Company Spotlight: Love & Carrots, a District of Columbia company
Interview of Carly Mercer, Partner and Vice President, by Graeme Logan for UER on December 12, 2024
Graeme: What was the inspiration for the start of Love & Carrots?
Carly: Meredith Sheperd, the founder of Love & Carrots, grew up in rural Vermont and worked in various farming communities prior to moving to DC. She recognized the opportunity inherent in the unused green space across the city to grow food and convert lawn to native landscape plantings. Since our founding in 2011, Love & Carrots has installed over 1,200 gardens for communities and residents, turning lawns, rooftops, and balconies into vegetable gardens, edible landscaping, or spaces for native plantings.
My own journey began in community organizing after graduating college, and after a few years I transitioned to working on farms in rural areas across the U.S. Urban farming allowed me to combine teaching and growing, connecting people with where their food comes from.
Graeme: Where do you see alignment between your company and UER’s mission?
Carly: It is important to us to capitalize on the space that we do have, creating gardens that are beneficial to the ecosystem — particularly making space for the natural world within and around our development. The spaces we create reduce turf lawns (which add little value to ecosystems and often drain crucial resources from them in order to maintain), and add green space to barren lots or empty rooftops. By teaching our clients how to garden, we enable them to actively engage with their environment and community, and can show them the value of incorporating natives, building habitat for insects and animals, and they can see how these actions promote biodiversity in their own backyards. We use organic maintenance methods and integrated pest management strategies to reduce our impact on the environment. UER similarly emphasizes the creation and maintenance of spaces that benefit and strengthen surrounding ecosystems, while teaching local communities how to be stewards of the land.
Graeme: What geographic area do you serve? What kinds of clients do you serve?
Carly: We install and maintain gardens in DC, MD, and VA – generally within about an hour of downtown DC. About 75-80% of our clients are residential, 15% are commercial – corporate campuses and apartment buildings, and the remainder are school or restaurant gardens.
Graeme: What is the largest size project you have completed, smallest size, average size, and the size you normally target for your organization (in sq feet)?
Carly: The project sizes range significantly due to our varying clientele, however most home gardens are on average around 50 – 250 sq feet, and our corporate or community gardens are anywhere from 750 sq ft to 2,500 sq ft or more.
Graeme: Can you share some notable successes or challenges faced in your projects? Are there some projects that stand out to you, and why?
Carly: The Pearl in Silver Spring stands out as a great example of a successful urban farm – we transformed a large field in front of their apartment building into a small farm. We bring the harvest into the lobby every 2 weeks, and residents can pick up produce in the building. We also set up 3-5 “pick-your-own” events per year, where residents can come out and pick their own fresh vegetables from the beds we maintain, while they learn about the farm.
Another standout project we installed and maintained was the Atlantic Plumbing building rooftop garden in the Shaw neighborhood of D.C. This space previously was used to grow produce for local restaurants, and now serves as individual garden plots for building residents to grow their own crops. It converted an otherwise unused space to lush habitat that absorbs stormwater and attracts pollinators.
Rooftop gardens are a great example of a type of installation that can be more challenging to set up, but the rewards are many. Around 20% of our projects are rooftop-based, and this number continues to grow. The earlier we are brought into the planning and design process for a rooftop garden, the more successful the project will be, since that allows us to make sure the garden has everything it needs to thrive in terms of sunlight, soil, and water. While we can retrofit a previously installed garden, it’s great to be able to get it right the first time!
There have been some flagship residential installations as well. In this example from Arlington, VA (pictured below), the garden beds are an extension of the home, providing a space to relax or engage with nature, while providing most of the client’s fresh vegetables. We also installed native landscaping throughout the space to encourage biodiversity and provide habitat for local species.
Graeme: These must be challenging projects, are they?
Carly: In terms of challenges, many of them are logistical, such as how do you get all the materials you need for the garden onto the roof. There are also different sets of pressures, including pests and the heat island effect that is becoming a bigger issue in urban settings.
Graeme: What is the cost range of your projects?
Carly: A 12’ cedar raised bed filled with soil mix, planted, and with an irrigation system installed will come to about $1,800 – all set up and ready to grow. The bulk of our projects are in the $10-20,000 range, and can include paths, patios, landscaping and other structures like pergolas and arbors. Larger-scale community garden projects can be anywhere from $20,000 – $50,000 and up depending on the number of beds and other elements.
Graeme: Modern agriculture, in some forms (monocultures, heavy fertilization), can be destructive to the environment. How do you approach farming to avoid these outcomes?
Carly: We use organic methods; we spray infrequently; and we use only OMRI certified products. We generally set up environments that are conducive to successful growing so that less intervention is needed down the line to get rid of pests. Ideally our gardens are a symbiotic environment, where they have a balance of beneficial plants and animals that negate the need for any intervention, but if needed, the materials used are organic.
We also select plants that promote biodiversity, improve air and soil quality, manage stormwater, and create sustainable, resilient environments for both humans and wildlife.
Graeme: How do you ensure the long-term sustainability of your projects?
Carly: We have a roster of around 150 clients whose gardens we maintain on a bi-weekly basis. We check in on gardens very regularly, and many will come back to us for additions to support what they already have installed. When we create these gardens, we expect they can function for about 7-10 years without significant need for an overhaul.
Graeme: What do you see as your company’s forte? (and do you do some or all of: design, installation, and long-term maintenance)
Carly: In addition to designing and building our landscapes and gardens, we offer coaching, and we set people up to be stewards of their own land. The edible component of our gardens is also unique, especially in urban areas. Another real strength is our experience and understanding of the intricacies of garden installation. The set up and placement of these gardens require a deep understanding of farming that takes years to develop. We pride ourselves on specializing in the design, installation, and long-term maintenance of urban, edible landscapes.
Graeme: What has surprised you (or what lessons have you learned) as you have engaged in these kinds of projects?
Carly: Not necessarily surprising, but has been reinforced during my time at Love and Carrots is how eager people are to engage with the environment around them when provided with guidance, despite initial hesitation due to a lack of gardening knowledge. There can be a lot of fear about killing plants, but practice makes perfect! Once people get the hang of it, this kind of gardening becomes something that people are passionate about and allows them to understand more about the world and environment around them.
