Sarah Jackson and Daniel Mobley’s backyard is a study in contrasts, with overflowing garden beds framing a vintage-style stone patio, where ripe fruits and vibrant vegetables abound. A woven basket is utilized to pick their nightly salad for dinner. Chickens stroll the grounds while, every so often, bees will buzz overhead, pollinating the opulent flowers and processing the purest of honey. It’s an oasis in Decatur, drawing guests to the backyard and providing a serene haven to connect with nature’s awe-inspiring cycles. Bounty is an understatement, and it's clear why Abundance Landscapes + Gardens is the perfect name for their business, which is run with absolute reverence for the land.
In the edible, ecological realm, Abundance Landscapes + Gardens provides thoughtfully designed landscapes created with peak functionality, sustainability, and beautiful aesthetics in mind. By working with native plants and the native environment, they educate every client on how to provide for the ecosystem most effectively. Rebalancing our relationship with the land while reconnecting to the majesty of nature accomplishes quite a lot; firstly, it brings a sense of mindful presence to every single day and season. Secondly, it has a positive impact on our local ecosystem, from sustainable water usage to supporting pollinators. And lastly, it provides high-level nourishment for ourselves, our families, and our communities.
Sarah and Daniel’s naturalistic and food-forward design style works hard to increase native biodiversity and enhance one’s daily relationship with the Earth. The kitchen gardens they create recognize food as the true gateway to a symbiotic relationship with nature. As we put our effort into the land, it is repaid in the most nutritious produce one can consume. Gardening offers the opportunity for daily practices of joy and a chance to connect with others as well. It is exciting to give what you’ve grown with your community. “One of my favorite things about growing food is being able to share it with other people,” Daniel shares, and Sarah quickly agrees, adding, “Our mission is trying to facilitate this connection with Earth and each other.”
In every landscape design they pitch, health, joy, and connection are at the heart. The plant palettes are artful yet naturalistic, housed in intentionally designed spaces crafted with approachability, encouraging people to spend time in nature. Sarah and Daniel both light up when asked about their meadows, an offering they’ve meticulously honed over the past five years, and are constantly evolving. This creative yet ecologically minded process features hundreds of different species with varying flowering timelines, making this art form stylistically minded and scientifically complex. By mixing native plants with environmentally beneficial perennial flowering plants and shrubs, the beauty of the natural world is demonstrated while creating a space for core memories to form. Variety is shaped through plant heights, colors, and textures, crafting painting-like sanctuaries in the middle of the city. This challenge is not taken on by conventional landscaping companies. The extra effort and difficulty sourcing plants make this a less easy, though much more fulfilling, process.
The naturalistic design flows to their hardscapes as well, utilizing natural stones and boulders for retaining walls and paths, with permeable patios built to utilize rainfall as a resource. These structures balance the wild look of native plants and are integrated into the gardens as an invitation to spend time in the landscape. Gathering, entertaining, and hosting surrounded by blossoming flowers and ripening produce further integrates daily living with the land. This style of landscaping, often referred to as “edible landscaping” or “ecological landscaping,” is growing in popularity and importance. It is a movement that takes action in the face of climate change by positively contributing to the local ecosystem and our quality of life, physically, emotionally, and socially. Find rebalancing, reconnection, and awe-inspiring reverence for the natural world with the help of Abundance Landscapes + Gardens.
“It’s our art, but it moves through time and space, so it's constantly evolving.”