Inspiring Conversations with Dan Zehr of Living Landscapes

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Zehr.

Hi Dan, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.

First of all, thank you so much for allowing me an opportunity to share a little bit more about myself and Living Landscapes as a whole. I am so grateful for the connection, and all of y’all’s work supporting the stories and people of Denver.

My name is Dan Zehr, and I am the Owner and Lead Designer at Living Landscapes, a full- service design- build landscaping company, based in Denver. I like to think of Living Landscapes as a laboratory where we bridge ideas of permaculture with more traditional, professional landscape architecture offerings. One foot dancing in the realm of the avant- garde hippie with the other foot rooted in white- collar businessman. If cultural conditions allowed, I’d probably arrive at Site Assessments shoeless, shirtless, and meditate on the land, but, fortunately for my clients, I stick with a branded collared shirt, closed- toed shoes, and modern measuring devices.

In this interview, I’ll aim to touch primarily on the mission behind Living Landscapes as well as my relationship to landscape. I believe that we all have an opportunity to connect with GUSS… you know… God- Universe- Source- Spirit, or whatever label you wish to identify with, and cultivating a relationship with Nature is a ripe context to spark that connection.

Living Landscapes was born out of an observed disconnect between landscaping and ecological understanding with an impetus to mend fractured relationships with Nature and reconnect us with landscape and ourselves in the process. While the company had humble beginnings in 2021 primarily in maintenance services, its current form really started to take shape after I completed the CU Denver Master’s in Landscape Architecture program in 2023. It was through this program that I gained the framework of how to design and, really, how to think like a designer. As I developed a design eye through my studies, I was also introduced to many philosophies of landscape and the idea of a mission- based firm. I recognized that I had an obligation to myself and the environment around me to clearly identify how I wanted to work and what kinds of projects I wanted to work on. Through this desire to support Life, the following Mission Statement, which has served as a guiding light, emerged:

“We believe that our relationship to landscape is the bedrock of health, happiness, and connecting to Life. Our landscapes offer nutrition, medicine, ecological services, and bolster the beauty and joy of life. It is our endeavor to create landscapes that support myriad beings, including ourselves, and reconnect us to each other and the Earth. Whether this spark lights from the flight of a native carpenter bee in your perennial, prairie garden, or enjoying friends’ company on a cool, summer’s night under your custom pergola, our goal is to transform your space into a Living Landscape.”

Every design and every installation adds another chapter or, perhaps, a paragraph to the story of Living Landscapes, but the hope is that the collective work is one of ecological benefit, abundance, joy, connection and beauty.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
In my experience the entrepreneurial path is one that is inherently not smooth! That being said, if you get used to riding on uneven terrain, nothing blindsides you or is so big a hiccup that it cannot be navigated. Especially in the first couple of years of navigating design- build projects, every day was like stepping into the unknown. There was a constant feel of discomfort and unease. Yet through these experiences, many lessons were learned. The first being, that the feeling of unease, is one of growth! I love the saying, “a calm sea never made a skilled sailor” and deeply resonate with this from a lived experience. If I were to have said no or waited until I “knew” everything to jump into projects, I have no doubt that my growth would be stunted, and Living Landscapes wouldn’t be where it is today.

In terms of specific struggles, fortunately, I do not have many horror stories. My approach to all projects and all clients is working through a lens of cooperation and collaboration. I view the design process as one of translation, taking in clients’ ideas, visions, and desires and molding these threads into a cohesive whole. I also ask what the land wants and what it can support? We never operate in a vacuum and grounding ourselves in a particular place allows us to collaborate on a much deeper, intimate level. Every action we make can either support or hinder relationship. Living Landscapes strives to support relationships of all beings, looking at adjacencies and considering how the elements of a landscape can bear witness to the idea of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Living Landscapes?
Living Landscapes is a full service design- build landscape company that specializes in edible and ecological landscaping solutions. We identify as a plant- driven design studio, but offer hardscaping services, such as, patios, retaining walls, and custom wood- working structures, such as, pergolas, trellises, and arbors. I am the owner and lead designer, and work with a team of skilled contractors to bring designs to reality. I am on- site every day of installation to ensure that as design ideation turns into constructed works, clients are assured a level of continuity and commitment to detail. We pride ourselves on our projects and promise thorough, transparent communication from start to finish.

We focus on dense, perennial gardens that are low- water and low- maintenance that thrive in the Front Range. While many of our plant palettes are native, we also integrate non- native, well- adapted species where appropriate. We also believe that nutrition is the foundation to physical and spiritual health. We encourage beyond organic food production to further bolster our connection to landscape by designing and building custom raised beds and food forests. Plants offer such a phenomenal lens to interact with Life, and our designs aim to bring clients into greater connection and resonance with these beings. We often think of plants as mechanical “things” or structures where other animals live. One of our aims is to remind clients that plants are living beings, and the intelligence of a tree is a miraculous, beautiful event. Being a plant- driven designer encourages these connections.

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
While I moved to Denver for graduate school, I’ve been in Colorado since 2017. After a brief stint in Telluride, a few years in Boulder and Golden, respectively, I landed in the Mile High City. Denver has proved to be such a great place to develop and nurture Living Landscapes, and I could not imagine myself in another city. I love how varied and diverse the neighborhoods are, and how, driving down even one street, you can see the personality of so many mid 20th century home builders. It’s amazing how much the architectural style can vary over the course of one city block, which adds such a great depth and framework to landscape design here.

While I’ve lived in a larger city before, Osaka, Japan, I never thought I would make it back to another high- rise destination with a bustling downtown. I prefer more rural landscapes that offer opportunities for quiet contemplation, and slower ways of life. That being said, the access to the mountains is incredible and has proved to be an invaluable resource to build my understanding of native plant communities and nourish my spirit when city life gets a little too hectic.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.livinglandscapes.info/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/livinglandscapesdenver/