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Natalie Crist Design

@nataliebcrist

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Landscape Designer.
Designing gardens for wellbeing.
Biophile. Ecosystem Builder. Writer.

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The moment we’ve been waiting for…. They say that gardening is the slowest of the performing arts, and our patience is paying off as this incredible meadow comes into its own. New tones and textures appear every day, like a living Impressionist painting (complete with the perfect hat, thanks to Jenn.)

Best of all, on my last visit I noticed several dragonflies—a strong indicator of a robust, biodiverse ecosystem taking shape. This kind of interplay of form and function is where it’s at.

A million thanks to @meadowlab for their support and collaboration, to @photobyjennajones for capturing such perfect moments, and most of all to @jennstreicher and @_jonnycournoyer for trusting the vision and letting me dig up your *entire* front yard! by @nataliebcrist

I spent the first decade of my adult life immersed in studying the human body—not just in theory, but in practice. By the age of nineteen, I had assisted in multiple childbirths and attended to several people as they took their last breath. The most memorable was a young man my own age.

Much of my youth was spent shepherding people into and out of this world, but I grasped those experiences more fully when I began to study horticulture. Here, I found the other half of a living system I had already come to know—one marked by constant transformation, and the quiet choreography of life and death.

It’s difficult to explain what I see when looking at a landscape, but I can easily express what I don’t see: fixed points. I see complex relationships in motion—matter exchanging form, energy passing from one life to another. Everything is in flux, and always becoming.

Designing with life means making space for change. It means fostering mutual relationships, seeing through the long lens of time, honoring bloom and decay as equals. True beauty isn’t static or idealized. It’s a reflection of the health and vitality of a community—of a living system in balance, unfolding moment by moment.

In my practice, deepening my understanding of how these elegant systems interact allows me to support the natural emergence of beauty—the kind of beauty found in the in-between. by @nataliebcrist

Terremoto's David Godshall, on designing with doubt, building with rubble, and sharing the profits.

We spent a few delightful hours in conversation with David this past January. He shared his thoughts on Wendell Berry and Bad Bunny, leading a business with rigorous empathy, why landscape architecture is “an impossible thing,” and why he does it anyway.

Read the full interview at the link in bio.

Photographs courtesy of @terremoto_landscape by @nataliebcrist

Shannon Algiere, on two decades at the Stone Barns Center.

In January I began recording long-form conversations with the people whose work I admire most, as a kind of self-guided curriculum. This is the first of several.

These conversations are worth slowing down for; they may take 15-20 minutes to read. I think that's a good thing. If Shannon sat you down for an afternoon in her greenhouse, you'd pull up a chair and listen. That's what this is.

She talks about land literacy, viewing failure as a teacher, building a farm and a marriage side by side, and what it feels like to watch something you started grow beyond you.

The work of repairing our landscapes is urgent. That's exactly why it's worth learning from those who have been doing it longest.

So many of us look to Shannon as a mentor, and I'm grateful for the time she took to share her thoughts. Link in bio.

Photographs by @photobyjennajones
@shannonalgiere
@stonebarnscenter by @nataliebcrist

Happy Spring Equinox ✨ by @nataliebcrist

A signature can be invisible.
Natalie Crist on designing with a light hand, avoiding poodle-shaped trees at all costs, and training the eye to recognize beauty not only in bloom but also in decay—including the skeletal forms of winter.
Watch Episode No. 11 on YouTube + audio podcast apps. Links in bio.
•••
#russihive
#gardens
#landscapedesign
#bloomanddecay
#botanicalbeauty by @nataliebcrist

I finally made time to see Sargent in Paris at the @metmuseum. I came for the portraits but, predictably, was totally captivated by his landscapes and gardens. Such atmosphere ✨ by @nataliebcrist

Not long ago, these luscious pigments existed in the form of soil. They were born of earthbound elements like magnesium, copper and zinc that nourished the roots of these plants.

The same minerals that shaped the pigments before us also play a vital role in the health of our eyes, allowing us to perceive the very colors they helped to create.

In the words of Carl Sagan, “We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.” Happy Thursday.

Xx Natalie by @nataliebcrist

These are my great-grandparents in the urban Eden they created in Yonkers, NY. They grew many of the fruits and vegetables that they missed from their home in Italy. Each year, my great-grandfather would lovingly dig his fig trees and bury them in a mound to overwinter. His hard work paid off; their small urban farm was so robust that it fed their entire family and caught the attention of the local newspaper.

It’s hard to believe that four generations of my family have tended gardens in the Hudson Valley (five generations, if you count my 8 and 11 year old nieces who are already quite accomplished gardeners.) We come by it honestly 🌱 by @nataliebcrist

A little update on the polyculture guild… One of the consequences of designing gardens professionally is that the communal garden I tend for my family and two of our dearest friends sometimes gets neglected.

This year, in an effort to save time, I used polyculture planting in our two largest beds. Polyculture felt like a natural evolution from companion planting, which I already rely on heavily. The goal is to create a guild—a community of plants that support one another’s health and well-being.

The technique is simple: choose seed varieties that thrive under similar conditions but that fill different roles and mature at different rates. In this particular guild, I sowed mixed lettuces, arugula, radishes, carrots, beets, bush beans, calendula, dill, parsley, chives, kale, chard, and a few other things I’ve likely forgotten. After mixing all the seeds together, I broadcast them over the surface of the bed, topped everything with a thin layer of compost, and watered generously.

They’re filling in beautifully, my germination rates improved, and I’ve noticed the plants seem much happier growing in community than when I arrange them in tidy little rows. Many lessons here… by @nataliebcrist

El Jaleo, et al.
In 1865, Isabella Stewart Gardner lost her only son to pneumonia. He was just shy of two years old. In the wake of this tragedy, she began to travel extensively and amass a formidable art collection. The museum she eventually founded became her life’s work and lasting legacy.

The Gardner is a deeply personal assemblage of art and objects, housed in a building of Isabella’s own design. It is also the site of one of the most notorious unsolved art heists in FBI history. In March of 1990, two armed men disguised as police officers escaped with over half a billion dollars’ worth of art, including works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Degas. Their empty frames still hang in place to this day.

Adding to the haunting quality of the collection, museum staff report that—due to its proximity to the atrium garden—a cloud sometimes forms in front of El Jaleo (pictured first).

When I imagine a memory palace, this is what I see. by @nataliebcrist

In the late 19th century, Georges-Auguste Escoffier, then head chef at the Savoy Hotel, developed the modern kitchen brigade system. A former army officer, he brought military-style hierarchy to the kitchen, assigning each staff member a clearly defined role. With over 25 specialized roles—saucier, poissonier, boulanger—working in concert, his system revolutionized the culinary workflow.

Growing up in a restaurant family, I found the militarization of something as indulgent as haute cuisine amusing. But over time, I came to see that beyond intuition and emotion, virtuosos rely heavily on technical precision, collaboration, and choreography—a tactical order of their own.

Escoffier modeled his kitchen after a far larger, more complex operation. Likewise, residential gardeners can refine their workflow by adopting strategies from larger growing operations. To explore this idea, I spoke with my friend and fellow @nybg alumnus, Sunny Kim-Tiernan, owner of @faeflowerfarm, to learn how she organizes her work—both during and between growing seasons.

To read Sunnie’s advice, visit the link above. Here’s to an abundant spring. Xx, Natalie by @nataliebcrist