Westerville homeowner Tamara Murray and her partner, Bucko Cowden, share their property with a flourishing micro-ecosystem. With more than 225 different native perennials, 70 different edible plants and 11 trees strategically planted throughout their yard, the couple put an abundance of planning and care into maintaining their unique landscaping.
Both Murray and Cowden have long valued environmental conservation and wanted to do their part to create a more sustainable landscape for their yard. When they purchased their home in 2020, they began plotting out gardening beds and doing research.
Cowden prepares a new plot to plant native plants in their backyard. Courtesy of Tamara Murray.
“What we really were looking to do is create both a native habitat with all native plants and an edible habitat of things that we can eat,” Murray says. “So that’s been our focus for the last few years.”
The gardening and landscaping are done completely organically and free of fertilizers and pesticides. Murray and Cowden say they would rather create an environment suited for bugs and critters that can benefit their garden.
“I know some people are scared to attract bees, but we know it’s extremely important to the habitat,” Murray says. “Especially when you’re trying to grow food, you need those pollinators.”
Growing almost all of their produce helps Murray and Cowden reduce their carbon footprint. They don’t contribute to the greenhouse gas emissions and waste that come from packaging and transporting produce to a grocery store.
Not only has the landscaping helped their environmental impact, it has also been extremely therapeutic for them, especially during the pandemic.
First asparagus harvest. Courtesy of Tamara Murray.
“I think it saved both of our sanities surviving the pandemic and having something to focus on that wasn’t the news. It just kept us active and moving and outside at a time when there just truly wasn’t anything else to do but to think about the state of the world,” Murray says. “For mental health, it was absolutely a game-changer for us.”
Cowden says gardening gives him a way to stay active and outside. Knowing the plants need to be taken care of keeps him accountable and deters him from getting too much screen time or engaging in less productive activities.
“I’ll pop in my earbuds and put on a podcast, and it takes somewhere between an hour and a half to two hours to water all of the plants, especially when we’re really trying to get the veggies to produce,” Cowden says. “I’m also spending that time outside getting some vitamin D.”
Murray keeps a binder full of maps and diagrams of the yard and garden beds, notes on different plants, and more to help keep the operation organized.
Tending to the yard has also helped Murray connect and socialize with her neighbors, which she wasn’t able to do as easily in the condo where she previously lived.
Courtesy of Tamara Murray.
“We have kids in the neighborhood that I get to stop and talk to. They normally ask me questions about what I’m doing and it’s really lovely to have it as a way to chat with people,” Murray says. “We’re really lucky that, on our street, we have a lot of active gardeners, so we’re always able to share advice, share bumper crops, walk over little bouquets of flowers to neighbors who have retired. It’s just such a lovely way to connect with people.”
What started as a couple of raised garden beds became a huge undertaking for Murray and Cowden, but that doesn’t mean they don’t reap the benefits of their hard labor.
“Being able to walk outside in the morning and pick the raspberries off the bush and eat them as they’re sun-warmed on my oatmeal, there’s really nothing more rewarding than that,” Murray says.
Maisie Fitzmaurice is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at mfitzmaurice@cityscenemediagroup.com.
