Melissa Gonzalez was on an inside track when the outdoors caught her attention. The Las Vegas-born Gonzalez had been studying art and interior design—both in Las Vegas and, for a semester, in Madrid—when her father, a longtime garden and maintenance professional, asked her if she’d consider a career in landscape architecture. Intrigued, she began to study it, and a few years later, equipped with a degree in that field from UNLV, she founded her own company, Earth Green Landscapes.

Earth Green does plenty of landscape maintenance work for businesses and HOAs. (For example, her firm keeps up the greenery at Park on Fremont and Fergusons Downtown). But Gonzalez’s true dedication lies in designing and planting “sanctuaries for people and wildlife.” In a city of non-native flora and asphalt heat islands, Gonzalez is gently urging a return not just to sustainability, but to symbiosis. She’s fascinated by the relationship between the Mojave’s plant life and its pollinators; when she needed to come up with a logo for Earth Green, she chose the yucca moth, without which the yucca brevifolia—the Joshua tree—simply wouldn’t exist.

There’s something of a pollinator in Gonzalez, too. She seems intent on spreading as much good in the world as she can, whether by celebrating and empowering her crew (“I can’t do what I do without them”) or by sharing green tips through her Instagram feed (@gardensbymelissa). She educates herself constantly, both by working alongside her experienced dad (“We won’t let him retire,” she jokes) and by nature journaling. To speak with her is to begin to share her “passion for pollinators and sacred gardens”—to want the kind of natural spaces where you—and the bees—can simply be.

You talk about creating “sacred” spaces. What does that mean to you? A sacred space, to me, is the definition of indoor-outdoor. It’s just having a space where you feel connected to yourself; being present with yourself. We get so caught up with things that are happening around the world, and the things that we do for a living, that we sometimes miss out on the self-care that we need to rejuvenate ourselves.

That’s the best way that I can describe it, because that’s how I feel. I’m in this work, like, all the time, but I have to remember to take time for myself, and that’s why when I take time to do my nature journaling, or to be with my indoor plants. It helps me to connect to nature. It helps me to remember the sacredness of what we have around us.

And that we’re only a part of that nature. You know, we may plant a tree, but we don’t realize how that will benefit wildlife and how it’s going to benefit us in the future. We plant a tree because it’s going to provide shade, but when you look out a window and see that tree that you planted, we feel happiness in seeing that growth. And a bird will see an opportunity to create a shelter for its nest. I feel like that’s all sacredness, because we’re creating harmony

So, a client comes to you with a dirt lot and says, “I want a yard that’s also good for the birds and the bees.” What happens next? Like a blank canvas? We start with what the client would love to see. I always ask if they are pollinator supporters, and if they say yes, I really love to incorporate the colors that bees see, which are yellow, blue, and green. I create a palette visible to pollinators, but also has those flowering elements that have the pollen for them, which is their food source. And I ask them about shade; what trees would you love to have?

And I’m pushing the envelope a little bit right now by encouraging my clients and potential clients to get wildlife-certified by the National Wildlife Federation [NWF]. I think that helps to bring up conversation with friends and family, like a ripple effect: “I just got a garden, and I’m supporting wildlife and I’m certified.” I’m hoping and praying that works.

How does a garden get NWF-certified? You need to go onto their website (gardenforwildlife.com) and search for the certification. You basically have to have shelter, the nectar, some water… [Our company] likes to create a bird bath that’s filled with pebbles so that the bees are able to reach for water, but so birds are also able to use that water source. … Just do [the NWF’s] checklist guide and submit it, and you can purchase the Certified Wildlife Habitat plaque and put it in your garden.

Let’s talk shelter from the heat. What are some of your favorite shady trees suitable for this crazy-hot climate? Ooh, the palo verde. And the silver dollar eucalyptus. They provide an almost whimsical feeling, and they really thrive in this environment with the heat. And the palo verde, with its green bark and yellow flowers … you can just imagine the bees going crazy. So, so beautiful.

Lastly, I’d like to ask you about nature journaling. Is it about work, or about art? For me, nature journaling is a practice where nature assists me to understand it better. And it also allows me to connect with myself, to de-stress. … One of my biggest mentors in nature journaling is [19th-century ecologist] John Muir, [who said] that the way to create that space for yourself with nature is to ask yourself questions. … What do you notice? What brings you wonder, and what does it remind you of?

I’m gonna take this as an example: the desert milkweed that I was drawing yesterday at the Springs Preserve. … I found this pod that broke off from the plant. I know that seeds have [a feature] so that it can pollinate, to create more of the desert milkweed. And I didn’t realize that this seed had, like, a fuzzy, feathery tip. And I wondered, why does the seed have this poofy thing at the end? And as the wind blew it away, I realized, oh, it’s the traveling wings. It reminded me of the monarch butterfly, because as I observed the plant there were so many different bees around. I was like, “What are you? I’ve never seen you before.” And then it made me wonder, where do the monarchs lay their eggs, with all this activity going on? How does this work?

And so, taking that information, I draw and I write—it encouraged me to write a poem. But then I take that back to my office and do more research. It helps me to design, and to educate my team members, as well.

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