SymbiOp arose from a one-person landscaping company with more clients than it could handle when COVID-19 hit. Expansion dreams weren’t new, but the timeline was. As the co-founders watched friends lose jobs during the pandemic, informal talks became business plans. And with that, SymbiOp, a worker-owned ecological landscaping cooperative focused on regenerative practices, was born.
… job creation and the desire to introduce more people to regenerative gardening fueled the cooperative’s start. The team’s intuition that bad timing for others might be good for them proved correct as new pandemic gardeners embraced nature and ecology-minded landscaping flourished.
… SymbiOp’s team represents decades of combined expertise in ecology, biodiversity and regenerative gardening practices. The full-service landscaping department provides design, installation and maintenance services for like-minded residential and commercial clients. Sharing their focus with a broader audience inspires SymbiOp’s garden shop team as well. The year-round shop offers an extensive selection of native plants, edibles, medicinal plants and houseplants. Tools and books complement gifts by local artisans, and feed and supplies for chickens and other urban livestock round out the space. Practices that go beyond “organic” and “sustainable” — that actively restore and regenerate soil and ecosystems — are the thread that connects them all. Yu says the shop fills a niche in the gardening community for customers who are “extra passionate” about ecology, regenerative gardening, growing food for their families, and creating healthy habitats with birds, insects and other animals.
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