Leadership Lessons: Linda Novy

In Leadership Lessons, we catch up with former winners of Lawn & Landscape’s Leadership Awards. The Leadership Awards program, founded in 1999, honors professionals who’ve made a difference in the environment, their businesses and helped shape the green industry. Would you like to nominate someone for a Leadership Award? E-mail lleditors@gie.net.

Linda Novy is former president and CEO of Richmond, Calif.-based Gardener’s Guild. She’s now a sole proprietor of Linda J. Novy & Associates, a consulting firm that works with property managers on ecological landscape management.

Here’s more from our July Leadership Lessons interview with her:


Tell us about a project you’re currently working on. 
There’s a high rise with a large rooftop garden that was being managed in a very commercial-landscape-industry manner. The color rotation and some of the plant choices were sort of the same old annual color rotation and were the things you could get from any commercial nursery supplier. What we did there was first look at the irrigation system and look at the turf – we’re going to be shifting to something native – which they have in stepped up planters that they’re mowing with a weed shipper. It’s very high maintenance. We’re going to shift that. Many of those planters will now be perennials with native plants.

I was there one day and a hummingbird was going back and forth and couldn’t find anything to nectar on. So one of the recommendations was to let the hedges grow out and come back with a looser pruning program. Let the jasmine grow out and flower and let there be some native nectar and pollen for desirable wildlife. We worked in native plants like sticky monkeyflower and native fuchsia – that’s great for hummingbirds. That project looks completely different. It’s not only an updated look, but an enriched habitat. That’s a big opportunity in San Francisco where there’s a pollinator program trying to knit all of the rooftop projects together for the native wildlife.


What else have you been up to?
I just taught a class at local junior college with my sister called Victory Gardens: 2010. We even had a Gardeners’ Guild manager in that class. We had 22 students and we took them through site analysis and gardening trends, we did field trips, went over cover cropping. It was a delight to be able to share with these adults through this community education program. We hope to teach a fall class. I’m a big advocate of ecological gardens. I think everyone should grow some food if they can.

One of the things I always wanted to do was to bring fruit trees into commercial sites where appropriate. I think we need to change the t typical commercial property layout. There’s such an opportunity to have edible plants – fruit trees mainly.

I’ve also spent a lot more time gardening in my home. I’ve restored my property with about 80 percent natives; I grew a lot of them from seed. And my actual garden and how it fits into my whole property was my project for my Sonoma State certificate and learning how to restore some soil where I made some mistakes and how I amended it. Looking at my ornamental and vegetable garden, it’s just beautiful and it’s alive with bees and insects and birds. It thrills me every time I go out there.


When it comes to the landscape industry, what key issues are you paying close attention to right now?
I would say soil management is No. 1. We have to encourage more organic soil amendment programs to protect groundwater, protect air quality, etc.

No. 2 is landscape plant choices – every contractor probably has some turf, color rotation and infilling as part of their business, and we have the opportunity to make very wise decisions, such as looking at shifting annuals to perennials and native perennials. With infilling – can we work some natives in, less high-maintenance plants and most importantly, can we transition lawn to more beneficial plants like native sod? Delta bluegrass is one that works here that I love.

And  No. 3 is training field personnel to shift from being mow-and-blow people to being horticulturalists. They have the opportunity to become higher level professionals. They can become true landscape managers and horticulturalists. They need more training, information and when you apply more intelligence to something, you use less energy. Paul Hawken said that. And of course, water is key. With better training, there will be resource conservation.