writing
plants + land stewardship
The Tending Alive Project is an experiment in restoring the people's hands to the soil and soul.
Our plant + land stewardship offerings open the door to ecological resilience in your landscape, in yourself, and in your community.
From consultations, coaching + design services to holistic land stewardship training, we hold many doors open for you to find your own way to fluency in tending land.
In every offering, we lend our experience to support you in creating an abundant garden sanctuary for you, for family and the wild world to enjoy. We also pull the thread on a profoundly needed cultural remembering—how to be human and tend our local ecosystems back to life in culturally-responsive ways.
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The land needs your hands.
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Let's get growing! 🌱
Garden Consultation
If you dream of an ecological landscape but have no idea where to start, a garden consultation is for you.
I come to your site and walk with you through your landscape. With your desires in mind, I assess the site conditions, identify plants and their care, listen for what the land wants, and offer substantive suggestions to meet your goals. You will leave with a comprehensive plan of action for this growing season and beyond.
Each garden consultation consists of...
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A pre-consultation survey (5-10 mins)
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An on-site garden consultation (1.5 hrs+)
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A rough sketch of possible designs (if applicable)
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A follow-up email with free PDFs on soil testing, sources for landscape materials, and planting & watering basics
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Clients are welcome to take notes or voice record our session.
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Cost: My hourly rate ($100/hr), including drive time to your site. A minimum of 1.5 hrs on-site.
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note: a transaction fee may be added based on how you pay.
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add on: + a written report
For a few extra bucks, I'll write a plan for you.
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I offer a custom written report (6-25+ pages) of detailed notes from our consult. Each report includes a detailed design sketch and a document that delineates priorities, plant recommendations, ideas, referrals, and a step-by-step plan of action for this season and beyond. I am thorough.
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Click here for a sample written report.
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Cost: My hourly rate ($100/hr). It can take 2-11 hours to complete the report, depending on site complexity. I send it by email within 2-4 weeks of our consult, unless otherwise noted.
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note: a transaction fee may be added based on how you pay.
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Sliding scale and gift economy options available.
Landscape Design
If you need a detailed planting plan to begin your ecological landscape, a garden design can help!
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The Process:
We begin with a consultation and site survey, then I take it all to the drawing board to craft an ecological garden design custom to your landscape.
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You receive a comprehensive PDF site design, close-up views of each zone, a detailed planting palette, and tips on where to buy your plants. ​
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Time:
It takes an average of 1-2 months to deliver a design + plant palette to you after our consultation. Depending on land acreage, project goals and site conditions, a design can take anywhere from 9-50+ hours to complete. ​
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Cost:
My hourly rate ($100/hr), including drive time to your site for initial design consultation and site analysis. Please contact me for an estimate.
note: a transaction fee may be added based on how you pay.
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Sliding scale and partial gift economy options available​.
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If you want to grow your skills as a land steward or gardener, try garden coaching.
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Each session is crafted to your needs. It can be as simple as follow-up after a consultation, or a mix of the following:
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Skill: grafting, propagation, pruning + more.
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Seasonal: what to do in winter, spring, summer.
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Troubleshoot: pest, disease, weed, irrigation + more.
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Plants: ID, care + selection.
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Harvest + processing.
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Wild plant foraging.
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A nursery visit to pick your plants.
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Placing your new plants in the landscape.
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Special Focus: a specific garden area or project.
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Virtual coaching is an option too. Make it easy.
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Cost: My hourly rate ($100/hr), including drive time to your site if we meet in-person.
note: a transaction fee may be added based on how you pay.
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Sliding scale + gift economy options available​.
Garden Coaching
9-month
Land Stewardship Training
Awaken your
inner land steward.
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Help your hands
remember how to tend
our local ecologies
back to life.
The 9-mo Land Stewardship Training is our most comprehensive program, preparing learners to step forth as confident land stewards with ecological mindsets, ancestral roots, a culturally-responsible lens, and attunement to place.
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We will grow a wide landscape of skills together: pruning, propagation, plant identification, soils + compost, wildtending, garden design, wild + cultivated plants, ecological restoration, wildlife tracking, harvest, orienting to place, and more.
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Our skill-based explorations will be held with a deep inquiry into our ancestral relationship to place, and with invitations to attune our senses to a deeper way of listening with the land. All of our sessions will hold a lens of settler responsibilty and dreaming toward intersectional liberation.
Step into a supportive learning community to deepen your relationship with plants and place.
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Note: 2024 is the pilot year of our program. We have two tracks available:
1) a full participation track, and 2) a flexible track.
Click the link to learn more.
Classes +
Workshops
Tending Alive offers seasonal plant walks and other classes on organic gardening, ecology, plant connection, and more.
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Click to see them all.
We are available for custom classes, lectures or workshops. Katie has taught for public + private universities, non-profits, municipalities, garden clubs, public gardens and more.
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A few classes ideas to seed the imagination:​
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Intro to Propagation
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Wild Plant Propagation
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Design + Build a Food Forest
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Grow a Medicinal Garden
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Build a Wildlife Garden
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Wild Plant Medicine
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Fruit Tree Pruning
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Botany for Gardeners
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LGBTQIA+affinity
Bring us to your people!​
Gift Cards
Give the gift of an ecological landscape, or a path to deeper connection with land and magic.
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Treat your people. Create your own gift card for any Tending Alive service. Select one option:​
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A gift card can fund...
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a garden consultation and/or written report
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a garden design
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a garden coaching session
- a single plant walk, or the full series.
- a class, workshop or 9-mo land stewardship training
Note: Gift cards can be applied to any Tending Alive service. They are
not eligible for events hosted by third parties. ​
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fees
There are a few ways to pay for non-ticketed offerings.
Some include transaction fees, some don't.
service + transaction fee = total cost
none cash or check
2.0% venmo
2.6% credit, debit
3.0% paypal
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a note on
a few words on money +
access
Plants teach us that life is to be lived
in generosity and abundance.
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We are moving from scarcity to generosity. Financial access is important to me, as is dreaming into a culture beyond extractive economies.
I aim to grow Tending Alive from an ecological mindset, which sometimes translates to anti-capitalist and anti-oppression ideals. I try to make my services as financially accessible as I can. Not everyone will resonate with my work, but I still believe all people deserve to grow an intimate relationship with land.
And... I am running a new small business. I need to tend to many costs (insurance, web hosting, marketing, etc) so I can support you well.
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I am commiting to a culture of generosity in these ways:
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Sliding Scale - I offer a sliding-scale. This is for gardeners who walk with marginalized identities (i.e. PGM, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+) or who need financial support. Contact me to learn more.
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Gift Economy - I am open to gift economy offerings on a case-by-case basis. At this time, I am open to consider these trade options:
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film/camera equipment​ + video production services
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natural healing services
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carpentry/building services
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ceramics
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garden work at my home in Duvall
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Interested? Contact me with your proposal.
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I encourage groups and orgs that serve those on the societal margins to reach out and explore options to work together.
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I invite clients with the means to pay above my rates to do so.
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your generosity offsets the low-cost options for others.
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Redistributing wealth
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I envision one of Tending Alive's emerging rootlets as a pathway toward wealth redistribution. As our new small business costs stabilize over time, I foresee a percentage of service fees going to a few ecological Black- and Indigenous-led organizations in my world doing amazing work. ​
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For now, a percentage of ticket sales from plant walks + the land stewardship training will be redistributed to the Tend, Gather, Grow Project— a team of my biggest teachers in PNW cultural ecosystems and Coast Salish traditional knowledge. The percentage donated will depend on enrollment and be calculated in response to Tend's suggested levels of financial support.
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