Self-Proclaimed Chaos Gardener
August 2026—Stephanie Howard is a Spring 2026 Nursery Cohort team member and dedicated volunteer with our Native Plant Nursery. Over the summer, Lead Naturalist Hannah McLaren visited Stephanie’s native plant garden at her Chattanoogan home. Read on to experience how any home can be converted into a beautiful, thriving micro-ecosystem with flowers, pollinators, and songbirds.
Stephanie is a self-described chaos gardener. In a quiet Hixson neighborhood of manicured lawns and staple landscape shrubs, her garden stands out with a riot of color. She has been gardening at home for over 30 years and, more recently, has begun incorporating more native plants. She is a Reflection Riding member and volunteer, and was a member of our first Spring Nursery Cohort. Of one garden bed, full of orange ornamental flowers, she says she plans to rip it all out and try something new. Stephanie has a curious mind and embraces change, experimentation, and growth.
Stephanie has a wonderful ability to turn gardening challenges into opportunities. Where a tree came down and left uneven grass, she made a new garden bed with a mix of her favorite flowers, native hydrangeas, spotted St. John’s wort, lyreleaf sage, beebalm, and a giant goldenrod that towers over her by feet. When a forsythia died, exposing her AC condenser unit, she replaced it with native sweet pepperbush and native sweet azalea, which thrive on the extra moisture from the captured condensation. Stephanie has planted young native plants in any available patch of soil. Her positive attitude embraces the trial and error and excitement of gardening.
For Stephanie, one of the most exciting aspects of native gardening is the increase in bird activity. In her all-native garden bed, four fledgling bluebirds nest in a wooden birdhouse, courtesy of the Chattanooga Bluebird Society. Her favorite native plant is the royal catchfly, which attracts hummingbirds to her garden. She has blue mistflower, orange coneflower, coreopsis, agastache, and beebalm, to name a few. She even has a trellis loaded with fruiting muscadine, which she turns into wine and jelly. Her garden is so full, in fact, that she frequently divides her native plants to share with family and neighbors. Stephanie says the neighbors like to peek over the fence to watch her little ecosystem grow.
Gardening is a meaningful point of connection for Stephanie and the people in her life. Her love of gardening began with her mother and grandmother. She is passing this love onto her children and grandchildren. “I love taking my toddler-age grandsons into my garden. We talk about colors and when they flower and how they help bees and birds,” she says. Whether it’s curious neighbors, her family, or the Reflection Riding community, Stephanie is always excited to share what she has learned about native plants. Amid the beautiful chaos of her garden, it is clear that Stephanie has struck a balance between ecological benefit and a garden that is embraced by her community.
