Welcome! We are Restorative Landscape Design.
Click to learn more about:
and EDIBLE GARDENS
We can help you build a landscape that hums with life.
One that:
– supports pollinators and birds,
– restores Colorado beauty,
– is low-water and low-maintenance,
– fits and feeds your household or community, and
– helps restore a sense of belonging to the ecosystem.
What do you want help with?
 THE BUMBLE BEE CLIENT (aka “DIY”) Budget: $25 – $5,000 |  THE SPHINX MOTH CLIENT (aka “DIY with Help & RLD supervision”) Budget: $5,000-15,000 |  THE HUMMINGBIRD CLIENT (aka “Everything + Installation by the RLD Team”) Budget: $5,000-100,000 |
| Design and planning: Download our DIY Guide! RLD can also give you a quote for design and consultation. | Design and planning: RLD can give you a quote for design, consultation, and project management. | Design and planning: RLD can give you a quote for design, consultation, and project management. |
| Finding the right plants at affordable prices: Use our “Garden In A Truck” service. | Finding the right plants at affordable prices: RLD can select, source, and deliver wholesale plants. | Finding the right plants at affordable prices: RLD can select, source, and deliver wholesale plants. |
| Installation/labor: Check out our DIY Guide! Need some affordable muscle? Turn to our “DIY with Help” program. We rally the hands and you supervise. | Installation/labor: Want to get your hands dirty, or just hang out? Use our “DIY with Help” program for simple and affordable installs. RLD team members will help supervise. | Installation/labor: Get a quote from the RLD install team for projects that require skillful attention, comprehensive pricing, and full insurance coverage. |
| Maintenance: The DIY Guide includes a habitat-friendly maintenance guide! We can also give you a list of local folk who do maintenance. | Maintenance: We will send you a habitat-friendly maintenance guide! We also have a list of local folk who offer ecological garden maintenance. | Maintenance: We will send you a habitat-friendly maintenance guide! We also have a list of local folk who offer ecological garden maintenance. |
What else would you like to know?
A Message from the Boss:
Hi, I’m Eryn Joy Murphy, the owner and founder of Restorative Landscape Design. I am a Denver-based permaculture designer with a passion for landscaping with native plants.
I see ecological landscaping as a way to reconnect us to the natural abundance, vibrance, and beauty of the land. It can be easy to forget where we are, and even to go numb, when we’re surrounded by concrete and lawns. Why not transform our neighborhoods so they hum with life, just like our mountain trails do?
Turning your lawn into a meadow garden or a food forest gives back to the Earth, and the Earth then gives back to you. But not just in a transactional way; in way that invites you into relationship. Because when you plant a milkweed flower and then watch a monarch butterfly lay her eggs on it, you are participating in the circle of life. And there is nothing so precious and so obscured in this world as our sense of interdependence with each other and nature.
I love this job because it’s meaningful for me. I also love that I get to work with an amazing group of people. We’re a small team who collaborates with a wider network of contractors, and we are all passionate about ecological landscaping. My personal goal is to make RLD an example of how a business can help both nature and people, which includes living wages for workers; an apprenticeship program; accessible prices for clients; resources for low-income folks; and approaching landscaping as a partnership between people and nature.
Landscaping and development has a long history as an industry of domination. To do it differently means to listen to all parties involved. That transforms the whole landscaping process into a dialogue that is alive. And it starts with your honest meeting of your space, as it is now. So go feel the soil with your toes, roll up your sleeves…and let’s find your next step forward with this land that you steward.
Restorative Landscape Design is a terrific company staffed by experts who deeply understand the natural environment. From start to finish, I enjoyed working with Eryn Murphy and her highly skilled team. I met Eryn at a training session held by Denver Audubon on how to create bird-friendly gardens, where Eryn presented to the class. Later Eryn helped me take out my front lawn, conceptualize better water flow on my property through use of swales, and identify plants that are native to this area. We prioritized plantings that would benefit birds and other pollinators [and] other life forms that are native to this area. Most importantly, Eryn also kept the project’s costs economical, so that I could afford to go ahead. The finished garden is a joy to behold, and I can’t wait to see how it flourishes in the years to come. It makes me happy every time I see what is now growing there, thanks to the impeccable work done by Eryn and her team. I feel lucky to have been able to work with them to create a landscape that can help restore a small part of the natural world.
-Helen T.
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RLD can help you:
- plant beautiful native plants that restore habitat for our local butterflies, bees, birds and other wildlife;
- create a design sketch for your landscape that gives you places to play, relax, gather, and harvest food or medicine;
- cultivate a low-water and low-maintenance yard via native xeriscaping, rainwater harvesting, water-wise irrigation, or replacing a lawn with a xeric no-mow lawn or prairie;
- build captivating features like crevice gardens or natural play areas;
- build a Habitat Hero Garden or a Certified Wildlife Habitat.