Living Lands and Landscape Therapy

Levi was nipping at Tim Wheeler’s ankles as he walked down our driveway, wearing a yellow down jacket, notepad in hand. I met the ecologist at the Springs Church during a Landscape Therapy session, hosted by Perfect Earth Project.

Wheeler runs the organization’s “Living Lands” program, which offers a free one-hour site visit to homeowners from Hampton Bays to Montauk. I had signed up months ago, and when I cornered him at the church, he agreed to come over the following week.

After each visit, Wheeler issues the homeowner a report, which I had a little trouble with, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Perfect Earth Project founder and landscape designer Edwina von Gal, sat on the church’s ambo pulpit with Perfect Earth board member Tony Piazza of Piazza Horticultural and South Fork Natural History Museum Executive Director Frank Quevedo.

Quevedo opened the talk with a story about Stuart Lester, a rugged commercial fisherman who witnessed millions of monarch butterflies in the middle of the ocean during their migration.

Quevedo was so touched by the memory, his voice cracked with emotion. “I’m getting old,” he said. “Everything is emotional.”

He mentioned a large study, published on March 6 in the journal Science, ringing alarm bells at the loss of butterfly populations nationwide.

“Between 2000 and 2020, total butterfly abundance fell by 22 percent across the 554 recorded species. Species-level declines were widespread, with 13 times as many species declining as increasing,” the study noted. “The prevalence of declines throughout all regions in the United States highlights an urgent need to protect butterflies from further losses.”

Another paper published on the same day declared that the eastern monarch butterfly population had doubled in 2025, according to the World Wildlife Fund in Mexico, the southern home to our migrating monarchs.

“We can get it back,” Quevedo said, echoing the message of hope.

He’s also hoping coyotes make a comeback, because a pest problem often turns out to be a predator problem.

Here on the East End, deer are the biggest pest in any landscape therapy session. We love them and we hate them. Quevedo and von Gal were ready to break out the arm wrestling table when Quevedo claimed deer don’t eat native plants.

“They stopped hunting,” offered audience member Doug McCarty of Kate McCarty Organic Landscapes.

Coyotes hunt deer too but they too have been erased from the landscape, for now. Lone males have been spotted on Long Island as far east as Bridgehampton recently. Instead of introducing a female to the area, the powers that be have decided to thankfully let it happen naturally.

Letting it happen naturally is a theme all agreed upon at the church. In addition to those represented on the stage, table organizers included Surfrider, Accabonac Protection Committee, ChangeHampton and ReWild Long Island.

I took a garden design class with ReWild over the winter. Despite my utter disdain for Zoom, the group made the class simple and fun. I learned that a lot goes into planning a garden, way before you buy your first plant of the season, which I will be doing soon, from ReWild’s native plant sale.

Voles and moles are another pest lacking in predators, unless you have a hunter like Levi. When von Gal discovered her landscapers had been killing snakes in her yard, she had them build a hibernaculum that attracted snakes.

Mulch mowing (without a bag) and soft landings are two phrases that are often repeated when talking about nature-based landscaping.

“There is no good reason to take grass clippings away,” von Gal said. “They are the food the lawn makes for itself.” Von Gal uses haystacks on her large property to control invasive plants such as mugwort. Haystacks may also become habitat piles.

Be aware, too much mulch piled around the bottom of a tree, in what is called “the toilet plunger look,” can kill the tree.

Soft landings work better. Plant plants under trees that evolved to grow under the trees. When leaves fall from the tree, the insects that are forming on the underside of those leaves can continue their growth cycles.

Caterpillars emerging from their cocoon in spring won’t be harmed, nor will the plant, or the soft landing. In turn, one nest of chickadees can eat thousands of caterpillars.

“We try to mimic a natural environment,” said Wheeler during our Living Lands site visit. “It starts with a base that’s an understory.”

Our property is dominated by cedar trees, and I’ve long dreamed of a fairy-tale-like understory of little wildflowers. I planted close to 50 wild geranium roots between the trees a few years ago, and they all died. I tried again last year, on a smaller scale, and they seem to be faring better.

“Go with stuff that’s doing well,” Wheeler said. “Work with what you have.”

Luckily, bayberry thrives on our property and satisfies the shrub category, the layer between the understory and the canopy.

Our tree canopy is a double-edged sword. I love them, hug them, talk to them, but damn, they block out a lot of sun and I yearn for color.

Last year, we attempted to plant a mini-meadow where the sun hits most, with native wildflower seeds. When it started to grow, I couldn’t tell the difference between the weeds and the flowers. Eventually the whole mess stressed me out so much, we mowed it down.

Wheeler said he sees too much anxiety from clients, and I get it. My great fear is the predator that is after me: ticks. They almost killed me, and I deal with post traumatic stress every day.

I am grateful for Wheeler’s visit, for the Perfect Earth Project for hiring him and for the Peconic Land Trust, who granted them the opportunity to create the program. I now see new ways of looking at our property.

Perhaps topping off a couple of trees to let more sun into the yard is not the end of the world. “Leave the stumps,” Wheeler said. “Let the dead wood fall naturally.”

Our garden boxes could have a similar fate, eventually rotting out. Instead of replacing them, I could let the garden be wild, without borders.

As I ease into gardening life, post Lyme, I have to take back my power. I am not going to let fear run my life. Admittedly, I got triggered when Wheeler’s report suggested I could use more native grasses, a tick’s favorite place to hunt for warm blood.

It’s a lot of work, working with what you have, at least in the beginning. They say that in the end, you won’t have to worry about watering, or spraying or too much maintenance. What they don’t tell you is that the beginning can begin again, and again, and again. It’s a journey.

Maybe all I need is a path. Levi has been pointing out a lot of owl pellets lately, so we must be doing something right.

For more information on Living Lands, visit perfectearthproject.org/living-lands-long-island.