The Wisdom of Wild Places: In Conversation with Landscape Designer Jean-Marc Flack
The most restorative landscapes are often those that require the least intervention. Jean-Marc Flack shares why listening to the land is the starting point for every garden project.
WORDS Lisa Sternfeld
There is a moment when a landscape begins to feel truly alive. The air seems fuller, birdsong returns and movement appears where there was once stillness. Beneath the surface, roots stretch deeper, soil regenerates and countless unseen relationships begin to take shape. These are the quiet transformations that interest landscape designer Jean-Marc Flack, founder of Hortulus Animae and certified in Sustainable Garden Design and Landscape Design through the storied New York Botanical Garden. His work invites nature to reclaim its role, creating places that support biodiversity, resilience and a deeper sense of connection. In our conversation, he reflects on rewilding and what becomes possible when we allow a landscape to lead.
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Jean-Marc Flack in The Rambunctious Garden in Copake, NY. Photo courtesy of Jean-Marc Flack |
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The Rambunctious Garden. Photo courtesy of Jean-Marc Flack |
The Rambunctious Garden. Photo courtesy of Jean-Marc Flack |
Rewilding is often used broadly. In your work, what does it mean in practice?
For me, rewilding is the practice of reversing intense human intervention to allow self-sustaining natural processes to resume. Instead of striving for a static, heavily manicured aesthetic, my practice focuses on restoring biodiversity, soil health and native plant dynamics while significantly reducing the need for ongoing maintenance. In practice, its application varies significantly from project to project, dictated by the scale, geography and the intensity of past human disruption on the site.
"Spending time in a biodiverse landscape feels profoundly alive and in constant motion."
Jean-Marc Flack
Your approach often begins with listening rather than intervening. What are you paying attention to before anything is designed?
It is imperative to understand the existing conditions as deeply as possible before imposing a design. During our initial master plan phase, we conduct an exhaustive inventory alongside environmental resource mapping to understand the local plant communities, flora, fauna and hydrology. We take soil samples to understand exactly what we are working with. The goal is to use plants that are precisely adapted to the site’s natural conditions, meaning no soil amendments and relying on irrigation only for the first growing season while roots establish. Ideally, we observe the property across multiple seasons to witness its natural shifts before finalizing any planting palette.
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Aerial shot of the Spiral Garden in the Rambunctious Garden designed by Hortulus Animae. Photo courtesy of Alon Koppel |
Your Rambunctious Garden project involved planting thousands of native species and then stepping back. What began to emerge over time that you could not have anticipated?
The entire premise of that design exercise was to set the stage for the plants to establish their own direct connections to the site and to each other. We wanted them to dictate their own patterns. Ultimately, the way the matrix shifted was unexpected, yet entirely anticipated based on the core concept. What was most astounding to witness, however, was the sheer speed at which the plants completely covered the bare soil, seamlessly stabilizing a newly and deeply disturbed construction site.
Many people have only experienced a more controlled garden. What does a more biodiverse landscape feel like to spend time in? What shifts first?
The very first shift is an immediate, almost instantaneous influx of wildlife. Often, while we are still unloading the trucks during an installation, the birds, butterflies and other pollinators arrive. It can feel almost theatrical, like a scene from Snow White where life suddenly appears out of nowhere, but it is simply nature responding to a restored habitat. Spending time in a biodiverse landscape feels profoundly alive and in constant motion.
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Entrance at Lakefront Idyll in Carmel, NY by Hortulus Animae. Photo courtesy of Alon Koppel |
At WLLW, we often think about the home and its surroundings as one continuous system. When a landscape becomes more biodiverse, what begins to change beneath the surface that is not immediately visible?
Our approach strictly emphasizes non-chemical intervention. Beneath the surface, the soil is actively healing. We often have to retrain contractors to stop using herbicides and pesticides, effectively weaning the property and the land off of those toxins. As the soil regenerates, it supports a diverse, mixed planting of native flora that instantly increases wildlife diversity. Furthermore, replacing traditional lawns with dense, deep-rooted plantings physically buffers the land from extreme heat, temperature fluctuations and moisture loss. It creates a protective, living barrier around the residence itself.
Your work removes the use of chemicals entirely. What are the most common things people introduce into their outdoor environments without question and what are they quietly doing over time?
The herbicides, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides that are so commonly used to maintain standard lawns are actively creating a completely sterile zone around the home. Over time, these chemicals eradicate the foundational layers of the ecosystem. In doing so, you lose the birds and the pollinators, which strips away the deepest pleasures of having a garden in the first place; the bird song, the movement of butterflies and the vibrant hustle and bustle of a healthy food web.
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Garden beds designed by Hortulus Animae for Mr Frieda's Garden in Round Top, New York. Photo courtesy of Alon Koppel |
Can a landscape change the way a home feels from the inside? If so, how?
Absolutely. We heavily consider sightlines from key vantage points within the house, often the primary bedroom suite, the living room and the kitchen sink. By framing these views with lush, dense plantings and creating dynamic focal points within those viewsheds, the landscape exerts a profound, calming and cooling visual and psychological impact on the interior experience.
For someone with a modest garden, courtyard or terrace, what does rewilding look like at that scale? Where does it begin?
There is no set recipe for rewilding. The core principle simply means introducing as much biodiversity as possible within the constraints of your space. At a modest scale, it begins by reclaiming whatever lawn you have, swapping out sterile ornamentals for native species and maximizing the ecological value of every container on a terrace or courtyard.
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Hill Station garden path designed by Hortulus Animae. Photo courtesy of Alon Koppel |
If someone were to step outside this June and begin to see their landscape differently, what would you hope they notice first?
I would hope they notice the life within it or the lack thereof. We are always aiming to re-educate property owners to move away from a strictly human, aesthetic perspective and to pivot toward appreciating the garden for its ecological value and habitat potential. Recognizing your landscape as a living, breathing habitat rather than just a visual backdrop is the key to recalibrating our relationship with nature and beginning to repair the damage we’ve done.
Often the most restorative thing we can do for a space is to stop interfering. What begins to happen when we loosen control?
In residential landscape design, it is crucial to strike the right balance between the wild and the cultivated. I call this ‘controlled chaos’. When we loosen control, we are actively navigating the tension between the rambunctious, untamed nature of plants and the human desire for design legibility and structural pattern. However, I also think it is vital to leave some areas of the landscape to be more completely wild, such as a seeded wildflower meadow, where our only interference is mowing it down in late winter or early Spring to promote a flush of new growth and re-energize the natural cycle.
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Lakefront Idyll's gravel courtyard by Hortulus Animae. Photo courtesy of Alon Koppel |
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Piedmont Heritage in Spring Grove, VA designed by Hortulus Animae. Photo courtesy of Alon Koppel |
The garden parterre at Piedmont Heritage by Hortulus Animae. Photo courtesy of Jean-Marc Flack |
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Hill Station garden in Rhinebeck, NY designed by Hortulus Animae. Photo courtesy of Alon Koppel |
Feature Image: Jean-Marc Flack
Photography: Jean-Marc Flack, Alon Koppel
