Who I am
My name is Phoebe Feeley, I am a mother of two who spends most of my time working in the garden and trying to raise two empowered, justice-minded and grounded kids. I'm a permaculturalist, intersectional activist, artsy-fartsy lover of design, life long learner, and creative brainstorming superstar.
I've been gardening seriously for about 13 years and have grown edibles and ornamentals in Prescott Arizona, Oakland, Seattle, Sacramento and now Santa Cruz. I've studied healing gardens, environmental psychology, landscape design, permaculture, and homesteading skills, and continue to learn as each season passes. I've worked as a garden coordinator at a day program for people with developmental disabilities, a garden coordinator at a high school, an urban forester, and a landscape designer. Over the next year I will also become a certified Horticultural Therapist.
The biggest project I have had so far is transforming our third of an acre urban plot in Santa Cruz, California into a homestead. We bought our place about four years ago; at the time the front yard was covered in thick black plastic and six inches of granite rocks. It had been used as a parking lot for over ten years. You couldn't get a shovel in the ground it was so compacted, and there was no life in sight, not ONE bug! The backyard was in similar condition just without the rocks; a moonscape with deep fissures and nothing growing in it besides a few bind weeds and bur weeds. To make matters worse, we were also facing an extreme drought and some of the tightest water restrictions in the country.
We have relied on many permaculture techniques to bring our soil back to health, most notably: swale building, water harvesting, and cover cropping. In just two years we had made incredible progress and now at four years our urban plot is home to salamanders, snakes, too many birds and pollinators to list, over 20 fruit trees, and hundreds of drought tolerant herbs and flowering perennials. It is overflowing with life! Heal the soil and the rest will follow!
As a designer what makes me unique is my ability to truly listen to the needs of clients and think of creative, out of the box, solutions to challenges in the landscape. It has taken me years to recognize and honor that I am an empath when it comes to physical spaces. I know, it sounds weird! But it is just how I was built; I am highly sensitive to the energy of a space, the colors, plant materials, seating arrangements, light quality, all of it. In the design process I prioritize how a client wants to feel in the space. Do they want to feel serenity, safety, playfulness, joy, wonder...? That's my starting point. As a mother of two I also have a keen understanding of what kind of gardens work with kids and how to create a garden that invites children to interact with their natural environment. The path to landscape design has been a winding one for me but one that has given me so many tools and skills along the way!
You can see my work and the progress we've made on Instagram, @organicallygrowing
