Just a few generations ago, this region now known as the Sacramento Valley was an abundant garden. In the grasslands, marshes, riparian forests, and vernal pools, there were giant valley oaks, cottonwoods, walnuts, and sycamores towering over the landscape, while grasses, bulbs, wildflowers, and reeds would spread and re-seed below. Massive populations of salmon, waterfowl, tule elk, beavers, and grizzly bears depended on this landscape, as did Nisenan and Plains Miwok peoples, who tended these lands using burning, harvesting, seed scattering, and other ecosystem maintenance practices.¹

The diverse forms of life that have long called this area home have suffered great losses and experienced radical changes. Our Sacramento Valley landscape faces many challenges, and we know how important it is to revitalize it.

Terran Design recognizes that humans are an inherent part of nature, that we have a unique responsibility as stewards of land, and that it’s time to reconnect. There are many ways to do this. One small way is to plant plants that have been adapting to conditions in this region for thousands of years, bringing pollinating birds and insects into our living spaces and providing habitat for those that still live here. We can also connect through food, by harvesting from vegetable gardens, home orchards, and herbal and medicinal planting beds. And we can connect by giving back - by feeding the soil, sinking water in the ground, and storing energy. Giving back to land also means giving back to the indigenous communities who still live here today, and advocating for policies that support the health of the land, so we’re working on that, too.*

Terran Design seeks to create landscapes that are full of life and that foster beauty, abundance, and community. 

Molly Roy is the founder and lead designer for Terran Design. She holds geography, horticulture and landscape design degrees from UC Berkeley and American River College, and has worked and volunteered for various farms, gardens, and nurseries since 2008 - in the Bay Area, Colorado, and the Sacramento region. Molly was previously the lead landscape designer and part-time estimator and project manager for Everyday Ecology, and is a member of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers and a certified Watershed Wise Landscape Professional. She has been developing her knowledge of plants - annuals, perennials, trees, edibles, natives, and ornamentals - over many years. To read client reviews of Terran Design’s work, see here. Molly also runs a cartography, graphic design and illustration business, M. Roy Cartography.