorganizing of the interior of the store to make it more comfortable and appealing to better serve their existing customers and invite new customers. Studio Nectary’s role was to support their efforts as a community facilitator support, designer and project coordinator (while a contracted designer and project manager for Rooted In Place).

Old Town Academy is a K-8 charter school focused on project-based learning and was very passionate about integrating their teaching and curriculum into their outdoor environments surrounding their urban campus. We worked with OTA on two projects on their campus. Studio Nectary’s role (while a contracted designer and project manager for Rooted In Place) was as designer and project manager.

“The Children’s Garden” is the new CDA Finney Child Development Center outdoor classroom. This garden was designed to maximize the small space and provide a place for the students, teachers, staff and parents to learn, explore and relax in nature.

The Farm to School design toolbox for the City of Perris Farm to School program (PF2S) is intended to aid in growing the opportunities for school farms and gardens. PF2S is meant to provide health equity within schools and cafeterias for all students. Each school site will have its own unique challenges and opportunities. In order to best address the diversity of sites within the City of Perris, a toolbox of possibilities has been created so each school can determine what will work best for them.

The City of Perris has been working to improve health equity and outcomes through a combination of urban farming and nutrition education. The Grow Perris initiative proudly includes a variety of school and community gardens which provide examples for future programs.

There is always something to learn and room to grow. This garden design toolbox is meant to help local schools do just that and become a bigger part of Grow Perris.

Groundwork San Diego, a non-profit focused on the restoration of the Chollas Creek Watershed through citizen engagement, developed the Chollas Creek EcoVillage program. They received funding from the San Diego Integrated Water Resources Management Board to implement this program, which included engaging 50 families, living within the Chollas Creek Watershed in Southeast San Diego, to transform their homes and landscapes into water and energy efficient systems. CatchingH2O led the project and Studio Nectary created the initial project management framework and supported in the development of graphic plans to provide to the residents.

San Diego Habitat for Humanity has been exploring implementing a sustainable landscape program. I was honored to be asked to support one of the current programs and projects that was to be built the weekend after Veteran’s Day, 2019, to honor the many veterans in our city, county and country. Mr. Brown, the homeowner, served as a Petty Officer Second Class from 1972-1978 and has resided in his home for 14 years. The improvements SD Habitat for Humanity was able to implement to the home, which was built in 1959, will add longevity and comfort to Mr. Brown.

The inspiration for this design drew from the natural landscapes of Joshua Tree and Palm Springs. Studio Nectary worked with clients, Jasmine and Scott, to develop the concept plan and 3D models to bring their vision to life. After a collaborative process of fine tuning the vision on paper, Jasmine utilized the concepts we developed as a blueprint and curated the landscape construction with support from BLANK, landscape contractor and horticulturalist, Kirk Neuroth.

In collaboration with Deep Rooted Designs, we were delighted to be brought onto this project to lead the design. The homeowners had a great footprint to start with and were looking to modernize their yard and make it more usable for their family of four. The planting on the steep slope was modified to be more cohesive and integrate the same palette throughout the other areas of the yard. We organized the main level of the yard to create spaces for lounging and dining, a lawn for play and garden beds for growing vegetables. The spa was refurbished, creating cleaner lines and incorporating a boardwalk that leads from the spa to the main gathering area.

This front yard transformation turned what was previously lawn into a dynamic garden with waterwise plants and a decomposed granite pad for some Adirondack chairs and a table. The addition of the wall and horizontal fence created a modern touch, while also adding privacy without being un-neighborly. Deep Rooted Designs brought us in to lead the design of this project and they brought it to life through their signature construction.

In 2015, with support from Health and Human Services, we worked with Little House, the El Cajon Collaborative and senior refugees living in the area to design and build a community garden, to bring healthy and culturally relevant food to the neighborhood. Studio Nectary’s role was as design support and community build leader (while a contracted designer and project manager for Rooted In Place).

In collaboration with three other landscape architects and designers, we expanded on an opportunity where a vacant warehouse was turned into an interactive art gallery for one weekend. This coupled with the Urban Land Institute conference and gathering. We set up a parklet across the street, built with pallets and everyday materials to create an outdoor gathering place for this event. The impetus was the recent proposal to transform downtown sidewalks into linear parks by expanding the sidewalks from five feet to fourteen feet to enable space for seating, gardens, pedestrian trails and more.

In 2010, after starting up an edible landscaping business in Durango, Colorado, my business partner and I began exploring alternative ideas for helping people to access fresh, locally grown vegetables on a budget. We discovered the concept of SPIN Farming, Small Plot Intensive Farming. You aggregate multiple lots to create enough acreage that supports your business as an urban farmer. The homeowner pays for water, lends you the land, and in return receives a weekly share of produce aggregated from all the lots being farmed.

In 2012 I began studying about tactical urbanism and was immediately drawn in by the idea of quickly activating spaces and engaging with people on the street through creative installations that either solicited feedback or otherwise provided a needed amenity.

A bicycle tour which featured school gardens, community gardens, market gardens and home gardens throughout the San Diego communities of Sherman Heights, Golden Hill, South Park and North Park. This tour was developed to raise money for the Matthew Sherman Elementary school garden.

This school garden initiative focused on teaching elementary school children about the importance of eating organic, locally-grown food as well as the importance of preparing healthy meals that include a variety of fruits and vegetables.