Studio Humelim is a small planting design practice based in Brooklyn, NY. At Humelim, we produce native-centered plantings that artfully create habitat for NYC’s local fauna.
Gardens for people, gardens for wildlife
We create gardens for humans, but that also welcome the native insects and birds with whom we share the city.
Native planting design is not a particular aesthetic style--gardens designed by Studio Humelim range from formal and minimalist to wild and impressionistic, depending on the needs of the client. Rather, native design is a fusion of principles that guide us to creating gardens that are ecologically robust. We design gardens that fulfill all of the recreational, domestic and wellness needs of people, while including habitat features like nesting sites for birds and forage for pollinators.
Gardens that need minimal inputs
We believe in working with nature, not against. The traditional European landscape philosophies that have shaped American thinking set us up to constantly struggle against our site conditions--watering, fertilizing, staking and spraying pesticides. At Humelim, we carefully consider a garden’s environmental conditions and make design decisions based on what will thrive there, so that our gardens can be more resilient on their own. All gardens require work, but carefully designed native gardens require no chemical inputs and substantially less supplemental watering.
Giving Back
We want to heal our relationship with the Earth, and building native gardens is only a small part of that. Studio Humelim donates 2.5% of its profits to the Xerces Society and 2.5% to the Manna-hatta Fund, in honor of the occupied territory we live on and the species we’ve extirpated from it.
About Laura
Hey there. I’m Laura, and I founded Studio Humelim.
I grew up running around the woods of rural Virginia, foraging for mint and blackberries and fostering a deep connection to the wild world.
I had every intention of going into restoration ecology after graduating from college, but when the economy tanked in 2008 and work became scarce, I started mowing lawns to make ends meet. As the recession stretched out and I did more landscaping, I discovered that my ecological goals could also be met in the garden.
As an ecologist, I had wanted to do work that would buffer non-human organisms from the harms of urban and suburban development. It hadn’t occurred to me that those goals might be best served by staying in the city, but a light bulb went off when I found so many wild creatures making homes for themselves in the urban gardens that featured the native plants I knew from my childhood. Working in gardens had the added dimension of fostering connections between people and the wild world, which completed the circuit and made my work feel whole. I made the switch to horticulture full-time in 2011.
Turns out I’m pretty good at it. In the ensuing ten years I’ve received a diploma in planting design from the London College of Garden Design, overseen the management and construction of gardens all over Boston, New York and Chapel Hill, managed the horticulture department at Central Park, and now I run Studio Humelim.
I’d love to work on your project too. Please drop me a line and tell me about your project!
