How a Turf-Wrapped Chia Pet Keeps a Landscape Architect Grounded in Her Work

After finishing my education, I moved to Seattle and got my first job at a landscape architecture firm, where I surrounded my desk with plants. I worked on some awesome projects, including Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park and the Anchorage Museum, but I was working a lot of hours—so many hours, in fact, that I forgot to water my plants, and they all died. I couldn’t keep anything alive! I jokingly told people the dead plants proved how dedicated I was to my work, but truthfully, I was a little worried about what it meant for my future.

Around this time, I went to San Francisco to visit a couple of friends from grad school, and one of them was giving out Chia Pets. I got this Chia bunny and was committed to making it work—and it did. I got the seeds to germinate, and my bunny was covered in a luxurious green coat. For a time.

Eventually my Chia bunny died, too, because they’re not meant to last forever, and it felt a little sad. I had this piece of supercheap synthetic turf, the kind you find at Home Depot, and I made a little coat for my bunny. It stays on with a binder clip. I just love it—I’ve had it on my desk since then. I think of it as my favorite art piece.

I like that it’s a play on what a Chia Pet is supposed to be. Design can be quite serious, and I find I need humor and something personable in my work as a parks project manager for the City of Sammamish, which is just outside Seattle. Having a little release is helpful to deal with some of the intensity. But my bunny is also about adaptation, which is a fundamental part of landscape architecture today. It reflects the need for flexibility in design, responding to changing conditions or new opportunities. That’s the challenge, and the beauty.

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