How a Turf-Wrapped Chia Pet Keeps a Landscape Architect Grounded in Her Work

After finishing my education, I moved to Seattle and got my first job at a landscape architecture firm, where I surrounded my desk with plants. I worked on some awesome projects, including Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park and the Anchorage Museum, but I was working a lot of hours—so many hours, in fact, that I forgot to water my plants, and they all died. I couldn’t keep anything alive! I jokingly told people the dead plants proved how dedicated I was to my work, but truthfully, I was a little worried about what it meant for my future.