My name is Ruth Sadie Rose Roudiez, I even have flowers in my name!  I grew up on the island of Nantucket, MA and was introduced to gardening by my mother.  She grew lovely little gardens of nasturtium, baby’s breath, sweet as candy golden raspberries, and teeny tiny red and yellow and white flavor-explosions-in-your-mouth strawberries.

I’ve been gardening for my entire professional career.  My first real job was working for one of the nicest ladies in the world, Caren Oberg of Linnea Gardens.  We provided organic gardening services to some of the finest gardens on Nantucket, and I learned many valuable lessons on design, care, technique, and hard work among the flowers.

After working with Caren for three years and moonlighting at Kate Haig’s organic nursery Seaside Gardens, I moved into a management role at Bartlett’s Ocean View Farm, becoming assistant manager of the 35,000 square foot retail garden center.  I had a great time there and learned about nursery and sales, and much more about garden care from my peers, helping customers, and reading thousands of plants tags.

Growing up on Nantucket offered another advantage in understanding the realm of plants.  Renowned for its pristine natural landscapes left untouched by conservation efforts, Nantucket is on the forefront of habitat conservation awareness.  Living beside such wild beauty instills more appreciation for it, and there were many opportunities to be involved in invasive species education and eradication efforts.

I left Bartlett’s Farm to study Sustainable Community Development with a focus on Ethnobotany (relationships between people and plants) in Senegal on the west coast of Africa.  I loved Senegal so much, I stayed for an extra two months to volunteer on an organic farm in a rural village.  I learned a lot of growing techniques there that you’ll hardly ever see in the US, like ditch irrigation and how to scare monkeys off your tomatoes.

When I came back home, I moved to Somerville and have been growing my residential gardening business here ever since.  I spent one more summer as an intern for a thriving small organic farm in WA, honing my vegetable growing skills.  I’ve taken courses through Harvard University’s Arnold Arboretum, the Conway School of Landscape Design, and Native Plant Trust, working my way through their Native Plant Horticulture and Design certificate program. I earned my Permaculture Design Certificate through The Resilience Hub and have focused more deeply into Permaculture, Regenerative Agriculture,  Biodynamics and the design of these systems.

I regularly attend intensives and workshops such as the regional and state Permaculture conferences, NOFA (New England Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association) MASS and NH seasonal conferences, the national Biodynamic Conference, and the BFA’s (Bionutrient Food Association) Soil & Nutrition Conference, among others. 

In 2018 I joined the board of the Permaculture Association of the Northeast (PAN), whose mission is to increase the resilience of the Northeast region by supporting Permaculture projects, education, outreach, and connectivity. We host webinars, write newsletters, offer fiscal sponsorship, and organize events.

The same year I joined PAN, I began to further my understanding of medicinal herbal plants. I started working one day a week at an herb farm in Boxford, which featured an established Permaculture garden that supplied processed organic herbs to local resellers, and medicine makers.

2019 brought to opportunity began teaching gardening skills through the Boston Food Forest Coalition through their Applied Permaculture courses. You can find some materials from my Woody Plant Propagation workshop on my blog. That year the BFFC also began bringing together the Boston area permaculture professionals to co-create and hold permaculture teacher training seminars. We met regularly for over a year developing our own curriculum to educate ourselves on how to be better teachers to adult learners of permaculture. This was such a valuble and enriching time for me,  growing my knowledge and ability, connecting with likeminded folks who share passions, and self organizing with a group around a goal.

In 2020, the herb farm I mentioned earlier ended its regular business operations and I began to nurture a nursery with many of the seeds from the farm garden. I supply many of my own nursery grown plants for Gardens by Ruth, and in the future I hope to  share with my peers and the general public.

That pivotal year of 2020 was my last in the city as I moved on to a beautiful vineyard in New Hampshire, where I began assisting my parter with the work of growing fruit and making high quality living natural wine. through this work I learned to  develop vineyard design and management practices for healthy plants completely free of any pesticides, herbacides, and other damaging practices. Integrating native habitat with perennial agriculture is what we are passionate about and believe will help revolutionize the resiliency of the Northeast region. You can read more about the wine and its making at NOKVINO.com. 

2021 was my first year taking a step back from much of the manual labor of building and caring for client’s gardens, as I found a fantastic and motivated coleague in Ryleigh and we worked out a way to keep on top of tasks with me in more of a project manager role. I still enjoy the work, but it has been 18 years of it and my body is a bit tired! We will continue to do business in the Boston area as I take on more design clients in the region and get the retail nursery going.

I’ll be working with the earth for the rest of my life.  It’s a practice you can always learn more about, there is no end to the amount of knowledge a person can gain in the arena of growing.  Not only is it a joyful activity for me to be outside among flowers and birds and bees and worms, there is always an interesting challenge.  Each bit of land is unique, each a mystery that won’t be solved until you dig deep and find out what’s going on below the surface!

E-Bike Powered Herbal Landscape Specialist: Mo Katz-Christy

I think that Boston is the most beautiful city in the world! I try to contribute to that beauty through tending our orchards and gardens and celebrating the plant community we live amongst. I grew up pruning and harvesting from neighborhood fruit trees and grape arbors with the League of Urban Canners and helping my mom plant flowers in neglected corners of town, and it is an honor to have the opportunity to care for so many magical gardens professionally.

I have been working with plants for nine years — my whole adult life! I especially love working where people and plants intersect, which led me to study herbalism. I spent three years studying clinical herbalism in-depth and now have a private herbal practice where I teach classes and offer consultations. 

At Gardens by Ruth, I enjoy incorporating medicinal plants into residential landscapes and exploring the medicinal uses of the plants that are already abundant in our yards. We offer medicinal herb gardens including gardens centered around sleep and relaxation herbs, culinary herbs, and cocktail/mocktail herbs. As an add-on, I can bring your garden into your spice rack in the form of herbal vinegars, syrups, dried herbs, and more. Or, I can teach you how to process your herbs yourself! Find out more about our herbal offerings here.

I am delighted to be our team’s e-bike-powered landscaper, and am looking forward to carrying a full load of plants, tools, and my coworker from site to site this year!

Head Gardener and Educational Research Assistant: Ryleigh Hall

From the kid who spent hours turning over rocks in the spring to find salamanders in Audubon, PA to the adult who chose to live in Boston because it is a city where you can see the sky with trees on every block, I have always loved to have my hands in the dirt. Growing up tending to an herb garden with my father, planting fig trees and blueberry bushes, instilled in me the joy of growing fresh food for both the body and the spirit. For me, an active relationship to nature and landscape has always been central to what it means to be home. 

With 6 years of professional experience in landscaping, these raw passions are being honed into experience. After 3 seasons working for a small organic landscaping company, I wanted to know if there were more intentional ways to create gardens that are home to more diverse, native plant and animal life. I became certified in Permaculture Design through Sowing Solutions Permaculture Center in Shelbourne Falls, MA. While the permaculture course provided structure to learn ecological restoration techniques, I recognize that this knowledge originated from Indigenous traditions of relationship to land, food, and community. 

When I am not applying my skills and passion at work, I spend my time bird watching along New Englands coastlines, foraging in regrowth forests around the city, and cooking with the herbs from my garden at home.

In addition to helping grow all the things and coordinate garden projects, Ryleigh also helps Ruth with research and writing some of our educational blog posts!