Ever wonder where the leaders of the rewilding movement actually garden? Walk on the Wild Side is a 3-part video series by Plan It Wild featuring intimate tours of the private home gardens of Rebecca McMackin, Edwina von Gal, and Filippine Hoogland — pioneers in America’s ecological landscaping movement. Watch how theory becomes practice in the gardens where these leaders actually live.
- Rebecca McMackin, award-winning horticulturist and ecological designer
- Edwina von Gal, landscape designer and founder of Perfect Earth Project
- Filippine Hoogland, co-founder of the Pollinator Pathway
Together, they share powerful stories about restoring biodiversity, rethinking beauty, and bringing life back to our yards and communities. Join us as we explore what happens when we let nature lead — one yard, one conversation, and one step at a time.
Private gardens. Three pioneers. Real practices.
Episode 1 – Inside America’s Healthiest Yards: Rebecca McMackin’s Secret Garden – 10 minutes. Pure gold.
Meet Rebecca McMackin. Ecological horticulturist. Brooklyn Bridge Park’s former Director of Horticulture. Now Lead Horticulturist for the American Horticultural Society. Her TED Talk about letting your garden grow wild? Over a million views. And we’re in her Connecticut backyard watching her do it all at home.
Step inside the private Connecticut garden of Rebecca McMackin — where one of America’s most influential ecological horticulturists practices what she preaches.
For over a decade, Rebecca served as Director of Horticulture at Brooklyn Bridge Park, transforming 85 acres into thriving habitat for people and wildlife. She’s a Harvard Loeb Fellow, Lead Horticulturist for the American Horticultural Society, and her TED Talk on ecological horticulture has been viewed over 1 million times.
But this isn’t Brooklyn Bridge Park. This is her home.
In this 10-minute woodland garden tour, watch how Rebecca creates habitat in her own Connecticut sanctuary — the native plants she prioritizes, the low-intervention approach she practices, and the beauty that emerges when you let nature lead.
This is where the rewilding revolution actually lives.
Episode highlights:
- Tour Rebecca’s personal Connecticut woodland garden
- See her approach to native plant selection and placement
- Learn how she manages her land with minimal intervention
- Discover what ecological horticulture looks like at home
- Watch how habitat creation and beauty work together
About Rebecca McMackin
Rebecca McMackin is an ecologically-focused horticulturist. She was the Director of Horticulture at Brooklyn Bridge Park for over a decade, where she managed 85 acres of diverse parkland organically with a focus on habitat creation. She’s a Harvard Loeb Fellow, Lead Horticulturist for the American Horticultural Society, and received the 2024 Francis Peters Award from the City Garden Club. Her garden for the Brooklyn Museum won the Perennial Plant Association’s 2024 Award of Excellence. Her TED Talk on growing a wild yard has been viewed over a million times.
Follow Rebecca: Website | Instagram | Substack
Episode 2 – Inside America’s Most Secret Natural Gardens: Edwina von Gal
Tour Edwina von Gal’s iconic Hamptons Marshouse garden — a toxic-free, native plant paradise where sustainable landscape design meets world-class beauty.
Step inside Edwina von Gal’s Hamptons Marshouse estate — a house literally on stilts in a salt marsh, where one of America’s most celebrated landscape designers proves that beauty and ecology flourish together. For over four decades, Edwina has designed landscapes for Calvin Klein, Maya Lin, Richard Serra, and Frank Gehry’s Biomuseo in Panama. She founded the Perfect Earth Project in 2013 to promote toxic-free, nature-based land care. In 2024, Wallpaper* magazine named her one of the top 50 Creatives in America. But this 4+ acre garden is her laboratory — and her home. In this 10-minute garden tour, see how decades of design philosophy translate into daily practice at Marshouse. Watch Edwina’s ingenious approaches to managing leaves and building hibernacula for wildlife. Learn about “tree cookies,” “corduroy paths,” and ecologically friendly bird and bee baths. Experience her series of ecosystems: meadows, woodland, and moss garden — all created to support native plants and habitat since 2003. This is where the rewilding revolution actually lives.
Episode highlights:
- Tour Edwina’s personal Hamptons Marshouse estate
- Toxic-free landscape design and maintenance
- Innovative techniques: “tree cookies,” “corduroy paths,” and hibernacula
- Managing leaves naturally without removal
- Ecologically friendly bird and bee baths
- Sustainable landscape practices for beautiful gardens
About Edwina von Gal
Edwina von Gal is a landscape designer and founder of Perfect Earth Project. Since 1984, she has created landscapes for private and public clients around the world, collaborating with architects including Frank Gehry, Maya Lin, Annabelle Selldorf, and Richard Meier. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Vogue, and Architectural Digest. She received the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art’s Arthur Ross Award and Guild Hall’s Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Award for Visual Arts.
Follow Edwina: Website | Instagram | Perfect Earth Project
Episode 3 – Filippine Hoogland’s Seed Swap Meadow Garden Tour
Tour Filippine Hoogland de Haan’s thriving Westchester garden — where grassroots rewilding meets neighborhood reality, proving that anyone can grow meadows from seed and build community through nature.
Experience Filippine Hoogland’s residential Westchester garden — where the co-founder of Healthy Yards shows how ordinary neighborhoods become extraordinary through seed swaps, meadow management, and community connection.Filippine co-founded Healthy Yards to help Westchester homeowners transform their properties into pollinator havens and wildlife habitat. She’s been a driving force in the region’s grassroots rewilding movement, organizing garden tours, seed exchanges, and educational events that have inspired hundreds of families to rethink their yards. But this suburban lot is where she experiments — and inspires.
In this 13-minute garden tour, watch how Filippine grows stunning meadows from seed on a typical residential property. Learn her techniques for meadow management, discover the magic of community seed swaps, and see how neighbors sharing knowledge and seeds can transform entire neighborhoods. Experience how one yard becomes a catalyst for community-wide change. This is where the rewilding revolution actually lives.
Episode highlights:
- Tour Filippine’s thriving Westchester residential garden
- Growing meadows from seed (it’s easier than you think!)
- Managing and maintaining meadow gardens
- Community building through seed swaps and garden sharing
- Transforming typical suburban lots into wildlife habitat
About Filippine Hoogland
Filippine Hoogland is an ecological landscaper and co-founder of Healthy Yards, established in 2014 to help communities transition to sustainable landscaping free of charge. She founded Leave Leaves Alone, organizes the Healthy Yards Plant Swap and Native Plant Seed Events, and coordinates Pollinator Pathways throughout Westchester County. Her grassroots work has earned recognition including the New York State Gardener of Excellence Award and Westchester County Eco Award. Through supporting gardens everywhere from churches to prisons, Filippine proves ecological transformation happens one neighborhood at a time.
Learn more: Healthy Yards | Leave Leaves Alone
Source of videos and video content: Plan It Wild on YouTube
🎥 Watch the trailer and full series here: lesslawnmorelife.com/wild-side-series
Rewilding is making headlines!
PLAN it WILD and the Less Lawn More Life Challenge was recently featured in The New York Times article, In This Class, the Teacher Wants You to Be Wild, for making yard transformation “fun, educational — and free.” The article spotlighted how the program has helped thousands transform their lawns into vibrant native natural landscapes. Wild Ones is proud to be mentioned as a collaborator alongside Homegrown National Park, together we’re working toward a vision of native plants and natural landscapes thriving in every community.
Wild Ones and Plan It Wild Partner to Inspire and Equip People to Plant Native
October 17th, 2025 — Wild Ones and Plan It Wild are excited to announce a new partnership to encourage people to replace turf grass with native plants that restore biodiversity, support pollinators, and strengthen local ecosystems. Together, they are combining innovation, education, and community effort to grow the movement for native landscaping.
This partnership combines the unique strengths of both organizations to make native landscaping more accessible and practical. Plan It Wild inspires action through engaging, data-driven tools that guide people in transforming their lawns into thriving habitats. The Less Lawn More Life Challenge inspires participation, while the Wildr Score helps users measure the ecological impact of their efforts.
Wild Ones strengthens this work through its nationwide community of experienced native planters and passionate volunteers. With decades of experience in native plant advocacy and education, Wild Ones provides the knowledge and support people need to create lasting change in their local environments.
Together, Plan It Wild and Wild Ones unite innovation and community to help more people grow landscapes that support life.
About Wild Ones
Wild Ones is a national nonprofit organization founded in 1979 that promotes native plants and natural landscapes through education, advocacy and collaborative action. With 135+ local chapters in 36 states, Wild Ones provides resources, education, and community connections to support individuals and communities in embracing native plants.
About Plan It Wild
Plan It Wild transforms private yards, institutional land, and public landscapes into vibrant native habitats that restore biodiversity and improve air and water quality. With a vision to Rewild America, One Yard at a Time, Plan It Wild designs, builds, and measures ecological restoration projects that help landowners of all sizes replace outdated lawns with thriving ecosystems for plants, pollinators, and wildlife.