About Plan(t) Wise Garden & Landscape Design
Reconnect with the beauty of nature.
What We Do, Who We Are
Plan(t) Wise Garden & Landscape Design is a boutique firm providing expertise in natural garden design and management guidance. We are primarily plantsmen, but we also offer full landscape design services, ensuring the best use of space, and incorporating native plant gardens and locally sourced materials.
While our services don’t include installations, if you can, we always suggest clients install their plants themselves. It’s a great way to reconnect with nature! If you’re not a fan of dirty hands or aren’t able to for other reasons, we can refer clients to those we trust for their installation needs, and of course, you are welcome to use your installer. Project oversight is available for you or your hired contractor to ensure the outcome matches the vision in every detail. We also offer material layouts saving clients the frustration of sorting and placing plant materials. For clients with tiny spaces, such as balconies, or who live outside the Niagara Region, we offer virtual consultation/design combos.
Our Garden Guidance service is intended for those who manage their landscapes themselves, promoting a less is more approach to soil and plant health easily adopted by all levels of gardeners.
We are proud of the value we can bring clients by helping them achieve their dream of having a low-maintenance, sustainable outdoor space. Reconnecting you and your community with nature, one garden at a time.
Heather has a background in graphic design, an obsession with plants, and finding purpose in the smallest of spaces. She has spent over two decades growing her experience. A member of the Welland Horticultural Society, Port Colborne Garden Club, and the Landscape Ontario Horticultural Trades Association, Heather currently attends The University of Guelph’s OpenEd program. She is one course away from completing her diploma in Landscape Design and holds Certificates with Distinction in Horticulture and Sustainable Urban Horticulture.
Heather envisions a future where our designed landscapes are beautiful and beneficial not only to us but to our wilder friends. Plan(t) Wise Garden & Landscape Design was born from that vision. She thrills in sharing her passion for gardens and nature with others and seeing their delight when they discover the joy and peace of reconnecting with nature at home. Her goal is to provide people with the knowledge, guidance, and support they need to create a haven for themselves and the wildlife that share our landscapes, inspiring passion for nature and creating thriving, healthy communities.
Heather lives in the small city of Port Colborne, Ontario, a stone’s throw from Lake Erie and the Welland Canal, with her partner and their aquatic pets. When she’s not working, you’ll most likely find her in her gardens.
Expert knowledge and support to help you create and manage your beautiful, beneficial, sustainable outdoor space.
A Note from Heather
I have fond memories of and always enjoyed spending time in natural areas. There were trips to St. John’s Conservation Area with my grandparents. Short Hills Provincial Park, Balls Falls, and summer camping trips “up north” with my parents. Romping along trails like hooligans with my sister. Hot, sweaty portages, canoeing for hours, and the joy of jumping into cool clean lakes. Learning experiences were everywhere! Monarch caterpillars and butterflies, snakes, birds, fish, and even clams! How do you catch a clam? You’ll have to ask my sister.
Sadly, back then, I never made the connection between gardening and nature. While Grandma and Grandpa’s vegetable garden was great, it was just tasty snacks stolen when I thought no one was looking. In those days I thought Mom and her gardens, which didn’t have tasty snacks, were crazy. I always made sure she knew it.
It took a long time to germinate, but those outings with family and Mom’s love of gardening planted a seed. Gardening has become my passion, and like a garden, that passion has evolved. I’ve come to understand and respect how valuable our gardens can be to all species. Creating natural gardens has allowed me to appreciate the joy and wonder of garden visitors of all kinds and has made gardening an even more enjoyable and rewarding experience. Nature, as we think of it, doesn’t just belong in the wild and parks and conservation areas. Our yards and balconies should embrace nature too!
By welcoming nature into your outdoor space, you’re gardening for change. That change is beautiful, healthy communities for all.
Are you ready to rediscover and enjoy the beauty of nature at home?
