Today’s the day
Woodland phlox (host plant to Swallowtail and Grey Hairstreak butterflies)
3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .
Today’s a big day for me, so first of all, if you’re reading this, I need to say thank you for being here and for supporting me. Otherwise, I’d just be screaming into the void.
Today marks the launch of two things: my new, overarching brand, “Marcia Formica,” as well as my passion project, Creative Natives Landscape Design.
About the Brand – Marcia Formica
I know – using my name as my overarching brand might seem . . . strange, or even self-absorbed. But when I first began talking with the person who became my creative consultant in this endeavor, it became apparent that all my ventures over the past six years – my blog, my book, and now this, are connected, and a part of who I’ve become. Hence we decided to bring all of it together under one umbrella that represented who I am – someone who many of you may recognize aspects of in yourselves. My journey – all of our journeys - every experience, every decision - makes us who we are and helps us develop our passions.
I continue to be passionate about the home Tim and I renovated and what we sought to achieve through that process. That process, combined with everything I’ve experienced over the past six years, led me to this latest passion, native landscaping. I will continue to share all of it under my new brand, Marcia Formica.
Why native plant landscaping? How did we get here?
When I left my corporate career of 31 years and began an unscripted and thoroughly unplanned “next chapter” caring for my parents, I had no idea the level of focus and intensity that would be demanded of me over the next several years. I had begun working on a book about the renovation and nursing other interests, too, and trying to figure out how to maintain some focus on my own next thing amid the daily swirl of uncertainty that attended parent care.
I launched a blog to capture and share my experiences. It became an outlet for my sanity and creativity, but a critical grounding element was missing.
By this time, we were nearly done with the renovation – of the house itself. I loved what I saw as I looked around on the inside, but a decade of work had left the outside – the landscape - battered and neglected. For a couple of years I’d allowed myself the luxury of beginning to imagine an outdoor transformation. Now, the intensity of my new “career” made the need to address it – to create the Zen I needed out there - feel like the sword of Damocles. The outside didn’t begin to reflect the inside, and the dissonance gnawed at me.
Having beautiful and thoughtful outdoor spaces wasn’t just a “want.” My sanity depended on it. So much of what kept me grounded in life more generally had centered around the outdoors, and this latest chapter in parent care had put an even finer point on it. Gathering with neighbors on the front porch on a warm afternoon, doing early morning yoga to the sounds of birdsong on the back deck; barbecuing with family and eating under the shade of a tree – these were as crucial as oxygen as far as I was concerned.
I had ideas for the landscape and hardscape but lacked the capacity (and knowledge) to pull them together to make them actionable. An architect friend of Tim’s from high school came to my rescue (thank you, Bob Eckenrode), and by late summer of 2019, Bob had created actual plans to work from for all the major “hard” elements. With Bob’s design plans in hand, I hired a local crew to turn the hardscaping elements into reality in the fall of 2019 (using locally sourced materials).
However, there was more to consider. Ever since Tim and I met, we’ve enjoyed the peace and groundedness we gained from listening to and watching birds all year round. I, especially, can utterly lose myself (in the best way possible) just watching a butterfly sip nectar from a flower or a monarch caterpillar munch away on milkweed. Immersing myself in little wonders like that gets me out of my head; it’s therapeutic, calming, grounding, and completely fascinating. I wanted what came next to maximize our opportunities to support nature, and to quiet the dissonance between our indoor and outdoor spaces.
Swamp milkweed with Monarch caterpillar
It was at this point that I almost miraculously recalled an interview I’d heard years before on local public radio with the owner of a native plant nursery in Connecticut, Earth Tones. Clearly, I’d been intrigued enough by what I’d heard to store it in the recesses of my mind, and that winter, I asked Earth Tones to help me come up with planting ideas for the new garden spaces Bob had helped me to realize.
I spent that spring studying their plans and researching the native plant lists they included. Their crew arrived in August of 2020 with a truckload of native plants and the equipment to create a rain garden and bring to life the idea I had had for at least a decade for a dry stream bed and garden alongside the rock ledge that borders one side of our house. As their crew worked on those elements, I took on much of the planting of the other garden areas myself. As I planted, I learned, and as the plants grew, I grew consumed with learning more.
I had other areas of our property in my sights for “renovation,” so I spent the odd hours of downtime I had between parent care obligations doing online research. I read a lot - most notably a few books by the eminent entomologist Doug Tallamy (his book, Nature’s Best Hope, is a must-read). It probably won’t surprise you to learn, if you don’t already know, that all of the things I mentioned above: the plants, the insects, the birds, and beyond - the “higher” mammals - are interconnected; in reality, the very survival of this planet depends on this interconnectedness, and I promise you, I’m not hyperbolizing.
Further, I learned that native plants, with which each species of animal, from insects all the way through the entire food web, evolved over millennia, are one of the most primary keys to all of it. Plants are the main conduit by which the energy of the sun gets transformed into animate life, i.e., insects, arthropods, vertebrates, and, eventually . . . humans. And literally tens of thousands of species co-evolved with specific plants, each to ensure the survival of the other, and to make life from the energy of the sun. Plants, especially native plants, are how the rest of it all happens.
Trillium (host plant to black-patched clepsis moth and American angle shades moth)
Birds literally cannot survive without caterpillars - they are a crucial source of protein, fats, and other important nutrients, especially for breeding adults and babies. The feeders we put out are helpful to a certain extent, but they simply aren’t sufficient to effectively sustain our avian pals. If all the caterpillars have in our landscapes are species of plants that are foreign to them, some of them may be able to get along for a while - the same as humans could if you took away all our sources of healthy food except for, say, potatoes (to borrow from the book/movie “The Martian”) - but it won’t take long for many of them to die out. The collapse of Monarch butterflies is the perfect, well-known example (due to loss of the only host plant they can eat: members of the milkweed family), but there are many, many more happening right now because of the loss of host plants that specific caterpillars require. We just don’t know about them because, well, we don’t know them.
Without getting any more science-y on you, the final thought on “why native plants” I will leave you with (and which motivates me) is this: there is plenty of scientific literature out there that shows the catastrophic results of the loss of biodiversity. That’s one of the big reasons we’re panicking over the loss of rainforests, for example. When we humans discovered (invented?) large-scale industrial farming practices so we could more efficiently feed our growing populations, and when we also continue to adhere to 18th century ideals of landscapes where man “controls” nature, we began - and continue to - quite literally sow the seeds of the collapse of our planet’s ability to sustain us - - of our own destruction.
Having learned all of this, it was impossible to un-learn it. With mom and dad now having moved on to their own next adventures in the great beyond and with their affairs in order, I was able to finally turn to my own “next,” and by then it was clear to me where I needed to go. Last fall, I completed a certificate program in landscape design from Emory University. Then, in January this year, I formed and incorporated Creative Natives Landscape Design LLC.
What will Creative Natives do?
Creative Natives will partner with clients – homeowners, businesses, nonprofits – anyone with any outdoor space at all, to create beautiful, purposeful, landscapes that utilize plants native to your location and are surprisingly low maintenance – simple and sustainable. I’m happy to provide services from guidance and resource referral to full-scale designs with accompanying installations (where I’ll utilize contractors where job size requires) and ongoing support. The scope of my services will clearly depend on your proximity to me in the Hartford, CT area, but I can share my knowledge as far as a phone call or Zoom can reach.
If you’re interested in doing something to nurture yourself and the environment at the same time, I can help you.
Let’s talk!
I am so excited to start this endeavor and share what I’ve learned with others. I’m delighted to do everything I can to benefit the environment, and I can’t wait to hear from you!! Just head to the Creative Natives page on my website to book an appointment.
