Today we’d like to introduce you to Zachary Callaway.
Hi Zachary, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve always had an appreciation for pollinators, ecology, and plants of all types, and I think I was looking for an outlet for that passion around 2017-2018 when I decided to change my career trajectory. Up until that point, I had worked exclusively in web development, but felt a lack of fulfillment with that work that I could never fully shake. While I’m incredibly grateful for the stability and security that career provided, I was in a real funk and looking for something rooted (pun very much intended) in my core passions and principles.
I took a seasonal job as gleaning coordinator with a local produce rescue nonprofit called After the Harvest in the spring of 2018. In that role, I led gleaning operations at farms and gardens around the Kansas City area, redirecting the excess produce to local food pantries and shelters. It was a rejuvenating experience to spend most of my time in the dirt amongst plants and insects, knowing that my work was directly benefitting local growers and my fellow Kansas Citians.
The following year, I began working full-time as the gleaning program manager, where I stayed through 2021. During this time, I got to meet and work with growers of all types, and these connections really ignited an obsession not just with agricultural practices, but horticulture in general. This obsession eventually focused in on native plants, the local food chain, and ecologically-driven practices. I love that native plants solve multiple problems in a really elegant way: they are less water-intensive than annuals and exotic perennials, require less fuss and maintenance, are far more efficient at attracting local pollinators and hosting native wildlife, and are just as beautiful as conventional landscaping.
I learned as much as I could about native plants and ecologically-driven landscaping from local resources, classes, groups, nurseries, and books, honing my skills on small projects for friends and family.
Encouraged by my wife in 2023, I began the process of forming KC Native Landscapes, and started accepting projects as an independent contractor in the spring of 2024. During this first season, I fit project work in between my full time job, which was simultaneously exhausting and energizing. Cultivating relationships with clients and other local advocates has been rewarding – I get to meet the most amazing people in my work, and love finding others in town who get just as excited as me at the first woodland phlox blooms of the year, or when we see the tell-tale signs of a leafcutter bee on foliage.
I officially took the full-time plunge at the start of the 2025 season, and it’s been incredible! As I told one of my clients recently, I get paid to play around in the dirt all day, and that’s a pretty wonderful thing.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I started my first projects with a Honda Civic and a folding table in my backyard for storage, so logistics were a huge challenge to start! I’ve thankfully upgraded to a truck since then, but living in an old neighborhood with small yards and no driveways has definitely forced me to get creative about how I store plants and other materials.
Weather is always another wildcard: last fall was dry and hot all the way to the end of September, which caused some real scheduling headaches for fall planting while also working a full-time job. Each season brings unique challenges, and as a grower I used to work with said, “Every year is a new chance for nature to remind you that you don’t know anything.”
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
KC Native Landscapes specializes in using native plants and sustainable practices to help clients in the Kansas City create ecologically connected, regenerative, and beautiful outdoor spaces. By educating and building relationships with clients, my goal is to empower them to become stewards of their land in a way that helps repair the ecological damage done by modern land management. Kansas City sits at the edge of the tallgrass prairie – one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world, and simultaneously one of the most depleted. While replacing a small section of your yard with native prairie flowers may seem like a small action, it can literally be life-saving for migrating pollinators, visiting birds, and native insects.
What matters most to you? Why?
I have two sons, ages 7 and 10. Working to hand over a better world to them someday, and modeling for them the importance of stewardship for that world, are always at the forefront of my mind. Starting this business was a financial risk, I sometimes work strange hours, and it’s usually way too hot, but it brings me joy to live out these values in my work!
There’s a lot of bleak news in our current moment, both ecologically and politically, but I can’t help but feel hopeful whenever I interact with growers, other professionals in this sphere, and clients who share the same vision.
I’m hopeful that this business can grow to benefit people as much as it benefits our local birds and bugs. My dream is to eventually bring in others to form a worker-owned cooperative – to demonstrate that an alternative model which puts people over profits and sustainability over short-term gain is not only possible, but necessary for future generations.
Pricing:
- Free estimates
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kcnativelandscapes.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kcnativelandscapes/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kc.native.landscapes/
- Other: https://grownative.org/grow_native_members/kc-native-landscapes/
