Hello there, I’m Felicia.

After over a decade as an attorney working in public policy, I became a garden developer and designer. My approach to gardens and gardening is about being a ‘good friend’— to both people and planet.

I use ecological principles to develop resilient, thoughtful, and beautiful spaces. More than anything, I know that community education is critical to rethinking and enriching our relationship with the world around us. I teach clients to develop their own observation- and evidence-based approaches to enrich the land around them, no matter how big or small.

Good Friend Ecological Gardens—my home base, lab, and design studio— is uphill from the Mohawk River in Niskayuna, NY. I’m surrounded on two sides by great neighbors, both the second-growth woods and people in my community.

The Learning Garden is native-forward and combines edible and ornamental landscape into a place where biodiversity and sustainability thrive. The Garden is many in one, with formal and relaxed spaces, a seed lab, and an intensive, small-scale cut flower farm.

Aside from the wildlife that lives on site year-round and those that pass through, I share the Gardens with my husband, Carl, a luthier and audio engineer; my dog Artie (a.k.a., ‘Mr. Muscles for No Reason’), and Squee, a cat who’s far too intelligent for anyone’s good.

In 2023, I was accepted into the Master Gardener Program through Cornell Cooperative Extension (Schenectady County) and began speaking about ecologically-minded residential garden development. I have completed certificate programs at the New York Botanical Garden, Berkshire Botanical Garden, and the American Horticultural Society—including programs on ecological gardening, growing cannabis, and landscape design. I have written on gardening and food culture for Edible: Capital District. The greatest lessons, however, come from learning to read and respond to the land, and the gardens that have grown alongside me.