Thriving Ecosystems that Creatures Call Home
AOLCP Teresa Mucci Creates Organic Native Meadows
By
Kathy Litchfield
WILTON,
CT – For some, there is nothing like arriving home after an intense work day,
exchanging dress shoes for sandals and walking into a backyard meadow. Amidst
birdsong, buzzing bees, and flowers swaying in the breeze, one enjoys the
diversity of late afternoon sights, scents and sounds that can calm the mind
and center the body.
For some of Teresa Mucci’s clients,
this has become a daily routine.
“Most people fall in love with their
meadows. Over the years, walking in them becomes part of what they do and they
see it as therapeutic,” said the seven-year AOLCP whose own 15’ x 35’ meadow
outside her kitchen window provides hours of joy as she watches the wildlife –
birds, bees, endless insects chipmunks, squirrels, raccoons, opossums and the
occasional deer. This is her test case to show people that no “bit of land” is
too small to create a native meadow.
While many know Mucci as the CT NOFA
Winter Conference coordinator – she has organized it since 2009 – perhaps fewer
know she studied art and photo journalism in her native Minneapolis, MN before
moving to Connecticut, and over the years becoming a Master Gardener at the
Bartlett Arboretum in Stamford in 2001, both graduating from and later teaching
classes at the New York Botanical Gardens School of Horticulture and Landscape
Design Program, and finally going pro by installing organic native meadows as
an Ecological Landscape Designer.
Mucci has clients for whom she
designs and maintains meadows throughout Connecticut and New York. Word of mouth is her chosen means of
advertising and she enjoys talking with clients about the potential of their
properties for beautiful native meadows as a place where wildlife thrives, and
as an alternative to a monoculture lawn. She stresses that size doesn’t matter
– a meadow can be as small or large as the customers’ vision.
“I’m passionate about meadows with
people, explaining there is so much interest and life during all four seasons.
They’re always changing and exciting to look at. Wildlife feels invisible and
thus safe in the tall matrix, so they settle in. I think it’s contagious, this
love of meadows,” said Mucci, who encourages a “patient, gentle approach” to
meadow development.
She
talks with clients about the process: observing what is already growing,
carefully timing cuts and selectively culling, to allow the release of the
existing seed bank.
As
the meadows develop, she works with the client explaining what to keep, what
native plants to add, invasives to
remove and what to cut back over time. These client relationships can last for
years and Mucci finds them very rewarding.
“To me personally, it’s opening up a
new idea. I’m in awe of where I get to spend time--that people have me on their
properties and the trust that develops; the bond and the relationship that
grows when you walk on land together,” she said. “Sometimes, people have
something dormant within themselves that comes out, and I love that
enthusiasm.”
The very first meadow Mucci installed
was a five-acre plot along Rte. 33, currently referred to as “the Gem of the
Wilton Land Trust” by the current Land Trust President. Another of her meadows is enjoyed by locals and
visitors alike in the center of downtown Wilton. As a Trustee of the Wilton
Land Trust for 15 years, she sees pro bono work as important and useful in
developing a professional reputation.
Mucci
first experienced fodder fields and prairies while growing up in her native
Minneapolis, and visiting her uncles who were farmers outside the city.
“Minnesota
has a real reverence and history with its prairies. That’s how this got planted
in my soul,” she said. “There are 9 of these ‘prairie remnants’ from 250 to well
over 1,000 acres. People are almost reverential in protecting them. They’re
beloved and often photographed.”
Today,
along with her long-time crew, she does a lot of meadow restoration and
installation work as well as helps homeowners design natural areas to support
birds and bees. She has lectured at garden clubs, land trusts, and other
organizations and has published articles over the years. She taught at NYBG for
three years on organic lawns, weeds and, meadows, and has taught meadows for the
OLC accreditation course.
A current project found her in Cold
Spring, NY looking at a mugwort-ridden meadow that last year seemed hopeless,
but this spring, with early intervention “is just glorious! We
rescued the installed plants and
they are lush, thriving and the owners are on the road to having their meadow
back. I’m humbled by Mother Nature’s reaction when you work with her,” said
Mucci. “We’re off to a great start on that property.”
It
was over a decade ago when Mucci first called CT NOFA to inquire about OLC, and
she shared her reaction when then-executive director Bill Duesing answered the
phone.
“I
was surprised that not only did a human being answer the phone, but that one of
my long time heroes picked it up . . . this put NOFA even higher on my radar as
a great organization,” said Mucci, who earned her NOFA accreditation in 2007
(CT course).
“It was my connection with NOFA at
that time that made me realize the chemicals we were using rather
indiscriminately in my previous job were careless about the future. I knew
there had to be a more responsible way,” said Mucci, who started her own
business during the economic downturn of 2009 and was delighted to find so many
people interested in organic landscaping and ecological design. So far each
year has been more successful than the previous one.
“It turns out that once you install
a meadow for someone, you often are asked to maintain their meadow; and as the trust grows over time they give me
other parts of their properties that need care such as grooming woodlands and
consulting on whole property care.”
Mucci feels blessed to have work
that utilizes her communication skills and sharing her passion for native meadows.
“I
often form friendships with the people who are my clients. There is a trust
that develops. When I do a meadow project it is a process that goes on for several
years, and I’m there on a regular basis. Each meadow is totally unique as no
two parcels of land are identical; this makes one’s meadow very personal. It is an evolving process and always
beautiful!”
