DESIGN FOR THE WILD & SOVEREIGN

sameness ≠ safety

agency > authority

Wildstead is a design practice and education platform for people who are ready for change — ecologically, aesthetically, and personally.

Design services. Self-guided curriculum. And an app coming soon.

Wildstead® replaces authority with agency through design, education, and stewardship of land as a living system.

DESIGN FOR GROWTH

EDUCATION & EMPOWERMENT

learn the art of wildscaping.

heavy on the -scaping.

native ≠ wild

EXPLORE ALL

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FOR NEW NATIVE PLANT LANDSCAPES

Wildstead® Wildscaping 101 Guide

Wildscaping Maintenance Basics

EXPLORE

fix it

EDIT EXISTING NATIVE PLANT LANDSCAPES

"So What Now?" Native Landscape Editing Guide

"Create Your Own Plant Palette" Guide

Wildscaping Maintenance Basics

EXPLORE

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(LIKE A) PRO

deep dive into

theory & execution

WILDSTEAD® WILDSCAPING 101™

+ WILDSCAPING MAINTENANCE

COMPREHENSIVE GUIDEBOOKS

If you've ever wanted to design and maintain native plant landscapes, these comprehensive guidebooks are tailor-made for you. You don't have to go pro to benefit, but by the end, you'll design like one!

EXPLORE

FULL-CYCLE DESIGN

whole human habitat design

interior & exterior

EXPLORE DESIGN RELATIONSHIP

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@THEWILDSTEADCOMPANY

I am not ok. Buckle up, Buttercups… we ride at dawn.

#wildstead #nativeplants #nativeplantgarden #homegrownnationalpark #lawn

You did the right thing.

You planted the natives. You stopped mowing the back section. You let it go — on purpose. Every year, you went to more talks, more workshops. You listened to more native plant advocates tell you the same thing: plant more. Plant for the pollinators. Rip up the lawn.

Save the butterflies. Save the bees.

And like a good citizen who actually cares about the earth — you did it. Of course you did.

Now your yard is rewilded — that’s for sure. But you can’t tell what’s meant to be there and what’s not. And there’s no one to help, because landscapers don’t do this type of work.

Nobody told you what came next.

Here’s what most native plant education skips entirely: planting natives is the ecology part. The -scaping part is what turns a sincere mess into something intentional.

That’s where the Unifier comes in — a single design element that tells your eye “this was on purpose.” Without it, you have a very ecologically correct yard that looks like you just... stopped caring.

The Fix It Pathway bundle teaches systems-level thinking in an easy, beautiful format. How to unwind the wild. How to find the cohesive elements. How to make your wildscaping match your aesthetic. This is a real design guide — not another “leave the leaves.” Finally, something that explains what to do after you plant.
And if completely wild isn’t your style? That’s ok. You can still have native plant landscaping. Your archetype is your editing filter — and if the level of wildness you’re working with is too far from where you actually live, there’s a way to bring it back without starting over.

Take the How Wild Are You? Quiz (link in bio) to find your archetype and get customized tips for designing to your actual taste — not the taste you think you’re supposed to have.

Your yard can be ecologically beneficial and beautiful. Both. At the same time.

🔗 Link in bio — quiz + Fix It bundle.

#wildstead #matriarchallandscaping #wildscaping #nativeplants #pollinatorgarden

Most yards have plants. A plant palette is something else entirely.

It’s a curated cast of species chosen to work together — visually, seasonally, and for the land they’re planted in. Every plant pulling its weight. Every plant beautiful doing it.

This is one of my favorite plant palettes for full sun, in areas that are hot and dry. It’s sort of become the Wildstead Signature Palette for those conditions.

Meadow-ish. Not too tall. Not too wild. The kind of planting that looks like it always belonged there.

🌿 Yarrow — mowable, tough, and endlessly useful as a pathway edge. It will take a beating and just keep growing. Nectar source for bees, butterflies, ladybugs, and hoverflies. Drought tolerant. Deer resistant.

🌿 Pale purple coneflower — drooping lavender petals, spiny orange-brown cone. Attracts bees, beetles, butterflies, flies, moths, skippers, and wasps. Seed heads feed goldfinches through winter. Host plant for the silvery checkerspot butterfly and several moths.

🌿 Spotted bee balm — pagoda-stacked cream and purple blooms, mid-summer to fall. Host plant for 11 species of moth and butterfly larvae. Attracts bumblebees, hummingbirds, and beneficial predatory wasps. Mint family — deer avoid it.

🌿 Lanceleaf coreopsis — semi-evergreen, long-blooming, and adaptable enough to plant en masse. The kind of plant that unifies a design and holds it together across seasons. Seeds feed songbirds in fall. (Learn more about Unifiers in the guides — link in bio.)

🌿 Poverty oat grass — the workhorse nobody talks about. Host for Leonard’s skipper and Indian skipper caterpillars. Grows where nothing else will — poor, dry, rocky soil. Ecological glue.

Want to build your own palette? Link in bio.

#wildstead #wildscaping #nativeplants #nativeplantlandscaping #nativeplantgarden habitatgarden pollinatorgarden rewilding ecologicaldesign matriarchallandscaping plantpalette

Hey y'all! Wildstead's best-selling workshop — Wildscaping 101: How to Design a Native Plant Landscape Your Neighbors Will Love — became this... and I'm so thrilled to finally share it with you now.

As you know, I've spent years making mistakes in the field - so you don't have to. And somewhere along the way I noticed that most of the native plant education out there assumes you already speak fluent ecologist. It's dense. It's intimidating. And honestly, it's just.... not that pretty. (sorry 🥴)

That's a problem — because the native plant movement needs more people in it, not fewer.

Soooooo I built something different. Accessible. Followable. Visually coherent. Something a real person could actually pick up and use on their actual yard without a botany degree or wild imagination.

This is the Wildscaping 101 Guide — the first piece of a larger curriculum I've been developing for years. It's where the methodology starts.

If your yard has ever felt like something that happened to you rather than something you chose — this is for you.

I hope you love it and it helps you grow. 🌱🫶

-L.Be

Link in bio.

#wildstead #wildscaping #nativeplantlandscaping #nativeplants #matriarchallandscaping #pollinatorgarden #gardendesign

Join the ranks.

#wildstead #wildscaping #liberation #nativeplantlandscaping #nativeplants #landscaping #freedom #unlawn #unleashed #matriarchallandscaping

You already know.

#wildstead #nativeplants #wildscaping #nativeplantlandscaping #matriarchallandscaping #illustration #fashion #collage #collageart #pollinatorgarden

Let's find out.

#wildstead #wildthing #feral #nativeplantlandscaping #wildscaping #nativeplants #personalityquiz #archetypes #matriarchallandscaping

Is it too late?! 🥴⏰🌱

When I talk to gardeners about starting a vegetable garden from seeds, it usually goes something like this:

Me: Have you started a garden from seeds before?

Them: Yes. But it didn’t work very well.

Me: When did you start your seeds?

Them: Around Mothers Day (in May) when I went to the garden center to buy plants.

‼️❌🚫

EHHHHH!!!! Noooooooo 😩

This one thing is why SO many people think they aren’t able to grow their garden from seeds. If you wait until the weather is warm, it’s too late!!! (With a couple exceptions- comment “exceptions” if you wanna know about those!)

In my previous reel about seed starting day I talk about the basic order of starting seeds. Go back and check out the caption for that info. 🌱🤗

In northern NJ it’s about time to plant tomato seeds- are you ready? Do you have all your supplies at hand?
We’ve already passed the time to start onions, leeks, peppers, and eggplant… can you believe it?! You *could* still start them from seeds, but at this point I would recommend maybe just purchasing those seedlings and just starting with the seeds that can be planted from here on out.

What other garden-starting challenges do you want to learn about? Lmk!

Follow us for all the garden starting pro tips.

#wildstead #easygardening #gardeningtipsforbeginners #seedstarts #seedlings #gardencenter #gardencenterlife #gardeninghelp #growyourfood

Welcome 🌱☺️🌱

We have been waiting for you.

As we plant seeds in preparation for this growing season, I’m thinking about all the wonderful things which will grow this year:
-friendships
-networks
-our native plant nursery
-the amount of people who will have native plants in their yards
-the number of people who will buy local produce and learn how to can it
-the biodiversity in our area
-the part of this industry that says “we can do this better” and is making changes

If you’re seeing this, it’s because you are part of that change. Thank you. We can’t wait to meet you.

Here’s to a season of growth! 🌱🍻🌱

#seedsofchange #seedstarting #greenhousegardening #nativeplantnursery #womenownedandoperated #biodiversity

(I’m currently planting tomatoes… what are you planting now? Let me know in the comments!)

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DESIGN FOR THE WILD & SOVEREIGN

EDUCATION & EMPOWERMENT

blank slate

fix it

(LIKE A) PRO

FULL-CYCLE DESIGN

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