Meet Our Team

Kara started her life as a lover of the outdoors and wild spaces. All through her childhood she felt a responsibility to be a good steward to the earth. This generally meant picking up trash and encouraging her family to recycle. During her time in the US Navy, Kara’s shipmates would tease her about the amount of recycling she would constantly be shuttling from the ship to the local recycling facility in her great-grandparents old station wagon! After college she found a love of gardening. It was around this time when Kara started thinking about sustainable gardening practices and found the book The Landscaping Revolution: Garden With Mother Nature, Not Against Her by Andy and Sally Wasowski at the local library. This set her on the course to start gardening with native plants and creating habitat in her own backyard. For over 12 years she has been utilizing native plants in her gardenscapes, bringing nature home, and sharing her passion for native plants with everyone she meets.

Tim is Kara’s husband and the resident IT guy, both in his day job and with DRL. He can be found eradicating honeysuckle during his lunch breaks.

DRL is family owned and we all work together to be great small business owners and good land stewards. (Team Remove-All-The-Honeysuckle)

Darren is our Lead Technician and Safety Coordinator. He started working at DRL in the spring of 2021.

When not at work, Darren spends time gardening, hiking, cooking, vinyl records, and hanging out with his family.

His favorite native plant is Blue False Indigo (Baptisia Australis).

Brooke is a Garden Designer and Consultant. She's also one of our Team Leads when on-site prepping or installing a native garden. She started working at DRL in December 2021.

In her free time, Brooke enjoys makes jewelry, hiking, gardening, and learning more about plants and the natural world. Brooke is a big animal lover and often bonds with client pets on site. She also keeps chickens!

One of her many favorite native plants is Illinois Climbing Rose (Rosa setigera).

Aubrey is one of our Garden Technicians at DRL. She started working with us in April 2022.

When not at work, Aubrey spends her time Exploring the outdoors with her family, practicing yoga and traveling.

One of her favorite native plants is Spotted Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium maculatum). Aubrey says, "it stands out in any garden, it attracts SO many cute bumblebees, butterflies, and birds, and the fragrance of the blooms reminds me of my childhood summers."

Cameron, aka Ron, is one of our Garden Technicians. He started working with at DRL in the spring of 2022.

When not at work, he spends his time baking, reading, and, of course, gardening! He also enjoys puns and is not afraid to tell us when we bomb, so he has helped us elevate our punny-sense of humor here at DRL.

One of his favorite native plants is Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca). Cameron says, "It's got a cool form, beautiful big pink flowers, great wildlife magnet, and just a quintessential part of the summer landscape."

Courtney is one of our Garden Designers and Consultants, as well as our Webmaster, IT Administrator, and Social Media Coordinator. She started working at DRL in June 2022 and has been busy getting our online store up and running and creating content for our social media accounts. In 2023, she started taking on consultation and design clients after doing native garden design for several years before her work with DRL.

In her free time, she works on her native landscaping at home or spends time with her cats while making designing new garden beds. She and her husband enjoy hiking and traveling.

One of her favorite native plants is Partridge Pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata). It's an annual prairie plant beloved by bumblebees and other insects. She uses Partridge Pea as a green mulch to keep weeds down while allowing slower-growing trees and shrubs to mature.

Chloë is our Nursery Manager. She started working at DRL in March 2024 and has been busy filling the greenhouse with baby native plants for the upcoming growing season. She has extensive plant and greenhouse experience, having worked at Meadow View Growers and Fiver Rivers MetroParks in the past.

Chloë describes herself as an introvert. Outside of work, she enjoys "reading poetry, philosophy, or old journals. Having space to think or somehow be creative in writing or other means of artistic therapy. Any chance to go out for an adventure (traveling, hiking, or camping) with my Dalmatians and husband. I am just a simple enlightened fool who sits watching the sunrise with a cup of tea in hopes of one day living in a Bob Ross painting."

One of her favorite native plants is Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis). "Nothing is more striking than witnessing the bright fuchsia buds popping from the lush Spring greenery. My mom and I always looked forward to the visually appealing buds as this was our understanding of the sure promise that the Spring season was here to stay. Let's not forget the cute heart-shaped leaves! This tree is full of beneficial surprises for you and your landscape."

Bronwynn is our Field Site Coordinator and started working at DRL in March 2024.

She will be in the field with our field techs, ensuring invasive removal, bed prep, installs, and other aspects of our native landscaping projects run smoothly. Having Bronwynn coordinate these moving parts as DRL grows will be especially important.

Bronwynn is inspired by and loves spending time in the natural world outside of work. She enjoys hiking and exploring our local Metroparks with her husband and four-year-old son. She also enjoys “gardening, farming, cooking and trying new cuisines, yoga, and just general fun outside!”

When asked about her favorite native plant, she admitted it was hard to choose just one favorite (a very common answer among DRL employees!). “There are so many native plants and so much to learn about them that it’s hard to choose just one favorite. I like how plant communities work together, and all of the niches and layers that can be discovered in just one small space.” She picked Joe Pye weed as a “versatile plant that can be adapted to different spaces in the garden, and is high on the pollinator-friendly list.”

Abi is one of our Garden Technicians at DRL. He started working with us in April 2024. He hit the ground running with our garden technician team, prepping garden beds for this season’s installs. DRL has a tight-knit team, and it feels like Abi has always worked with us—he fits right in!

Outside of work, Abi’s hobbies are biking, kayaking, LEGO building and collecting, and photography. When asked about his favorite native plant, he chose purple coneflowers because “they’re really pretty”. The butterflies and birds agree!