This post is part of a series highlighting our chapter members who are professional landscapers
Susie Van de Riet
St. Louis Native Plants LLC
stlnativeplants@gmail.com
Services: Consultation, design, coaching, education
Susie Van de Riet is a Professional/Business member of Wild Ones St. Louis Chapter and of GrowNative!. Planning purposefully for beauty as well as for attracting/supporting local ecosystems and wildlife is her passion and expertise. In addition, she specializes in designing native gardens around veggie plots to support particular beneficial insects to help combat “pests” and to support better pollination success in the veggie garden. Susie strives to help people understand the practices, not just plants, they can implement to better create the best habitat for native wildlife.
She has been landscaping with native plants since 2009, when she bought her own house and fell in love with native plants while searching for a more environmentally-friendly way to garden. She says, “I took many native plant classes, attended workshops and, at Scott Woodbury’s recommendation, got involved as a Habitat Advisor with the Bring Conservation Home Program (BCH). Then I fell even more in love with native plants after learning of their wildlife connections/benefits.”
Susie’s name and that of her business, St. Louis Native Plants LLC, are probably familiar to more of you now because she has gotten a lot of attention recently. Susie was one of six native garden designers selected to design for Wild Ones National’s new website Native Garden Designs.
Wild Ones St. Louis Chapter proudly announced this, and included more information about Susie, in a blog post in February. https://stlwildones.org/native-garden-design-available/ This post includes a link to KWMU’s St. Louis on the Air interview with Susie, which is worth a listen.
To see Susie’s Native Garden Design, which includes phases of installation and a thorough plant list go to https://nativegardendesigns.wildones.org/designs/st-louis/. While there you can also watch (or re-watch) the recording of the April 7, webinar featuring Susie and the Minneapolis designer Carmen Simonet.
Susie’s ‘philosophy’:
“I have been hearing a term thrown around more often in the design world which I would apply to myself: “Garden ecologist” – I essentially unite traditional horticulture with its attention to aesthetics while giving special attention to applying plants & landscaping practices that work with and support our local ecosystems.”
Regarding Susie’s connection with Wild Ones St. Louis Chapter she says,
“I generally seem to “bump elbows” a lot with folks from Wild Ones at an array of native plant events. I think that just happens when you get involved with native plants – you kind of find and hang out with the people who love the plants the way that you do. It’s one of the best ways to learn about native plants and how to work with them. Wild Ones is a great organization and network for that (among so many other things!). I love the support & engagement that Wild Ones provides to the community.
