Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Viola
Jessica, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My career started in Northern California with a foundation in ecological design, habitat restoration, permaculture practices, organic gardening and landscape construction. Hands in the earth, head below heart, I learned to garden, plant, prune and practice growing gardens, building landscapes with my own hands. My start was humble. I was hired to work at a native plant nursery and learn the ins and outs of guilds and ecology and landscape construction. Something deep within me took root as I began to understand the patterns that govern nature, how a garden grows, how to care for a garden, how to build a garden and fuse that with a dream and vision. I taught myself to draft in order to illustrate what I knew how to create, working to inspire my clients through drawings as art, images as inspiration. I started Viola Gardens in 2007, designing and building landscapes with a small team and ultimately becoming one of a handful of female, licensed CA contractors in the state. I have always had the clear intent to foster deeper relationships between human nature and Mother Nature through art and design. I believe the more able I am, as a designer and a builder, to map meaningful relationships between people and their engagement in the landscape, the more the wanting to care for and steward the land, including all relationships that our local habitat fosters. Permaculture is earth care and people care. In essence, we use design to achieve curated and thoughtful landscapes with an artistic and soulful touch while allowing ecological functions to occur. In this way, through landscape design and creation, we find a place for ourselves within the ecology of which we are a part of.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Imagining, envisioning and starting anything from the ground up is never easy. There are always moments of doubt and struggle. But over time I learned how to build a resilience and trust in the rhythm of my life and its unfolding – in myself really, and in life. I have been scared too many times to count but I also have a deeply resourced courage that I have cultivated and that leads me to the place inside myself that allows me to show up for life, to rise and meet whatever challenges I have to manage. To seek solutions and let each experience lend itself to my growth and the growth of those around me. To let experiences teach me how to design better, build better, run a better business – to evolve. Allowing natural succession to take the lead, not pushing my career or the business I have grown from a seed over time but letting each project, each collaboration, each challenge lend itself to the next right step. Ive been practicing landscape design and build for almost 18 years. throughout that time there have been certain growing edges, moments when business picked up and I had to figure out how to solve problems that were new to me. Scaling a business at large is challenging but the same principles that I use to design gardens, I use to direct my business. in this way we build creative, diverse and meaningful relationships of expertise and support that allow everyone to prosper and thrive. There are always solutions. Investing in people, building relationships, sharing skills, creating opportunities for employees to find that creative spark and explore it as I have is important. Building backup systems of support as nature does is something we practice as a business. Learning from experience and using those experiences to develop better and stronger systems is key. Every project has problems. Thats why we are there. To solve problems using filters of design and expertise that are ecological, holistic, experienced and creative. I have learned through trial and error not to be afraid of challenges, not to shrink into the underbrush of insecurity when problems arise. But rather, to lean into them knowing that every problem also holds within it the solution. Learning to lean into the problems that arise on projects or within my business has helped guide me into a practice where I am able to arrive at design solutions rather than impose them. I believe part of design, both as a landscape designer, an entrepreneur and a leader involves trusting the process as we arrive at solutions that are considered, balanced and create more opportunity for expression and innovation.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Since 2007, Viola Gardens has pioneered transformative garden spaces in Los Angeles County. Our women-owned firm, led by Jessica Viola, specializes in drought-tolerant, ecologically sustainable landscape design and build. Combining over two decades of expertise with regenerative approaches, our in-house architectural team sets us apart in the industry. Focused on creativity and sustainability, Viola Gardens leads by creating captivating outdoor landscape experiences.
The secret sauce behind my work includes a very deep and seasoned understanding of plant systems and an impeccable and detailed approach to design and build. I craft each vision based on who a person is, looking for creative and unique ways of mapping their experience of engagement in the landscape – yoga platform, labyrinth, food forest, artist corners, farm-to-table dining, amphitheater, dance bar, play structure, etc – such that the garden becomes a reflection of who they are and how they like to live in a way that is personal and meaningful. I curate groups of plants, colors and material selections but I let the material and the shape of the land dictate the design, arriving at solutions without imposing solutions. I hand place each and every plant on contour, never planting in straight lines, working the soil with no till, a bit of compost and just the right touch of amendment. I approach each garden like a piece of art, finding ways of exploring color, light, time and space, blending what is aged with what is new and fresh. In essence, thinking outside of the box to find fresh perspectives on design.
The more I have learned of nature and the intricacies of how things work in natural systems, the more intrigued I am. Landscapes are in a state of constant change, of becoming. Creating and building gardens that reflect an embodied understanding of nature and how things work lends itself to a curated wildness which you can feel and experience in all the gardens we bring to life. I have only ever built gardens that are drought-tolerant, completely organic, mostly compromised of native plants and as such, regenerative. We are finding ourselves in the midst of a major drought throughout much of the west coast as the climate changes. We have increased Santa Anna winds, rising temperatures, more salinity in the soil, fires, floods. It is imperative that we rethink our relationship with the land, the habitats we are a part of, and seek ways of managing resources while creating beauty and allowing the systems to recalibrate more effectively. Landscape design creates the conditions for things to happen. So we design in space AND in time, knowing that we can foster the right relationships and in doing so, allow the system to heal while creating abundant beauty and yield.
Organic land solutions are imperative. Building landscapes while thinking about natural solutions to resource management is imperative. Water catchment systems, drip irrigation, solar energy, analog and biological technologies. Restoring native plants within the design aesthetic of our gardens and understanding that each plant has relationships with a host of native and ecological species. So encouraging benefit to one part of the system, benefits the whole.
We can learn a lot about how to live more harmoniously, regeneratively, creatively and sustainably by paying attention to what works best in nature.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
Some of my favorite books are Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Disobedience of the Daughter of the Sun by Martin Prechtel, California Native Plants for the Garden by Carol Bornstein, David Fross, and Bart O’Brien, Billions and Billions by Carl Sagan, Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, The Fact of a Doorframe by Adrienne Rich, The Permaculture Manual by Bill Mollison, Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway, The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan, Voices of Our Ancestors by Dhyani Ywahoo, and Free Play by Stephen Nachmanovitch. I love Cheryl Strayed and enjoy listening to her. I respect her poetic mind, intelligence, courage, and wisdom.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.violagardens.com
- Instagram: @violagardens
- Other: https://www.theartandecologystudio.com
Image Credits
Suzanne Strong, Lauren Purves, Amy Smyth
