Inspiring Conversations with Gayle Lohmar of Water It With Love Landscaping, LLC

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gayle Lohmar

Hi Gayle, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in multi-generational family gardens, where almost all of my immediate and extended family grew food on a home scale level. and this ancestral knowledge was passed down to me through my childhood and teenage years. Some of my fondest memories are helping my grandparents process the harvest for winter meals, often in the form of spaghetti sauce, stews, or pickled beets!

During college, I became a mother of two and lived in low-income housing, where access to fresh, healthy food was a challenge. While my children were young, I was doing odd jobs in landscaping, gardening, and other contractor services. Luckily, I was granted a community garden plot through Growing Gardens, and I was able to put my skills in growing food to the test. I/We (children and partner included) tended that plot for eight years, and we were able to eat fresh vegetables from May-October, plus preserve many crops for winter. It was through this community garden where I truly learned the importance of tending the land, connecting with nature, and fostering relationships with the greater community. It was also through the act of gardening where others saw my potential to offer my service and abilities on a greater level.

See, I was tending the land in ways that others may know as ‘permaculture’. I was utilizing techniques that would regenerate soil, capture rainwater, utilize polycultures, and mimic nature to the best of my ability. I revere indigenous ways of honoring the land and I want to be more in alignment with how they care for earth and its people. My next steps took me to the Boulder Permaculture Design course, where I honed my skills and knowledge in permaculture design.

I knew, then (2018), that I was meant to do this line of work. To connect folks to their landscapes, to remind our community that our involvement and connection to earth and each other matter, and that future generations count on us to do our very best in regenerating/healing/fixing our mistakes in order to see a brighter future for all.

With that, I launched Water It With Love Landscaping, LLC. It is a labor of love, with a deep passion for integrating food into our landscapes. Here are some of our values that we integrate in our work:
1. Recognize the importance of working with native plants that will thrive in their natural habitats.
2. Value our natural resources.
3. Understand that soil is the foundation that everything depends on to thrive.
4. Harness water before it leaves the landscape.
5. Teach our clients how to tend the land themselves.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
While I graduated from CU- Leeds School of Business, with a bachelor’s degree in business administration (marketing) and Certificate in International Business in 2011, I didn’t get to fully utilize my business degree until 2019. It is often stressed how most businesses fail in the first five years and even more by year six, but I didn’t let the fear of failure overcome my passion. With one failed business prior to this endeavor, I wasn’t sure how this one would go, especially since I was launching the business while in poverty. I had zero capital to put towards tools, marketing, administration, contract labor, or any other key facet to a thriving business. In the first year, it was just me, and I managed all of the business. By year five, the business had grown well over 1600%. It has been mostly smooth from year to year, but the pandemic was a rough patch. I was uncertain of the future of the business, but one thing that helped during that time was that people wanted to grow food and give attention to their landscape projects. In 2023, after we saw a drastic change in cost of living and supplies/materials, we faced our greatest loss in clientele, however our commitment to providing high-quality service helped us bounce back stronger than ever.

We’ve been impressed with Water It With Love Landscaping, LLC, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Water It With Love Landscaping, LLC (WIWL) specializes in permaculture design, ecological garden installation, organic garden maintenance, and educational services for residential and commercial properties. Its mission is to foster community transformation through resilient landscape design and gardening services.

WIWL is dedicated to demonstrating to families and youth the enjoyment of cultivating homegrown food and medicinal plants. It emphasizes the broader implications of our energy consumption, habits, and the human impact on local and global environments.

With extensive working knowledge in growing food, landscaping, and preserving the harvest, I started Water It With Love to help transform the community with a more resilient approach to both the agricultural and landscaping industries. Retrofitting suburbia, planting for pollinators, and feeding families from small gardens are just a few reasons why I created WIWL Landscaping.

We remain steadfast in our vision and mission, and I think this sets us apart from others in the landscape industry. There are so many providers in this industry, but we have always found the right clients to work with when it comes to the projects aligning with our purpose.

In 2024, we launched our online education program on the website, on udemy, and are about to launch on Patreon! In our courses, you’ll find everything from the basics of gardening, such as seed starting, seed saving, and soil health, to more advanced subjects like biodynamics and permaculture. We believe this is a great way to learn how to garden on your own time, and there are incredible materials in each course to dive into.

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I started working when I was twelve years old as a babysitter of three children for a family in my small town. At fourteen, I worked full time during the summer at the local food shelf (in northern Minnesota). There, I was responsible for putting together the food boxes, helping gather donations from the grocery stores, and more. They had a loom to make rugs from donated clothes that weren’t good enough to sell. I made a handful of rugs and loved working on the loom!

Pricing:

• three online courses $99 per course
• nine ebooks $9.99 per book
• landscape / permaculture design (price range $500-$5,000 depends on scope/size of lot)
• installations (price varies)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://wateritwithlove.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wateritwithlove
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wateritwithlove
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@wateritwithlove
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@wateritwithlove

Image Credits
Gayle Lohmar
Susan Reinhart (collab on Earth Lover and Online Course images)