It’s always encouraging to meet people who have recently started businesses which encourage clients to plant natives; what good they can do for people and our environment over many years!
Kalen started his business, Shady Grove Landscaping, in 2024. He has already become busy enough to do it full-time in the warmer months, and he hopes to expand and make it his only job. He would like to hire summer help at least occasionally for now.
He is based in Canonsburg and serves mostly the area within 20-30 minutes with a max of about an hour.
Per his informative Shady Grove Facebook page, with a website soon to follow:
“Shady Grove Landscaping is committed to using native plants and ecologically sound practices to not only make your yard beautiful, but make it an ecosystem!”
His services include removal of invasives and grass lawns that aren’t getting foot traffic. He describes the history of lawns grown as status symbols by European aristocracy and the many benefits of conversation of much of it more to more natural plantings.
He designs, plants and maintains mostly native landscapes, including rain gardens.
We discussed tangible benefits to home owners beyond knowing that they are decreasing pollution and climate change while improving bio-diversity.
These include lowering costs and hours of work after a little larger or even smaller initial investment. Most require little or no water after the first year, and they often help with water issues, including erosion and seepage into basements. They can improve property values, especially from maturing trees.
His journey began with increasing interest in the study of natives which he finds to be fascinating. While getting an associates degree in horticulture while living in Oregon, he was awed by huge Douglas Firs and other plants native to that area.
After returning to SW PA, he spent a summer working in horticulture at the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden. That, and other plant-related jobs, led him to start his business.
He is so into natural ecosystems that he has tattoos of a bumblebee on his right, an owl on that forearm and a hummingbird on his left hand! He also loves yellow finches.
Some of his favorite native plants are red oak, button bush, summersweet (Clethra anafolium), scarlet beebalm, butterfly weed, inkberry holly, and spring ephemerals.
Ed Wrenn