30
WBM may 2011
Neal Taylor
One World Design
Neal Taylor, his wife, Laura,
and daughter Lillian, live in
Wilmington’s Winter Park
area and occupy about one-third of
an acre of largely sustainable space. By
profession Neal Taylor, is a landscape
designer. He is also the owner of One
World Design.
“I’m so glad to hear the word sustainable
used with gardening,” Taylor
says. “Sustainable agriculture is a typically
married phrase that most city
residents can’t relate to, whereas sustainable
gardening applies to anyone
with a yard.”
Sitting at a reclaimed walnut bar
in his open-floorplan home, Taylor
outlines the sustainable practices he
employs with conviction. “We’re at a
definite crossroads in our existence on
the planet,” he says.
It was this awareness and his intention
to work and live in harmony with
nature that inspired Taylor to turn his
garden into a living example.
When the Taylors bought their
home, there were no more than
12 species of plants on the property.
Now, there are more than 50
— mostly flowering varietals — and
all thriving.
“Diversity makes the whole system
less susceptible because you have more
balance,” Taylor says. “Diversity, even
when not well thought out, increases
beneficial relationships.”
Taylor’s front yard vegetable garden
is very well thought out. A beautifully
structured circular garden space
surrounds a path leading to the front
door. Climbing vegetables have made
their way up bamboo poles, that
Taylor found at the side of the road
a few streets away. The placed poles
follow the contour of the garden.
Vegetable plants are layered around
the path, from highest to lowest.
Adjacent to the garden, a clump of
blueberry bushes are buzzing with bees
in late spring, with hundreds of the
inhabitants of his two backyard hives.