garden sanctuaries

Creative Small-Scale Gardens for Ecological Wellbeing

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All Garden Design & Build Will Be Put On Hold Until Further Notice Due to Our Recent Move.

Earthen Origins designs, builds, and maintains functional and diverse small-scale gardens and public green spaces, providing for people and wildlife. Each garden space is a sanctuary, connecting human bodies to the elements for wellbeing. We offer artistic solutions that beautify the intersections between nature and the built environment.

The creation of each garden is unique to the rhythms of the surrounding ecosystem. We design to align with and mimic the patterns found in nature, taking care to notice details through observation. We approach our projects with a permaculture perspective, building with minimal energy output (using mostly hand tools) and creating closed-loop regenerative practices with the land (capturing resources on site).

We build diverse gardens with native species and herbs that attract wildlife and pollinators. Our locally sourced and ethically collected plants and seeds provide resilient genetics for years to come. All of our work supports small local businesses and people who have integrity for Earth and community.

We offer design services for local residential sites, as well as small scale community based projects. During installs, we work side by side with a talented team of builders, gardeners, and artists who offer a diverse array of skillsets. We hope to collectively bring more beauty and peace to the world one garden at a time.

A yellow swallowtail butterfly enjoying wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) in one of our native pollinator gardens.

A yellow swallowtail butterfly enjoying wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) in one of our native pollinator gardens.

All designs within 100 square feet :

  • Native Pollinator and Wildlife Gardens

  • Container Gardens

  • Sanctuaries for Peace and Wellbeing

  • Herbal Gardens

  • Public Garden Spaces for the Commons

  • Garden Murals painted with Eco-Paints (Indoor and Outdoor)

About the Designer/Gardener : Emily has a lifetime of experience working outdoors. She has worked 8+ years in the fields of organic farming & gardening, 5+ years in herbalism, 4+ years in landscape design & build, and has been facilitating earth based arts through Earthen Origins for the past 5 years. Her passion is to help educate and empower people to honor the Earth.

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Emily studied visual art and landscape architecture at Rutgers University for 3 years, and her passions of natural building + permaculture design in Asheville, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. She worked two years with ecological place-makers in Pennsylvania building native plant landscapes, and helped manage a native plant nursery in NJ. She recently completed her permaculture design certificate through Urban Edge Farm in Lancaster, PA. She enjoys growing wildlife gardens, ecological art making, and creating earthen sanctuaries for people to find solace & healing in everyday life.

Please contact us for land consultations, conceptual designs by hand, and installations.

We can discuss details by email.

Please reach out here - email: earthenoriginscreations@gmail.com

Emily : (908)-692-7090

examples of concept sketches done for garden consultations 2021

Community Scale Ecological Design : Railroad Place Community - Pennington, NJ 2020

Rain Garden : storm water mitigation, native plantings for wildlife - Stockton, NJ 2021

Public Corridor : Native shade garden outside basil bandwagon - lambertville, NJ 2021

Annual Container Designs 2024

Edible and medicinal Urban Garden Collaboration - Lambertville, NJ 2021

Food Forest Nursing Ground & Native Wildlife Garden - Farmingdale, NJ 2018 - present

Herbs can be intermixed with native species to provide for both humans and wildlife. Add stones where water flows to create insect, reptile and amphibian habitat. - 2019

Summer harvest from our family vegetable and herb garden - 2021

‘Give Back Garden’ : Food Forest Design for Doylestown High School West, collaboration with Indigenous Ingenuities 2019

Design made with Indigenous Ingenuities, PA. (Edible + native garden for the courtyard of a local high school)

Design made with Indigenous Ingenuities, PA. (Edible + native garden for the courtyard of a local high school)

Presenting our design on the local news with Matt Benzie of Indigenous Ingenuities - 2019

Cherry Valley Farm Hugelkultur Bed & Collaborative Herb Garden Build - Princeton, NJ 2018

Conceptual design sketch for pollinator garden bed - 2018

Conceptual design sketch for pollinator garden bed - 2018

Left - Freshly planted (soil-building) Hugelkultur Bed, filled with native plants. Right - Portion of a garden mural painted for Cherry Valley Farm in collaboration with Nancy of Love Warrior Creations. -2018

Left - Freshly planted (soil-building) Hugelkultur Bed, filled with native plants. Right - Portion of a garden mural painted for Cherry Valley Farm in collaboration with Nancy of Love Warrior Creations. -2018

Installation day

Winecap mushrooms growing from mycelliated wood chips in the herb garden

Mural artists Emily and Nancy painting the new farm store area on Cherry Valley Farm

Cherry Valley Cooperative Farm Herb Garden 2018, designed - seed grown - and planted with friends. 2017-2018

Cherry Valley Cooperative Farm Herb Garden 2018, designed - seed grown - and planted with friends. 2017-2018

Friends helping plants the herb garden

Preparing a native plant donation from Wild Ridge Plants for the herb garden and forest restoration plots with Dan of Return to Nature

Forest wildlife pool installation, planted with native species - a collaboration with Return to Nature

 

Lawn to Meadow Conversion Concepts

Native Meadow Garden Palette - We install native meadow seed mixes to replace lawn.

Native Meadow Garden Palette - We install native meadow seed mixes to replace lawn.

Inspiration : Meadow Palette -  Adirondacks, NY

Inspiration : Meadow Palette - Adirondacks, NY

Permaculture Design and Applications

Conceptual sketch for Hugelkultur Bed design, exploring regenerative soil building techniques - 2020

Conceptual sketch for Hugelkultur Bed design, exploring regenerative soil building techniques - 2020

Concept design for a new raised bed with a living willow fence and perennial native flowers, vegetables and herbs.

Concept design for a new raised bed along a public corridor - includes a a living willow fence, perennial native flowers, vegetables, and herbs. - 2021

Design made for polyculture fruit tree guilds, each planted with companion plants

Computer design made for polyculture fruit tree guilds, each planted with companion plants - 2019

Constructing permaculture style garden beds at Autumn Olive Homestead in NJ

Constructing permaculture style garden beds at Autumn Olive Homestead in NJ - 2018

A garden we planted along the sidewalk in town with edible and medicinal species, 2019

A garden collaboratively planted along the sidewalk in Lambertville, NJ that includes edible and medicinal species - 2019

Forest restoration plantings with Susquehanna Sustainability - 2021

Susquehanna Sustainability Permaculture Design Course Graduates - 2021

Biodiversity is key to a flourishing & ecologically sound garden space.

Biodiversity is key to a flourishing & ecologically sound garden space. - 2018

Prepping mounded soil beds to plant winter squash

Prepping mounded soil beds with drip line to seed in winter squash - 2019

Fruit and herb harvests from our summer homestead garden - 2021