Kyla Rudnick

About Me:

I took the leap and started Willow Street Gardens in 2018, after a varied path with common roots in environmentalism and the human place in the natural world.

This includes: conducting an ethnography of forest activists in Tasmania during my undergraduate years. Serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana, where I worked with a community mango tree nursery and with shea butter producers. Completing a master’s degree in environmental anthropology, where I focused on indegnous environmental knowledge and the shea butter supply chain in northern Ghana. When I moved to Seattle in 2009, I taught English to immigrants and refugees, many of who shared their passion for gardening with me. I then worked with refugee farmers at Tilth Alliance’s Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands. This cultivated my passion for growing food as a way to build community and focusing on growing practices that enhance the environment around us including pollinators, fungus, and soil, it connected my past experiences in a new way.  I then studied horticulture at South Seattle College, completing a Certificate in Horticulture in 2013. After which, I managed community gardens in South Seattle with Alleycat Acres (now a program of The Common Acre). While working in community spaces, I came to see how much land was managed by homeowners in the city and became interested in transforming the practices of stewarding these spaces. I then worked for Oasis Edible Naturescapes (no longer in business), a permaculture based residential landscape company. I also worked for an ISA certified arborist where I honed my pruning skills. And now here I am a business owner, transforming residential spaces in South Seattle to not only meet the needs of my clients, but to protect and enhance our urban ecosystem. 

Practices:

I am committed to low impact business practices and gardening techniques. This includes:

  • Limiting my service area, to areas in Seattle south of the ship canal and Burien, which limits driving miles from my home.

  • No gas-powered tools (except for my small pickup truck).

  • Soil building techniques, such as sheet mulching.

  • Sustainable inputs such as arborists chips and compost.

  • Plant selections that support wildlife and pollinators.

  • Maintenance practices that support wildlife and pollinators, such as leaving seed heads and leaves (where appropriate) through the winter.